Exclusive Interview with Ankur Agrawal, SVP- Conversational Messaging, Sinch India

Virtual communication has advanced on a greater level and it is not only restricted to personal use these days. Organizations are always looking for platforms that would provide them with conversational AI. Sinch (previously ACL Mobile) is into the messaging/conversational AI space. We bring businesses closer to their customers through SMS, Voice, WhatsApp, Axiom, Credence (marketing automation). Ankur Agrawal is Senior Vice President- Conversational Messaging for Sinch in India. He has over two decades of rich experience in business strategy, sales, business development, product planning, and growth in the internet space. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Ankur.

Please brief us about the legacy and solutions you provide to your customers and how do they get value out of it.  

Sinch (previously ACL Mobile) is into the messaging/conversational AI space. We bring businesses closer to their customers through SMS, Voice, WhatsApp, Axiom, Credence (marketing automation). Our solutions support brands to cater to their customers by understanding their preferences through purposeful interactions. For businesses, it translates into the capability to engage with customers on a channel where there are, and in their preferred language and time – one simple API to reach multiple channels without losing out on the context. All that brands need to do is integrate, automate, and scale.

ACL's legacy dates back to 2003 when we developed the first-ever messaging platform to bridge the communication gap between business and customers. By 2019, ACL delivered over a whopping 45 billion customer messages and this number continues to grow. After ACL's acquisition in 2020, we've got some of the best minds from the world over, working unceasingly to create unparalleled mobile experiences.

How do you see the CPaaS industry in the future?

Customers are at the core of any business. They are demanding ease of access to brands. Naturally, this paves way for hyper-growth in the CPaaS space. We are the communication enablers, making sure that brands can create lasting relationships with their customers, enriching CX at every step of the customer journey.

Investing in CPaaS ensures that you are future-ready. Take for example the pandemic. More and more businesses and people prefer the digital route. There is a smartphone in almost every hand. Research puts this number at close to 800 million in India. Access to brands is much easier today and every business that invests in CPaaS and reaches out to their customer through digital is bound to do better. Innovation in CPaaS and flexible APIs, that's the way ahead.

Another trend that will gain traction is omnichannel communication. There are very few companies today that cater to it because it is a challenging and demanding space. We are one of them and that makes us position ourselves as a strong, partner-oriented company.

What is the edge your company has over other players in the industry?

Our scale says it all. As Sinch, we are truly glocal- the best of global with the scale of local. The robustness, proven reliability, and knowledge of the Indian enterprise ecosystem and the local regulatory environments – make us unique. Today, our addressable market is spread across 47 international markets, and we're trusted by over 500+ enterprises in India alone. We are going strong with major players across industries with a growth chart each of us at Sinch is proud of.

We see it as a tremendous opportunity, and we aren't stopping at that either. We have a balanced solution portfolio, diverse multi-layer platform, and strong market leadership. We are the best-of-breed powering global enterprises with text messaging, voice, email, and application channels plus global delivery.

How are disruptive technologies like AI impacting today's innovation?

New research commissioned by Sinch reveals that 80% of companies will implement customer engagement to improve CX. Customers are looking at efficient, hyper-personalized contextual experiences. That's possible with AI/ML. Be it marketing or support, brands use Sinch to transform the way they reach out to customers. For this, machine learning technology (ML) and deep natural language processing (NLP) are key capabilities. Take the example of a WhatsApp chatbot. Brands use the bot that digs into insights drawn from an enormous amount of data, making it fit to process and reply just like a human.

We will see further innovation as bots will increasingly handle customer queries. Vendors may even go ahead and create their own bots.

How does your company's strategy facilitate the transformation of an enterprise?

Sinch as a global leader in cloud communications is well-positioned to strengthen its offerings in next-gen mobile experiences. Most businesses are yet to recognize the benefits of conversational messaging. We have seen enterprises pre and post their association with us. With our API, enterprises have scaled effortlessly, automated their marketing and support, and brought down overall costs, significantly.

Real-time conversations are the only way businesses can future proof their customer engagement strategies and with Sinch, it is possible. We have seen our solutions rendering its best in the highest value use cases. Enterprises can gain insights into customer behavior through conversations and drive efficiency and fuel innovation and growth.