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Sierra Raises $950M at $15B Valuation

sierra.ai

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Re: Sierra Raises $950M at $15B Valuation

#41

Post by seemaze »

montyanne wrote: post #26
linkregister wrote: post #12

I think this is generally a good product because businesses that previously had zero phone support can now afford to have something. However, the hard work of actually building out the various workflows and decision trees is not automatic. Previously, a call center employee would receive abuse from a caller for being unempowered to make a decision. Instead, an LLM will perform the same role. Ideally, businesses will…

As a tech literate customer, my willingness to entertain AI chatbot decision trees is rock bottom. I have no patience to try to find the correct incantation to actually fix something (or the, “before I transfer you to a person, let me try to help you first”). For myself - and admittedly maybe I’m just far out on the long tail of customers - I think these need to be treated like self driving cars, where 98% of the way…

This is my feeling 100%. If I'm on the phone, it's as a last resort because all the other prescribed pathways have failed.

Re: Sierra Raises $950M at $15B Valuation

#42

Post by reconnecting »

reconnecting wrote: post #10
tombert wrote: post #2

Damn, for just a moment I thought the Sierra Online company was coming back. I want a new official Quest for Glory game.

Assume Sierra owners are too young to know what Sierra games means. I was absolutely obsessed with their logo (1) at school time. 1. https://preview.redd.it/remember-sierra-games-1979-2008-they... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMQi7olp-tw

Probably many are ashamed to remember that the name Sierra is also associated with the Leisure Suit Larry (1) games.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisure_Suit_Larry

Re: Sierra Raises $950M at $15B Valuation

#43

Post by ej88 »

It's always interesting seeing how HN reacts to AI CX (as someone who works in this space). Yes, the tech savvy crowd loves to say how they always ask for a human and love old school phone trees

in reality 50-80% of callers come in with easily answerable questions because they don't know how to nav the website and prefer to ask in natural language

The vast majority of callers call in to resolve their issue, and most don't care if they are speaking to a bot because they just want their issue fixed. Agents (if implemented well) are an order of magnitude more effective at resolving issues compared to a call centre worker who is reading off a script and churn within 9 months

There's also the 2nd order effs of making CX cheap. before, there is the perverse incentive of companies trying to keep you off support because each call costs them way more than the value they get. if your cost per call drops 100x you can invest in turning a cost centre into a revenue driver (+ a better experience)

Re: Sierra Raises $950M at $15B Valuation

#44

Post by tombert »

reconnecting wrote: post #42
reconnecting wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assume Sierra owners are too young to know what Sierra games means. I was absolutely obsessed with their logo (1) at school time. 1. https://preview.redd.it/remember-sierra-games-1979-2008-they... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMQi7olp-tw

Probably many are ashamed to remember that the name Sierra is also associated with the Leisure Suit Larry (1) games. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisure_Suit_Larry

Why would we be ashamed of that? The early Leisure Suit Larry games are a lot of fun; yeah the humor is crass and low-brow, but that's sort of the charm. It's meant to be silly.

Re: Sierra Raises $950M at $15B Valuation

#45

Post by ej88 »

htx80nerd wrote: post #7
pmdr wrote: post #4

So we're supposed to believe that removing humans from customer support will lead to better outcomes? > Ensure you only pay for the value Sierra delivers with outcome-based pricing. Yeah... that won't last.

AI customer support is trash and everyone hates it , but it makes the Wall St numbers go up, so it's a good thing.

ime its very implementation dependent

but even a simple impl to answer questions can knock out like 50% of callers who are tech-illiterate at 100x cheaper cost, it's just strictly better economics and better for those customers

Re: Sierra Raises $950M at $15B Valuation

#46

Post by ej88 »

eaenki wrote: post #37

I remember waiting for uber next to him in SF one night 10+ years ago. This dude must be the son of some mafia boss or some shit and have some crazy blackmail to raise billions for companies that are copies of products where he’s the 12th company doing the same thing.. never turning a profit or anything and yet raising ever more money. doesn’t make sense otherwise

hes board chair of openai and is ex co-ceo of salesforce, ex cto of facebook, can get a meeting with any exec in F500...

their moat is distribution

Re: Sierra Raises $950M at $15B Valuation

#47

Post by mysterydip »

pixelpoet wrote: post #6
tombert wrote: post #2

Damn, for just a moment I thought the Sierra Online company was coming back. I want a new official Quest for Glory game.

Likewise, I was hoping for more Space Quest :(

Not exactly the same, but SpaceVenture finally released at the end of last year: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1374960/SpaceVenture/

Re: Sierra Raises $950M at $15B Valuation

#48

Post by ej88 »

DonHopkins wrote: post #40
pmdr wrote: post #4

So we're supposed to believe that removing humans from customer support will lead to better outcomes? > Ensure you only pay for the value Sierra delivers with outcome-based pricing. Yeah... that won't last.

Their secret is that they have hoards of fake AI Customers who will call into their client's AI Customer Support and respond to surveys saying they were extremely happy with the support, so the client has to pay for perfect simulated outcomes.

ai skeptic fanfic evolves in fascinating ways every day

Re: Sierra Raises $950M at $15B Valuation

#49

Post by reconnecting »

tombert wrote: post #44
reconnecting wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably many are ashamed to remember that the name Sierra is also associated with the Leisure Suit Larry (1) games. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisure_Suit_Larry

Why would we be ashamed of that? The early Leisure Suit Larry games are a lot of fun; yeah the humor is crass and low-brow, but that's sort of the charm. It's meant to be silly.

That's because you were probably the right age to know the answers to the age control questions, and I was at an age where I could only download them from a BBS.

Re: Sierra Raises $950M at $15B Valuation

#50

Post by tombert »

reconnecting wrote: post #49
tombert wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would we be ashamed of that? The early Leisure Suit Larry games are a lot of fun; yeah the humor is crass and low-brow, but that's sort of the charm. It's meant to be silly.

That's because you were probably the right age to know the answers to the age control questions, and I was at an age where I could only download them from a BBS.

I actually didn't play the game until I was fifteen, in ~2006. I didn't know the answers, but I found out you can just hit ctrl-alt-x and skip the questions.
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