MEET OUR CODE_N CONTEST FINALISTS 2018: GhostWriterAI from Italy

08/20/2018  |  CODE_n18 Startup CONTEST, Digital Transformation, new.New Festival

Artificial intelligence is incorporated into our everyday life through institutions like schools and banks, transportation and social media platforms. With huge amounts of data to sort through, companies are in need of a service that helps them understand who their potential clients are, turning them from new clients to loyal clients. We’re excited to introduce our CODE_n FINALIST GhostWriterAI, which is a startup that uses AI-based platforms to optimize the customer acquisition process by eliminating repetitive tasks, locating new audiences, and increasing engagement. Don’t miss a chance to meet them in person at their booth at the new.New Festival 2018 to learn more about increasing business growth. Discover the story behind the startup from Ester Liquori, CEO/Co-Founder of You Are My Guide.

Iulia: What is GhostWriterAI all about?

Ester: Imagine you can identify new potential audiences and understand their favorite topics, what they share, and the words they use – and you can segment their interests and keywords by age, sex, location, and language. You can then understand which kind of audiences are better for you and figure out how to find and acquire more of these audiences. As Sean Ellis, the father of Growth Hacking, says, “Sustainable growth comes from understanding the best customers and figuring out how to find and acquire more of them.” This is about understanding who your potential clients are – and their lifestyles, needs, and behavior – so intensely that you can predict what they will need, even if they don’t need it now. Inspire them with a new experience that you have ready and waiting for them. Ghost Writer is an AI-based platform that optimizes your customer acquisition process thanks to a proprietary semantic system and dedicated artificial intelligence algorithms. We train the system to help you pull in, keep, and expand your target group. We help you identify new customers by gathering marketing intelligence from your existing customer base. We refine your knowledge of that market segment to improve the target and the ROI of your marketing activities.

Iulia: How did you come up with the idea?

Ester: Think about your last vacation (or your next vacation, maybe in the summer). We kick-started our AI system at the end of 2014 after coming up with a way to help operators in the travel and tourism industry to understand and satisfy the needs of travelers. What will they want to see or do on vacation? Everything goes into your daily agenda, well organized, complete with recommendations on the best activities according to your interests and preferences. We also have a patent on this amazing system and the way it smartly organizes your activities. We call this service YAMGU, the travel guide. But for us, this is not going far enough. We love enabling growth. So we have also pinpointed a broader opportunity and different ways to be helpful – by enhancing service in the travel industry and optimizing the customer acquisition process for travel companies, simultaneously improving their ROI.

Iulia: What are you trying to solve?

Ester: All companies want to minimize their customer acquisition costs. The question is, how can you find new clients despite the fact that they’re outside the comfort zone of your existing CRM? How can you reach out to new audiences? How can you boost the ROI of marketing? Our GhostWriterAI platform improves your ROI in marketing and sales:

  • OPTIMIZING processes by eliminating repetitive tasks
  • LOCATING new audiences based on the current target group
  • INCREASING engagement and retention.

Happy clients go full circle! You start by identifying their interests, then you provide them with the right content (using the right channels and the right engagement methods), and then you offer them the right support in the short, medium, and long term. AI acts as a virtual manager who, once properly trained, delivers value at every step of the customer journey.

Iulia: AI-powered personalization and content creation can increase conversion, and it holds tremendous potential. Where do you see this going in 10 years? Maybe industries beyond travel and tourism can benefit, so do you have plans to reach out into other industries?

Ester: As described, all companies want to improve performance, because there is money to be earned in efficiency and enhancement. AI-powered personalization and content creation/suggestions are a genuine opportunity to empower marketing and sales. According to McKinsey research, which involved mapping these issues by looking at more than 400 practical use cases and business applications across 19 industries, it is felt that the potential impact of AI is most significant in marketing, sales, supply chain management, and manufacturing.

We already have new target segments in the pipeline. Our priority in 2018 is to demonstrate that our system is already mature enough to serve different industries (such as catering, publishing, and call centers) and our focus lies in identifying intermediaries and solving similar problems.

Ten years from now, we will have a competitive R&D department that is in a position to stay one step ahead. We will have foreseen new technology trends and have an amazing team managed by Mauro Bennici, co-founder and CTO. We will raise the bar and develop a self-learning solution to work in the customer domain and create real-time personalized content for every single end-user on websites, in chats, and in stores.

In addition to creating and sharing content, we will be able to offer a real-time conversation system that adapts to discussion by following the client’s emotions, tone of voice, and wishes. This will work in line with the company’s mission and vision.

Meet GhostWriterAI at the new.New Festival 2018 this fall, in Stuttgart!