CDOs Should Keep an Eye on Latent Vs Living Data — Scheduler AI Co-founder and CEO

(US & Canada) Maddie Bell, Co-founder and CEO at Scheduler AI, speaks with Channie Mize, General Manager at Slalom, in a video interview about having realistic expectations for AI, leveraging living data from meetings, and why potential founders need to value micro moments in their journey.

Scheduler AI is an AI appointment setter that instantly books meetings and safeguards show rates.

Speaking of having realistic expectations for AI, Bell states that there is massive nuance around it, and what is theoretically true with AI is not often true during actual application. She says that according to many people, training AI means training LLMs with clean data; however, due to numerous limitations and challenges, most businesses do not fall into that category. For training AI, she says, people do not require an MIT degree; rather, they seek the ability to predictably control a workflow.

Taking the instance of a chatbot, Bell states that the chatbot could be fed every FAQ ever answered and then put on site to answer queries. Contrary to this scenario, she stresses that many times when people visit the site and ask questions, they want to connect them to a human instead of a bot.

Therefore, Scheduler AI deploys web chat AI bots that are in contrast to FAQ bots. Bell maintains that it is possible because the AI chatbots are trained through specific criteria and not through LLM data optimization. She adds that the company wants the chatbot to ask specific questions on specific playbooks, but more so, it wants the interpretation of their response to be robust.

Bell expects to see a world where these agents can be set up with specific objectives and criteria set by humans, which they can later monitor and execute on workflows. According to her, it is different than going back to latent data to categorize, classify, and upload it into a massive document that lacks focus.

In continuation, Bell states that by leveraging AI, the company wants to convert meetings and not just answer questions. Then, she urges CDOs to keep an eye on the latent versus living data.

For instance, organizations have meeting note takers that capture what happened in the meeting so that no human forgets. Bell refers to it as living data that can be cleaned and put in the right places to be utilized for content creation, follow-ups, CRM enrichment, and optimizing meeting conversations.

Additionally, Bell states that while there is more focus on the latent data and how valuable that could be, there is a constant flywheel of living data that can be as valuable.

Sharing nuggets of wisdom for potential founders, she states that it is critical to see the micro-moments that have a macro impact. She mentions how Scheduler AI was born because she and her Co-founder fell in love with an insight.

Adding on, Bell states that scheduling does not start with a calendar; rather, it starts with a conversation. She reiterates that meetings are the atomic unit of business growth, and after finding a problem to solve, conjugation of numerous micro-moments made it to what it is today.

Bell advises potential founders to pay heed to the micro-moments, keep optionality on the table, and communicate with other founders.

Delving further, she states that for someone who has worked in an established business environment, getting into an early-age startup for them will be challenging. Taking the growth of Scheduler AI into account, Bell mentions getting accepted into Reed Hoffman's Masters of Scale—the early founder cohort—and closing a multimillion-dollar round from one of the top VCs in the region. However, there is still a 92% chance of failure, she adds.

Furthermore, Bell reflects on her growth as a professional and asserts that it is critical to be okay with reality versus trying to solve it immediately. She recalls the first time when people used the platform and it worked, which was a moment of amazement and relief.

Apart from the platform functioning, it also boils down to the people who believed in the venture, says Bell. In conclusion, she states that regardless of the consequences, the journey feels worth it. She affirms working on a technology that will change the future of work, and getting to be a part of it is a humbling and fortunate experience.

CDO Magazine appreciates Maddie Bell for sharing her insights with our global community.