Engineering Better Communication
ECE Alum’s $3M Start-Up Smooths Out Business Interactions
by A.J. Kleber
The ideas which inspired Burak Aksar (PhD’24)’s start-up, Spiky.AI, which raised $3.2M in its most recent round of seed funding, were sparked during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, he was a Graduate Teaching Fellow for BU ECE.
Gesticulating for emphasis, he explains, “I remember the first Zoom classes, You’re the only one to turn on your camera and it’s like there is no one else in the call. Are they looking at me? Are they listening to me?”
“Do you want me to start?” he pantomimes. “No answer. Okay, fine; I go ahead. I just talk for 45 minutes.” Nobody had any questions; it was like speaking into a void, entirely without response or feedback of any kind. “If there’s no feedback,” Dr. Aksar explains, “You can’t get better.”
Although remote teaching methods and technologies have improved, and the quarantine period that kept students off-campus has long since ended, the experience left Aksar with a new sense of conviction about the value of reciprocal communication … and the consequences when it breaks down.
As he completed his Ph.D. program, this conviction began to germinate into something more; something which would eventually become Spiky.AI, post-graduation.
From academic classes to business meetings
After completing his Ph.D. research, which centered on using machine learning to automate analysis of High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems, Dr. Aksar turned his ML know-how and drive to create solutions for optimizing online communication in a new direction: the business world. “It happened organically,” according to Aksar.
Aksar describes Spiky as “a unified intelligence layer for revenue teams;” a sort of tireless digital assistant which can analyze conversations with customers, vendors and staff at a client organization. Highly customizable and versatile, it can operate at a variety of levels–providing coaching suggestions in real time to a customer service professional during a call, or putting together higher-level reports for management–all aimed at improving performance by optimizing communication.
“A customer is yelling at me right now; what am I going to do?” Unlike a GTF with a Zoom classroom populated by blank screens, an employee running Spiky isn’t on their own in dealing with a breakdown of communication.
How Spiky works
Named for the changes or “spikes” in conversations or interactions that it is intended to “smooth out,” Spiky draws its insights from the content of the conversation, as well as vocal and visual cues. By way of example, Aksar provided me with the Spiky report on our own chat, complete with a transcript, accurate summaries which capture not only the topics discussed, but impressions regarding mood and attitude, and other metrics such as talking speed and participation ratios. (A quick, unscientific impression of the data? Dr. Aksar and this interviewer were both rather laid-back, but overall the interaction was a positive and enthusiastic one, and the subject did most of the talking.)
A BU boost
According to Dr. Aksar, his time at BU had considerable influence on his career path (bumps in the road to remote learning notwithstanding). He lauds the ECE graduate program for providing him with an excellent grounding in applied machine learning and a variety of technical and transferable skills. More than that, he credits his graduate experience for teaching him critical thinking and for the opportunity to practice communicating clearly and effectively with stakeholders, such as Sandia National Labs.
A faculty researcher like his mentor, Professor Ayse Coskun, he observes, operates a bit like a businessperson: applying for grants, managing student researchers, and starting with broad research concepts which must be honed and narrowed down to achieve a result. And of course, it’s a comparison that applies in both directions. Aksar admits that he has never worked in a sales or support role himself; rather, he saw an opportunity and followed it, learning as he went. “Every day is like a new research project. You don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Another crucial advantage Aksar gained from BU ECE? The networking connections that helped him find that opportunity, the niche which his company was then designed to fill. He’s excited that, as an alumnus, he now has the opportunity to give back and even, perhaps, to be one of those important, game-changing contacts for current or future students.
Above all, Dr. Aksar sees himself as a bridge-builder, fostering connections and helping others to fulfill their potential. Spiky is more than just an “AI-powered sales conversational intelligence;” it’s an extension of its creator.