SapientX

Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant introduced the world to “smart speakers” — products that can listen to us and act on our commands.

But smart products from Apple, Amazon, and Google have trouble understanding us. They also have a habit of abusing our privacy.

That’s why SapientX has created an alternative. This software company has developed accurate, conversational voice-assistant technology. It presents this technology through voice-assistant characters, each powered by generative artificial intelligence (AI), that can interact with users as if they were good friends.

SapientX is targeting the market for voice AI, which is projected to reach eighty-six billion dollars by 2032. More specifically, it’s targeting those in the hospitality market who struggle to find workers.

In the post-COVID landscape, this industry struggles with two million unfilled jobs, many of which are consumer-facing, but can be done by a robot or machine — provided it has the right technology.

That’s where SapientX can play a major role. It creates friendly, digital helpers that interact like real people on displays, kiosks, and vending machines.

Need help finding a specific store in a mall? A directory featuring a digital character equipped with SapientX’s software can help you find it. Need directions to your gate at the airport? A digital character can help there, too.

What separates SapientX’s characters from voice assistants like Siri or Alexa is their ability to accurately understand what you’re trying to say or ask. SapientX’s software has conversational understanding accuracy of ninety-nine percent, compared to just seventy-three percent for Alexa.

Furthermore, digital characters featuring SapientX technology always respect your privacy and SapientX never sells user data.

Another big strength of this company is its team. Co-Founder Bruce Wilcox has forty years of experience in AI engineering and is a world-renowned natural-language processing expert. He’s won the prestigious Loebner Prize four times, part of an annual competition in AI for the computer program considered to be the most “human-like.”

Additionally, co-founder Maclen Marvit is a former rocket scientist who began his career as a software engineer with NASA. He also worked for ten years with Blue Origin, the space company created by Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos.

SapientX’s voice assistants speak ninety-five languages and dialects. And the software runs on almost everything using as little as two percent of a computer-processing unit.

In 2008, SapientX incorporated its technology into navigation systems for BMW, Magellan, and Nvidia. Soon after, it created a voice-assistant prototype for the Mitsubishi Outlander SUV.

In 2022, the company created a prototype of an airport guide to give directions, flight info, and restaurant advice inside the Edmonton International Airport. Since then, it’s created voice-assistant characters at gaming trade shows and healthcare centers.

Most recently, SapientX created “Cassie,” a digital receptionist who has since been deployed to twenty healthcare clinics serving 43,000 patients.

To make money, SapientX adapts its business model to specific customers. For example, with kiosks and vending machines, the company creates monthly software-as-a-service contracts. Other companies want pricing per unit with yearly maintenance and support contracts.

SapientX has twenty-two partnerships including companies that make kiosks, computers, and the microphones needed to make complete, turn-key solutions for customers.

Team Background

Maclen Marvit - Co-Founder & CTO

Maclen is a former rocket scientist who developed AI-related projects for NASA and Blue Origin.

He began his career as a software engineer with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs, a division that specializes in unmanned exploration of outer space. While there, he won the JPL Achievement Award, and led a team of engineers to develop a network for automating power systems.

From there, he was a producer for Knowledge Adventure, a maker of award-winning educational CDs. After that, he became Vice President of Technology for Worlds Inc, where he built the first 3D VR program to run over the internet. Notable clients included IBM, Visa, and the U.S. Army.

For the next five years, he was CEO and co-founder of Disappearing, a technology company. From there, he began a ten-year stint with Blue Origin, the space company created by Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos.

While with Blue Origin, Maclen designed an AI-based spacecraft vehicle health monitoring and response system. This system could detect abnormal behavior in real-time and provide commands to adjust space-related missions.

Following his tenure with Blue Origin, he worked with another billionaire, Bill Gates, as Technical Lead for Intellectual Ventures, a VC fund.

More recently, Maclen co-founded Photonic Sentry, a research company that created a tracking system for targeting mosquitoes. This system featured machine learning and image processing AI techniques.

Maclen studied Physics and Computer Science at Yale, UC Irvine, and California Institute of Technology.

Bruce Wilcox - Co-Founder

Bruce has forty years of experience in AI engineering and is a world-renowned natural language-processing expert.

He’s won the prestigious Loebner Prize four times. This is part of an annual competition in AI for the computer program considered to be the most “human-like.”

Notably, he previously worked for Outfit7, a video game developer that was acquired for one billion dollars.

Wilcox began as an AI consultant with 3DO, a company developing strategy-centric video games. From there, he was an AI consultant for a pair of companies: Radical Entertainment, a computer gaming company, and Fujitsu, a Japanese computer equipment company.

He later worked as a senior software engineer at Planet 9 Studios, the software company led by co-worker David Colleen. After this, he spent a year as a senior software engineer with Amazon.

More recently, Bruce was Director of Natural Language Strategy for Kore, an IT services company. While there, he guided strategy and implementation of a natural language “bot” platform used by Fortune 100 companies.

He then spent eight years as CEO of Brillig Understanding, a company applying natural language and speech-controlled systems to medical applications and robotic devices. After that, he was Director of Natural Language Strategy for JustAnswer, an Internet company that created an AI assistant “chatbot.”

Bruce earned his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Michigan.

David Colleen - Co-Founder & CEO

David is a pioneer in Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality. Over the course of his career, he’s worked with seventeen Fortune 100 companies to build software-related products.

For nearly thirty years, he was CEO of Planet 9 Studios, a company developing software for navigation and social networking on mobile devices. Early on with this company, he launched the first VR-related product on the internet.

In 2007, David turned his attention to building voice assistant technology, which served as the inspiration for SapientX.

He earned a degree in Architecture and Business Administration from Cornell University.

Co-Investors