SPEAKER_02 0:00

In this episode of the Hospital Dojo Podcast, I chat with Bianca Brady, an MIT data science grad and the founder of Axify, a conversational AI platform that helps businesses manage bookings and customer interactions. We dive into her journey from hospitality to tech and how AI is changing the way service businesses connect with their customers. This episode is proudly brought to you by Food and Hospitality Week, a major event in Australia's hospitality calendar connecting 15,000 chefs, owners, and industry professionals every year. So Tom Brady and Lewis Howes.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

So I've got to say I shared the stage with them.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

You you got Celebrity Factor in Miami.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Yep, that's exactly right. Yes, we shared the stage. But you going to the States, you went to MIT.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Yes, still there, still there doing my masters. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Yep. A little bit longer to go.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

That's okay. I'm still doing my master's, but at University of Wollongong.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Yeah, okay. What do what what are you studying?

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Uh just doing an MBA. Okay. Got a scholarship through them. Uh through it was a government government supported placement.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

So it was with the New South Wales government and uh University of Wollongong to submit uh the business idea, and the business idea was Hospital Dojo.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Ah very good.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Yeah, so then uh Living and Breathing MBA, I like it. Yeah, so then they uh yeah, they gave me 75% off the fees.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Unreal, right? Yeah. Uh for a post grad degree. Fantastic. And then they whacked it on hex.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yeah. Yeah, literally, like it was not getting the same US benefit for some strange reason.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

No, but then they the the great thing was they um yeah, they really they really instilled, you know, backing that up number one. But then the fact that they're flexible with you to live and breathe that program. Yeah. So they're like that money you're gonna go invest it into the into your business, yeah, yeah. And practicality. And for me, doing it after being in the industry for 11 years is like a breath of fresh air. Yeah. Because I was networking with people who are from so many different industries. Yeah. Like I had people from, you know, uh government uh departments, I had people from medical, and you just see how their careers were changing. And when I was at a turning point in my career, it was like the perfect timing to be able to go back into MBA. I always wanted to do MBA, and I thought I'd do it like just straight after two years after I finished my bachelor.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

But I would be way too immature for that. So I think you've got to get a good 10 years in you somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Agreed, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

And then go do your master's, and that just allows you to really sharpen the axe.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Yeah, I think it gets you focused. I think for me, um, I'm doing my master's in uh statistics and data science. Um and it's uh a bit of full circle, also. I mean, I did a maths degree when I left school and then went into hospitality working it whilst you know you're you're you're studying that old path.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

It's a transient path. That's what it's a stepping stone.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Fell in love with it and the complexity of people and serving people and just never left actually. And then uh after you know, probably close to 10 years of building a lot of um machine learning AI solutions in large hospitality businesses, leading data teams and engineers. I thought I actually want to go and get super deep uh on it and pivot. So I took myself off to found the best university in the world for this stuff and took myself there and really hook it into the detail of machine learning and AI.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

So who are you working for before in Hospo?

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Um prior to finishing, I was with Redcape Hotel Group for I know Redcape, Jasmine Pycroft.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Yes, I know Jasmine very well. Jasmine gave me my first big break in 2013.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

It was the first time I sold a conveyor dishwasher.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

And she uh yeah, she gave me a run.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

And then we helped Redcape in all their venues in New South Wales, and it was the first pub group I was managing when I was selling equipment.

SPEAKER_00 4:15

Oh well, we we would have crossed paths. I think I first met Jazzy in 2007, I think it was. Yeah, so pre-Redcape.

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Red Cape is an amazing organization.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

They really are, yeah, really are.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

I still pest her all the time. Every time I'm driving a barrel, I message her, I say, Jazz, do you want a coffee? Well, we'll say hello to Jasmine. Yeah, say hi, Jazzy. Hi Jazzy. She's been, yeah, honestly, uh, Jasmine's been one of the one of the clients in my life that um yeah, we just built this really strong friendship, yeah, and uh very well respected, and she's always supported uh me and our business endeavors in anything that we've we've ever done or anything I've ever done. Um, and you know, she's that type of client that you want to deliver for all the time. Yeah, and when she calls you, you pick up, yeah, and she has an expectation level, and you deliver and you say thank you, and everything's done on time. Her word is her word.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

Just don't don't lie to her, don't lie to her, you know.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

They make they they they make them well in hospitality, and she was a priming. She was amazing, yeah. She is amazing. So yeah, Red Cape and then Red Cape for a lot of years, so long time actually. Um, hotel group before that, then it you know transformed into NLG. It had many different iterations over the the course of 13 years or so.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Um, and then when I left there, I went into more tourism side, so ingenia um listed uh hospitality and tourism assets. So yeah, it's been it's been a journey. I've done everything in hospitality from I think I started hosting um many years ago when I was at uni, and then sort of went into you know brand roles, promotions roles, always sort of fun and house loyalty, customer facing uh roles that led me down data path.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Oh, that's amazing. And I I always, you know, this podcast, we have a lot of hospitality professionals that listen to it. And even when I was doing my bachelor's degree, I was working in a different side of Hospital where you know we were serving those businesses. So on the like more on the B2B side.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

And a lot of people that study hospitality management or go into hospo don't realize there's that avenue to still stay in hospitality. Yeah. Like there is a there's a there's a beast behind it that makes those pretty restaurants happen.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Right? And um when I was doing my bachelor's degree, uh, a part of one of my courses was an event management course. And I said, uh we we had to put an event on, and I went to the dean. I said, look, I said, I've done events before, I've been part of really large events like expedit expos and stuff. I said, I don't want to waste my time in a pub. I said I want to do an event for the cohort. So we had a bunch of partners, yeah, a lot of guys that probably have a stand here, yeah, and in tourism and stuff, and then we had like round tables and we had like 550 different people in a room. It was the biggest event Western Sydney University ever put on for hospitality and tourism. Wow, yeah, and Cornella Sharks backed it as well, and um, it was a great turnout. And then the university students actually got to see well, hey, I don't have to just be a hotel manager. There's many different avenues you can thousand percent, and especially like coming into this expo hall, look how many organizations supply such a diverse set, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 7:28

It's incredible, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

100%. So we'll yeah, I guess we have a lot in common.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

We do, right? We do, we've got some history that's it and connections.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

So Axify is a company that you started recently. What year was that?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

End of November 23. We incorporated Axify.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

So you had a one million dollar capital raise?

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Yes, we did. August last year, closed our first just a small capital raise round, um, which was really to help us double down on agentic product capability uh and start to take it out to the world and start to take on customers. So it's great to get support, um really diverse set of uh uh people coming to the table to really help us accelerate and grow, and it we were, you know, we're thrilled to close that round. And since then it's it's we've been growing really quickly.

SPEAKER_02 8:15

And what motivated you to transition into the AI space?

SPEAKER_00 8:18

I had been building um working in AI machine learning principally within large hospitality businesses for a lot of years. Um, and you know, they're well resourced, and you can get the capability and the backing to build those types of solutions in large large organizations. I think with the explosion of generative AI, the opportunity now is to really democratize AI and take it right across the industry so you you're a single hotel owner operator can leverage the best of AI also.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

I like that term of the generalization that's happening in in the current economy. Like, you know, in our business, we're doing our best to utilize AI wherever we can and how we can to make things more efficient. Yeah. Um, as well as on our personal data points, you know, when we look at our own posts, we track like Ben and I are really critical when it comes to our data analysis for um for our our consumer engagement.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

We track every single video, every single view, every single comment, every single like, and then we do our best to study the post and why it did well.

SPEAKER_00 9:24

Yeah, it's really great, really great to hear that. Like it's just you don't hear so often when people talk about data in business, you know, it the the thinking is that you know you've got big teams of data scientists behind you and machine learning specialists, and and you just don't need it.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Data's simple that's it's really simple, and it's it's actually the way that we also consult our clients. So we we offer a consulting service internationally.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

But for us to help businesses, you know, grow in in and earn more profit without me being on the ground is literally through the data that they have. Yeah. So if they don't capture any data at the moment, we put the data capturing method processes in place.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

And then we analyze the data over 30, 60, 90 days. We look at the trends, and then we start doing a process of elimination.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

Right?

SPEAKER_00 10:16

And it doesn't have to be complicated. No, it's not. You just pull in some insights into a spreadsheet and track them. That's literally it.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

Honestly, that's what it is. And um, people get daunted with numbers and they these big words like machine learning and AI and stuff like that. But it's when you when you it's one thing to have the data, but it's the next thing to be able to actually utilize it and active activate it, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

So, you know, how do you see AI transforming the customer experience in service industries now?

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Look, I think what it's allowing to, or where we're really focused at Axify is allowing the human touch to get back into the service experience. I think, you know, we've all used to the last few years, you you're getting spread really thin across many, many, many, many channels. So you're not only having to deliver that exceptional, memorable experience in the venue in the moment, you've got to manage phones and you've got to manage social media accounts and emails and SNSs, and it's spreading people too thin. And largely what they're doing is um, or where people are going to those channels, particularly phone for us, is um very repetitive. People have questions, they need things answered, need things resolved quickly. Phone voice, really, as a channel or medium, is still a very natural way to communicate, and you know, putting hiring, attracting talent, training talent, retaining talent to answer phones, which is not what they got into the industry for, is really difficult. So we're just taking away that burden. The AI can handle everything that a person can on the phone and allows the people in the venue to get back to the human experience.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

So, what if someone contests and says, like, you know, what I I understand this could potentially help my bit, like what's the biggest drawbacks that you have on this product right now? You've had a lot of people that have probably come and visited your stand. Yeah, yeah. And you've had a lot of questions. What's probably the the most, you know, FAQ, I like the highest frequently asked question that you get about your product right now?

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Yeah, good question. It we sit at a really sensitive spot. It's not a back-of-house technology solution that you can kind of bring on and and you know, massage into your business rhythm. You're really handing over the keys to your guest experience to an AI or a machine. That that's pretty scary for for operators. Um, so I think just talking through with operators the um focus on experience in the product design and how transparent and iterative it can be. It's a learning model, so it's improving and getting better all the time. And we spent a long time focusing on error rates. I think any product that's got a base of large language models, they hallucinate, they make errors. Um, and I think you just love that term. The hallucinations create create a lot of creativity comes out of the hallucinations where you can get some great creative content out of large language models, but um they also can make mistakes. So you you want to make sure that you're actually spending the time in product design that uh you're training the the AI to a point where it's not making mistakes and it has the right frame around business context so it can actually be helping, not hurting the guest experience for operators. Yeah, spent a long time on accuracy.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Oh yeah, and I could imagine, and and the other the look, the other thing to point out, and I've been in this industry, you know, like I was literally born in this industry uh in fairness, and I've met a lot of people with a lot of great ideas, and the reason why you and your product stood out most to me was because you're actually hospitality backed. Yeah. So you you have a sense of you know, you have a sense of empathy towards the actual operator, you understand the process, it's not like you just had this tech idea and you're like, this computer's gonna fix it. Yeah, no, right? Def definitely not, I think it's and that's something that I believe you should champion more of because I think that that message is getting so swallowed between a bunch of those tech companies that you're surrounded with. Yeah, yeah, and your competitors, like hand on heart, I could say there's not many that are hospited.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

No, that's very true. It's very true, and I think it does, it certainly does come through. I mean, we labour over guest experience um and we labour over transparency with operators because it's their livelihood. Um, they work so hard to drive demand into their venues, and you know, you need to, I think, take that responsibility seriously with any product that you you're putting into a hospitality business. Make sure you're doing everything you can to maximize revenue and drive those cost efficiencies. And I think it's something that's been really great about being at this show over the last few days. We've just had front row seat to be able to talk to operators around what are the pain points, what are you seeing? Of course. Um, what where are you, where where is the opportunity for tech to actually help you do better at what you do, um, not just implement tech for tech's sake.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

And Food and Hositality Week in Melbourne is, you know, for me, Melbourne's the epicentre of hospitality in Australia. Yeah. So you're getting the most raw uh raw understanding of what it's like on the front line here. Um, and Melbourne being a city that's been able to overcome such darkness and to be able to still put on this beautiful expo.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Yeah, it's been incredible.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

You know, it's the largest lockdown in the world.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

And for hospital to still stay strong, people still come out, people still show up. It's uh, you know, it just shows you the resilience and to be able to be able to be here and say, look, we're actually here to assist you, we can champion that.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

Um, you know, Food and Hostility Week, National Media, the new guys that took over Food Service Australia have done such a great job at this event.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Fantastic, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

And they're putting the right people, you know, through the door and and to you and to other exhibitors, right? And I guess all the exhibitors here have the have the best intentions, they're all doing their part. Um, but it's it's been amazing to, you know, to be able to have you here and contribute to the show. Thank you. So, yeah. And as a as an innovator in the space, it's it's great that you've been able to champion it. Um, what what is how's the adoption model at the moment in regards to fees? Is it like a case-by-case basis? Is it a standard subscription? What how's it work?

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Yeah, we have a small subscription and then a closed task fee. So we don't really believe in subscription or the future of subscription by seat um or anything like that. We think the AI is there to do a job for the operator, and when it successfully does that job, we charge a fee. When it doesn't, it makes a mistake, they don't get charged for that interaction. So it's a successfully handled interaction fee. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

And so you'd consider it a higher touch sort of service and solution.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Absolutely, yeah, yeah. So we're really focused on um uh providing a simple to onboard implementation solution, have people live in two weeks and put the right infrastructure around um just refinement and monitoring the data and interaction so that you know you you're fine-tuning and and and tapping the AI on the rails, so to speak. Like a staff member, it's really just an extension of your team. Um, and it you know needs fine-tuning, so it's really right on your guest experience and brand expectations, but without you know, big long, lengthy integrations and onboarding and staff training, so it can be quite low touch.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

And what's the sort of revenue that we're looking at for an organization that you guys would consider?

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Um yeah, we're look, we're seeing some really excellent uh results across our customer base. Really, we're being told somewhere between 15 and 30% increase in reservation volumes. You think still around 15-50% of reservations coming through phone, uh, and a large portion of those today are getting missed, unless you've got call servicing um centres, uh, but they're very high cost as well. So the the revenue gain for operators has been fantastic. Um, but on the flip side of the PLs, so is the cost benefit in terms of redirecting that human labour back into the experience. Um, and for us on our side, you know, it it's return on investment is significant for the operator. We you know, obviously it's a it's a volume-based um product, so it depends on how many calls and things like that you handle. But you know, you you can be sitting between call it three and a half and six and a half, seven thousand dollars annually to have all of your phone calls answered and secure, make sure you're never missing revenue opportunity and redirecting loads of that in. It's a bit of a no-brainer.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

That is a no-brainer. That's what I was about to say. Well, thank you so much, Bianco, for your time today. Uh, it's been amazing to hear about AxiFi and um I'd love to, you know, workshop with you some other solutions potentially for some of our clients at the Hospo Dojo. Absolutely. And uh yeah, we'd love to collaborate with such a great Australian organization. Congratulations!

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Thank you. Thanks for having me, and thanks for bringing this to the show. It's pretty incredible. Oh, you're welcome. Really awesome.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

Have a lovely day.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Thank you.