As part of Engage’s Cohort 12 CEO stories, we are thrilled to introduce you to Andrei Papancea, CEO & Chief Product Officer of NLX.

Andrei says, “Being able to drive thoughtful automation and have an impact in people’s lives is what really drives NLX as a company.”

NLX was created to help enterprise organizations drive customer experiences that scale and delight across chat, voice, and multimodal channels. Conversational AI SaaS products help brands transform their customer interactions into automated, personalized self-service experiences. When implemented, NLX empowers a brand’s customers to resolve their own inquiries at their own pace – with no wait time or frustration.

With roots in Romania, Andrei’s journey in technology began at an early age. In grade school, Andrei was really interested (and good at) website design, so he began working for small businesses around his hometown in Romania. His mom even registered a business for him so everything was official! After graduating high school, he moved to the United States and earned a Master’s degree in Computer Science, before he started working at American Express. During his tenure at American Express, he spearheaded the development of their chatbot platform, laying the foundation for their conversational AI. Subsequently, he consulted for industry giants such as Discover, Mastercard, and NBCUniversal, recognizing untapped potential in conversational AI technology. So in 2018, Andrei, his brother Vlad Papancea, and childhood friend Peter Szerzo founded NLX.

What makes NLX unique is its ability for multimodal interactions. About 30% to 40% of automated interactions over calls are to answer simple FAQs or solve simple transactional problems. The rest of customer inquiries are unable to be solved by voice interactions due to their complexity. For example, a password reset could not be done over the phone by a virtual assistant because there could be discrepancies with the transcript. NLX’s patented multimodal technology allows a customer to synchronize the voice assistant to what they might see on the screen such as the company’s app or website. This process maximizes automation rates and customer satisfaction.

Additionally, he imparts his knowledge by delivering graduate lectures on Cloud Computing and Big Data at Columbia University, holding a Master of Science in Computer Science from the same institution.