L-R: REEJIG CO-FOUNDERS SIOBHAN SAVAGE, MIKE REED AND DR SHUJIA ZHANG. SOURCE: SUPPLIED.
“I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I built my company the wrong way.” This quote from Reejig co-founder and CEO, Siobhan Savage, sparked a flurry of discussion on LinkedIn last week.
Speaking to SmartCompany, Savage has expanded on the integration of AI into the business — from the $1.5 million monthly savings to its effect on the company’s workforce.
A large portion of the discussion around AI integration in Australia is often theoretical — a lot of people with vested interest telling small businesses why they need to integrate AI into their workflows — and why they should choose their specific products.
And part of this is fair. Generative AI in particular, while not new, has been ramping up since OpenAI publicly released ChatGPT. In terms of data collection, it’s still early-ish days. This is why so many studies we see are around adoption, business leader perspectives and worker fears — as opposed to the results businesses are actually seeing from said adoption.
So it was refreshing to get a real-world perspective from a startup that had done this, with actual numbers attached.
Reejig decided to “reinvent its workforce DNA”
Rejjig is a workforce intelligence platform co-founded in 2019 by Siobhan Savage, Mike Reed And Dr Shujia Zhang.
Since then it has seen several successful funding rounds, including $21 million in 2022.
Despite its success, including investment from Salesforce, the company faced economic pressures. Similar to most startups and small businesses everywhere, the business looked to focus on efficiency and productivity.
When generative AI started becoming big, Savage was concerned that someone else would come along and create an AI version of Reejig.
So the company disrupted itself first.
According to Savage, the decision to integrate AI into Reejig’s workforce was driven by the need to reevaluate and optimise business operations.
This primarily meant a shift to a blended workforce that included fixed employees, flex workers, and AI workers.
This took some experimentation at the start, with Reejig having to find the right tool and task fit.
“Several tools that promised to be magical solutions didn’t solve our problems. So we have a mix of purchased tools and Reejig built tools,” Savage said to SmartCompany.
Now the company has over 50 AI workers and 40 flex workers on its books and has worked out where people (vs automation) are best deployed.
“We broke down our work into specific tasks using Reejig’s work ontology to identify task and skill requirements. This analysis helped us pinpoint high-impact areas for automation, particularly in sales, marketing, and customer success,” Savage said.
“By assigning these tasks to AI workers, we freed our employees to focus on more strategic work.”
Breaking down Reejig workers
Reejig’s use of AI goes beyond treating it as a tool, with Savage emphasising that it is considered a worker within the company.
“In our previous setup, we had over 15 sales reps spending most of their time booking demos. Now, we have an AI worker named Hermes, which we built ourselves, handling this task,” Savage said.
“Hermes has resulted in more meetings than ever before, allowing us to have just one person focused on closing deals with customers.”
Comparatively, fixed employees are the long-term workers at Reejig who are across consistent scopes of work that Savage says ensures operational stability.
“They work with customers, solve problems, come up with new ideas, and help us build the company,” Savage said.
Flex workers are then integrated into the team as needed.
“These include our CFO advisory, demand marketing team, and R&D engineers, providing specialised skills and flexibility to adapt to changing business needs,” Savage said.
Challenges with AI integration
Since this integration, Reejig is now saving $1.5 million per month. But this transition had its hurdles.
“Initially, there was significant resistance; many thought I was jeopardising the company when I decided to make a drastic shift. However, I knew that going all-in was necessary for meaningful change,” Savage said.
According to Savage, getting the team comfortable with AI was challenging, so the company focused on transparency and education.
“Over time, this approach fostered a culture where everyone now thinks proactively about leveraging AI,” Savage said.
“Once the benefits became clear — such as freeing up the team for more meaningful work, reducing costs, and providing a new perspective on building the company — everyone, from team members to investors, quickly got on board.”
Advice for other businesses
For companies looking to integrate AI into their operations, Savage offers several key pieces of advice.
First, she emphasises the importance of understanding work beyond job titles.
“Focus on the tasks and skills required for each job. Remember, tasks are automated, not skills. This detailed understanding will help you identify which areas can benefit most from AI integration,” Savage said.
Savage also advocates for new businesses to integrate AI early, saying they should be making it part of the DNA from the beginning.
“This proactive approach will prevent the need for drastic changes later on, like pulling the handbrake as I did,” Savage said.
That being said, testing different tools and products is crucial according to Savage.
“The technology is still evolving, and many products are still growing to their full potential. Start small with pilot projects in specific areas, then expand as you see results. Continuous testing is crucial,” Savage said.
Savage also believes in the importance of the CEO being involved in AI education and integration.
“As the CEO, get hands-on with this transition. Upskill yourself in AI to understand its potential and basics. You can’t reinvent your workforce without this knowledge,” Savage said.
Source: https://www.smartcompany.com.au/technology/artificial-intelligence/reejig-50-ai-workers-saving-1-5-million-month/?utm_campaign=SC&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=smartco_daily&utm_term=2024-06-04