If we look up the definition of "conversational commerce" online, we find that it refers to the idea of "enabling consumers to shop and communicate with brands through messaging, voice, and chat channels". Companies, for example, can implement conversational commerce through chatbots or messaging apps, but what lies beyond that?
A world of opportunities. That’s what the team at Brain Logic AI discovered—a company founded in Montevideo and Silicon Valley that developed Zapia, the conversational commerce platform for Latin America that reached 1.5 million users in just 250 days.
Juan Pablo Pereira, Chief Operations Officer at Brain Logic AI and a graduate of ORT’s Bachelor’s program in Management and Administration; Juan Olloniego, Head of Engineering at Brain Logic AI and a graduate of ORT’s Systems Engineering program; Martín Alcalá Rubí, CEO at Brain Logic AI; Nicolás Loeff, Chief Technology Officer at Brain Logic AI; and Pablo Rodríguez Bocca, Lead AI Engineer at Brain Logic AI, joined forces to bring Zapia to life through Brain Logic AI, and they are breaking all the molds.
What is Zapia?
Zapia, as Juan Pablo Pereira explains, is "a combination of an AI assistant tailored for Latin America and a tool with powerful e-commerce capabilities. " As an assistant, it can answer general questions such as "'Where can I go out to eat today in Montevideo?'", transcribe WhatsApp audio messages, and answer general questions about history, geography, or any other topic that comes to mind, just like any other AI assistant. But it also adds location-based capabilities.
"Our goal is for Zapia to be the best at answering local questions, and we're working very hard to develop solutions related to commerce," explains Pereira. What is the objective? For Zapia to be the best way to shop. In other words, for it to be the best tool for finding information about products, prices, and deals, and for the technology to enable personalized recommendations for each user.
As for its target audience, Zapia is targeting people living in Latin America—specifically in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, where WhatsApp usage is very high. "We designed it this way because, while e-commerce accounted for 10% of retail sales in Latin America, 70% of all consumer transactions pass through WhatsApp at some point," explains Juan Pablo Pereira, COO and Co-Founder of Brain Logic AI.
Exponential growth
Since Zapia launched, the company's employees have witnessed exponential growth. In fact, Juan Pablo Pereira says, "I've never seen growth like this at any other company."
It all began shortly after the launch of Brain Logic AI, when the founders of the fledgling company managed to secure a $5 million investment round from American investors. “We were very lucky, because one of the U.S. funds we met with had a Uruguayan on staff (Diego Oppenheimer), who is a well-known entrepreneur and gave us tremendous help in raising the investment round,” Pereira explains.
Following this major achievement, there were more surprises in store: Brain Logic AI was selected by Google from among thousands of startups to join its Google AI First accelerator in the United States, which is considered the world’s leading AI startup accelerator.
""The process to join Google was quite demanding; many companies apply every year, and they only accept 10 to 15 companies per cohort," explains Pereira, but he is certain it was worth it. For Brain Logic AI, being selected was a major validation and an opportunity to partner with leading global companies in artificial intelligence.
"Google's accelerator provides access to top-tier mentors in every respect—both from a business perspective and a technological one. It also offers access to Google's best artificial intelligence models. All of this makes for a great experience," concludes Juan Pablo Pereira.
Entrepreneurship as a driving force
Juan Pablo Pereira's career path has been varied, fast-paced, and highly dynamic. In that regard, he is convinced that "ORT strives to foster an entrepreneurial spirit at all times, and that is essential. "
Juan Olloniego, another member of Brain Logic AI who graduated with a degree in Systems Engineering from ORT, had the opportunity to pursue a master’s degree in England, which allowed him to build on everything he had learned during his undergraduate studies. “I am grateful to ORT and proud that a new startup is emerging with ORT graduates on its team,” he says.