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About the show
Hosted by Nikola Mrkšić, Co-founder and CEO of PolyAI, the Deep Learning with PolyAI podcast is the window into AI for CX leaders. We cut through hype in customer experience, support, and contact center AI — helping decision-makers understand what really matters.
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Summary
We all know AI agents can answer calls (with varying success rates depending upon their sophistication). But what if AI agents could also help CX leaders analyze their deployments, ask questions about their unique challenges and opportunities, and continuously improve?
In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Nikola Mrkšić sits down with Damian Sasso, Group PM at PolyAI, to explore how the field is moving from solely customer-facing AI agents toward agentic AI teams that can do all of the above.
We cover:
- Why MIT says 95% of AI pilots fail — and how to be in the successful 5%
- The role of QA Agents in monitoring performance
- How Analyst Agents like Smart Analyst surface business insights in real time
- The promise of Builder Agents that drive continuous optimization
- Why contact centers are shifting from call centers to command centers
If you want to understand how agentic AI is changing the landscape — one in which AI agents don’t just talk, but think, analyze, and build — this episode is for you.
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Key Takeaways
- AI pilots fail without expertise — 95% of generative AI pilots don’t deliver ROI, but success comes when enterprises work with expert platforms, not by trying to build in-house.
- Agentic AI Teams are emerging — PolyAI is moving beyond customer-facing agents to add QA, analyst, and builder agents that form a full AI team for customer conversations.
- Analytics unlocks ROI — Tools like Smart Analyst give CX leaders instant insights into trends and customer behavior, turning contact centers into command centers.
- Continuous improvement at scale — With QA and builder agents, PolyAI enables enterprises to optimize and adapt quickly, far faster than human-only teams ever could.
Transcript
Nikola Mrkšić
00:05 – 00:28
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of deep learning with PolyAI. My name is Nikola Mrkšić.
I’m the CEO and one of the cofounders of PolyAI. With me today, I’ve got Damian, who is one of our senior PMs, and he’s had a long career in financial services and analytics.
Damian, do you mind telling the audience a bit about you, and then we’ll kinda kick in with some news and then a deeper dive into our product?
Damian Sasso
00:28 – 00:47
Thanks, Nikola. Thanks for having me.
And, yeah, just, I mean, it’s been, it’s been a great time, being at PolyAI. I’ve had a long career in financial services, automation, communications tech, and even running a call center and support team at Bloomberg and then later on in my career at London.
Nikola Mrkšić
00:47 – 00:49
How big was that contact center?
Damian Sasso
00:49 – 01:24
I think it was about 30 people. We had both phone and chat based support, and it was like level Bloomberg was an interesting place.
It had level one, level two, and level three support, and we were a level three application technology support team with both phones and, you know, chat based at phone level like urgency because it’s financial services as you know. So, it was good.
I hope it prepared me well as I developed communications tools and then, you know, joined you at PolyAI, many. years later.