Andrei Papancea, CEO at NLX – Interview Series

Andrei Papancea, is the CEO at NLX a comprehensive SaaS platform for building and managing AI-powered conversational applications at scale.

Previously, he built the Natural Language Understanding platform for American Express, processing millions of conversations across AmEx’s main servicing channels.

You grew up in Romania and started programming when you were 10 years old. What attracted you to programming at such a young age?

It started off as curiosity: I’ve always been intrigued about how things worked and since my family has just gotten a computer, I wanted to figure out how it worked. It continued soon after with learning how to build websites for family friends’ businesses, which ended up getting me my first paycheck. Ever since then I’ve continued my passion for learning new things and I’m thankful that this has led to a career in something I love.

When did you realize that you were interested in machine learning?

I enjoy understanding and building the end to end. Working with applications of machine learning in practice was a natural progression of my career. My skills in the field of artificial intelligence started off while still in high school, with building small game solvers (traditional “AI”), and evolved at American Express where I leveraged natural language processing (NLP) technology to build AI-powered customer service.

You eventually moved to America, where you helped build a conversational AI platform from scratch for American Express. Could you discuss this project?

When I was applying to join American Express in May 2015, the job description had no mention of conversational AI in it. Yet, on the first day I was asked by my new manager whether I wanted to work on “boss”. I said I’m not quite sure what they entail, but that I was definitely interested. Fast-forward six months later, I deployed to production the first version of the conversational AI engine of American Express. By the time I left the company at the end of 2016, the engine had evolved into a conversational AI platform and it was handling the majority of the traffic on AmEx’s website and mobile application.

In 2018, you then launched NLX Inc. What was the genesis story behind NLX?

Post AmEx, I spent a few years consulting for companies looking to adopt conversational AI technology. After observing different use cases across industries and the overall size of the market, myself and two co-founders incorporated NLX Inc. in early 2018. While the market strategy has naturally adjusted, our technology platform and our vision to power conversational experiences everywhere have been consistent in allowing us to stay relevant and innovative to date.

Could you discuss some of the conversational AI applications that can be built using NLX?

Our NLX Studio platform is designed to accommodate the most custom use cases. Late 2019 we built a managed Amazon Alexa Skill that enables travelers to check in, book seat upgrades, check their flight status, and more, all done seamlessly via voice. The implementation includes insights, analytics, and integrations with the airline’s systems.

A few months back, we built a new conversational AI service on top of our platform called Voice Compass™. It delivers voice-guided, self-paced customer journeys – known as Voice Compass Journeys – that empower customers to complete routine tasks without having to talk to a real person. Customers set their own pace, verify their credentials, receive clear instructions, make selections from account-relevant options, and are rewarded at the journey’s end with task completion.

You can try out Voice Compass for free at here.

What are some of the use cases that you have seen from NLX clients?

We are fortunate to work with market-leading companies across industries and with big problems to solve. Lately, we’ve been working on a lot of applications for the airline industry, ranging from making personalized outbound calls to passengers with disrupted…