Sierra is setting out to change the way companies interact with customers by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI). The AI startup, co-founded by Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor, aims to bring a new era of conversational AI that directly engages with customers to improve both experience and efficiency. In a recent interview, Taylor and Bavor shared their thoughts on how Sierra is pioneering this space.

Bavor, a former Google executive, reflected on how technology has evolved to this point: “In 1995, if you wanted to exist digitally, you needed a website. Ten years ago, you needed a mobile app. Now, you need an AI agent.” According to him, AI agents will soon become the main interface between companies and customers, replacing static websites and apps with conversational experiences that can handle complex tasks in real-time.

The duo’s vision for Sierra is ambitious but grounded in practical benefits. Taylor, who also chairs the board at OpenAI, pointed out the enormous potential for cost savings and customer satisfaction.

“The average price of a phone call to customer service is around $13,” he said, explaining that Sierra’s AI agents could drastically reduce these costs by automating customer interactions. “Imagine a world where phone calls are not only effective but also in order of magnitude less expensive,” he added.

The key to Sierra’s AI approach is its ability to go beyond simple automation.

“We built agents that can reason, make decisions, and integrate with a company’s factual knowledge,” said Bavor. This ability to understand and execute complex tasks is what sets Sierra apart, allowing their AI agents to perform much more than just answering basic queries.

With the competitive landscape in AI heating up, both founders remain laser-focused on one goal: customer success. Taylor underlined: “We know we are not entitled to success, and we are focused on one thing: making our customers successful.” Sierra’s full-service model, where the company assigns an “agent engineer” to each client, ensures that businesses can deploy these advanced AI systems without needing to reinvent their infrastructure.

As conversational AI continues to evolve, companies like Sierra are leading the charge, offering solutions that blend cutting-edge technology with user-centric design.