AI in the Viking Venture Portfolio: LeadDesk 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming industries worldwide, and Viking Venture’s portfolio companies continuously adapt to the shift. Therefore, this article series explores how our companies use AI for efficiency, customer experience, and market leadership. Here is how LeadDesk leverages generative AI (GenAI). 

Header image: Miikka Haavisto, Director of Business Development, AI of LeadDesk

AI in LeadDesk  

LeadDesk is a Business-to-Business (B2B) cloud-based contact center for sales outreach, founded 15 years ago in Helsinki. The company aims to streamline the call center industry by helping agents close more deals and more cases from day one. LeadDesk has used AI for a decade and has now started to leverage GenAI in most of their product offerings, with continious new developments and features. 

AI Transcriber and Call Summary – Efficiency and Quality Improvements with AI 

LeadDesk leverages AI in many of their products. One of the features, the AI Transcriber, converts voice calls into text, simplifying quality assurance and analysis. The solution allows admins to review transcriptions instead of listening to entire calls, saving significant time. This feature is particularly valuable for regulatory compliance, helping identify key moments, such as booking confirmations or customer agreements, without the need for full call reviews. 

Working alongside the transcriber, the AI Call Summary generates concise overviews of calls, highlighting critical elements like booking details. Moreover, this AI tool reduces the need to listen to entire calls by clearly summarising outcomes and reasoning. 

Together, these tools streamline quality assurance and support LeadDesk’s mission to enhance contact center efficiency through AI-driven innovations. 

Technology Used 

The AI Transcriber uses Whisper technology for transcription. LeadDesk utilizes its own GPUs for this service, allowing for greater flexibility and lower costs than cloud services. For other AI functionalities, LeadDesk primarily uses OpenAI’s models hosted on Azure, and DeepL for translation services, such as multilingual chat and chatbots. 

Future Improvements 

LeadDesk continuously improve existing AI products, but also looks at new products and add-ons. Two highlights of future improvements are: 

• Expanding Access: The AI Transcriber, initially available only to admins, will soon be extended to agents, enabling them to leverage transcriptions and summaries for quality assurance and note-taking. 

• AI Insight: Planned improvements include refining transcription accuracy and integrating the transcriber with advanced AI features providing comprehensive data analysis and trend identification for contact centers. 

Lessons Learned 

In general, LeadDesk has had a systematic approach to AI development. However, there are some general learnings they highlight: 

• Understanding Market Needs: Thorough research, active customer engagement, and competitor analysis are crucial for aligning AI features with market expectations and delivering real value. 

• Agile Development: Rapid prototyping and feedback-driven iterations help identify and prioritize AI features with the greatest commercial potential. 

– AI has become a core part of our product offering and improvements. It is in this space we will use time and our resources in the upcoming years, says Miikkaa, Director of Business Development, AI of LeadDesk 

See more of what LeadDesk  offers at https://leaddesk.com/Products 

Summary 

To summarize, the integration of AI into business operations is essential for staying competitive in the fast-paced SaaS market. In our latest articles on the topic, two Viking Venture portfolio companies, Xait and LeadDesk, have elaborated on how AI can drive innovation and efficiency.  

As AI has evolved over the past few years, Viking Venture is committed to supporting its portfolio companies in leveraging these technologies for sustainable growth and success. The support includes hosting best practice sessions and making AI a key topic at our annual Viking Venture Day. At these events, our companies share their experiences and expertise. Read more about how we enable knowledge sharing across our portfolio here. Or sign up for our newsletter below for more updates and insights on the B2B software market.