Sonny Patel: Delivering Cutting-Edge Conversational AI Solutions
We don’t ask for directions anymore or memorize the route to get anywhere. If stranded in an unknown place without access to the internet, we would inevitably get lost for hours – leading us to wonder – how did people do this before? The emergence of technologies like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and others have brought advancements that make life unfathomable without them. Such are the AI solutions that Sonny Patel, SVP of Product & Engineering, Conversational Intelligence at LivePerson wants to deliver to people.
Sonny is an established tech executive who believes in building products that have a far-reaching impact. She loves working with teams that consistently raise
the bar with their results, and she leads a 200+ global, crossfunctional team consisting of developers, product managers, TPMs, QA & UI/UX professionals across ten different time zones who do just that. Currently, she is pushing the boundaries of human and digital conversations at LivePerson, with the aim of creating the world’s best AI-powered conversational platform that helps brands initiate and maintain warm, empathetic, and long-lasting relationships with their customers.
In an exclusive interview with CIOLook, Sonny Patel shared her STEM journey, her mission to create AI solutions that change the world, and what she wishes to change about the IT field.
Below are the highlights of the interview:
Brief our audience about your journey as a business leader up to your current position at LivePerson. What challenges have you had to overcome to reach where you are today?
I have been fascinated with computers ever since I got one as a present in the 90s, and this sparked the curiosity that led me to pursue both an undergraduate and a graduate degree in Computer Science and ultimately turn it into a lifelong career. Over the past two decades, I have had the opportunity to learn and grow at some of the world’s best technology companies: Dell, Microsoft, Amazon and now LivePerson. It has been an amazing privilege to be trained by the very best.
During the first few years of my career, I decided that I wanted more out of it. I wanted to learn more about building and leading world-class teams, which is the
single most important skill to harness technology and build life-changing solutions About a decade ago, I got a business degree from UC Berkeley Since then, I’ve taken on increasing responsibilities and delivered consistently against my objectives. As a result, I got the opportunity to lead teams of increasing size even as I switched companies.
I started with leading a team of four about 12 years ago, and now I lead a global, cross-functional organization of over 200 engineers that helped build LivePerson’s core platform offering, called the Conversational Cloud. I have always liked challenging myself, and I feel that being strategic and resilient helps me deliver results regardless of the number of distractions that we all face on a daily basis
I also thrive when I work with team members with extraordinary work ethic and high integrity because such people raise the bar for everyone around them. For that reason, I am particular about the talent that I surround myself with.
I’m proud of my career journey so far, and I want to acknowledge that I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for mentors who were willing to take a bet on me when the opportunities arose.
Tell us more about your company and its mission and vision.
For more than 25+ years, LivePerson has been at the forefront of technology advancements that help humans and computers communicate with each other. Rooted in human emotion and powerful AI understanding, our sights are set on pushing the boundaries of digital conversations. This vision is built on a
foundation of passionate, driven employees who embody our mission to create
Curiously Human™ digital experiences
We are honored to be recognized among our peers as an industry leader. Enterprise brands across the globe use LivePerson’s AI-powered customer engagement solutions to have conversations with millions of consumers as personally as they would with a single consumer. With our Conversational Cloud, brands can:
● Engage with consumers across the communication channels they already enjoy
● Gain real-time insight into 100% of conversations they have with consumers across digital channels
● Automate conversations with Conversational AI, built on one of the most impressive data sets of consumer conversations
● Empower agents with AI to drive cost savings and customer satisfaction
● Connect our capabilities into their backend systems to bring their full power to their customers and agents
How are you leveraging technological advancements to make your solutions even more impactful?
We are a global leader in Conversational AI, the tech that lets AI communicate with humans through natural feeling conversations. Our AI is powered by over 20 years of conversation data we’ve accumulated, helping thousands of clients, including the world’s largest brands, a message with consumers at scale. We now
power a billion conversational interactions a month, giving us a unique dataset for
building AI
Unlike more generalist AIs that aren’t specialized to handle any one thing, we are laser focused on AI for customer engagement. We work with the biggest brands in the world to build the AI and automations that let them talk to their millions of consumers at scale.