31-07-2025
Momntum's customer chatbot offering a human touch
'Laila' is an enhanced conversational AI that can converse with callers in more depth and complexity than standard customer chatbots.
It will answer questions about doctors at the clinic, what some procedures entail and even what some of the dangers of such treatments are.
'Some patients might experience side effects such as swelling, bruising, lumps or redness at the injection site and in rare cases, more significant complications can occur,' it tells me when I ring to ask whether lip fillers were generally safe.
Its WhatsApp channel goes a step further, reassuring me that 'facial enhancements aren't addictive in the same way that substances such as alcohol or drugs can be' and advising me on which treatments might enhance body image or even the sensation men feel for the purposes of adult intimacy.
Lip fillers, I'm told when I ask about measures to boost intimacy appeal to men, 'can create fuller, more defined lips, which some people believe may enhance aspects of intimacy for both partners'.
This customer-facing AI for Sisu Clinics is now installed across the chain's phone lines, WhatsApp service and social media channels as the primary interface for customers. It can book things, cancel things and generally do much of what a human in such a first-line position can do.
The company behind the Laila AI bot, Dún Laoghaire start-up Momntum, says that it replaces people 'to a certain degree' and that it's about future-proofing customer interactions.
'We think about it like a layer,' said Brian Kenny, CEO and co-founder of the company, which recently raised €1m in funding.
'Currently, what Laila will perform within the voice aspect is rescheduling, booking appointments, cancelling appointments all of these questions that a customer may have.
'But if a customer ever wants to really talk to somebody, then it will ring one of the clinics where a human being and the caller can have a direct one-to-one conversation.'
Despite only being founded this year, Momntum has racked up several customers and is backed by investors such as ACT Venture Capital, Sure Valley Ventures and a handful of veteran Irish businessmen, including Sisu co-founder Pat Phelan and former Voxpro CEO, Dan Kiely.
Its main pitch is to further automate customer service interaction, as it does for Sisu Clinics, using a combination of off-the-shelf AI foundation models and its own engineered 'relationship language model' that joins the dots between questions and answers.
As such, it's a good indicator of what we're likely to see in most businesses and services in the near future, as AI deepens in customer service models.
The rules around doing this are still settling down. The EU AI Act says that companies must 'ensure that AI systems intended to interact directly with natural persons are designed and developed in such a way that the natural persons concerned are informed that they are interacting with an AI system, unless this is obvious from the point of view of a natural person who is reasonably well-informed, observant and circumspect, taking into account the circumstances and the context of use'.
While Laila doesn't flag its AI status up front, it does when asked. And it's probably reasonable to suggest that people who hear a chirpy American voice when they call up a service will conclude early that it's not a human voice.
'We don't see a huge amount of customers asking whether Laila is an AI, which is a hot tip,' says Kenny.
'Looking at the number of conversations and calls that she's doing, and the output and performance of those calls, gives us a good indication that consumers are more than happy with how she performs. But it's a valid point that you raise and we think it's important that the EU AI Act, ensuring the groundwork and the guardrails for specific use cases, is really deeply thought about.
'If you build responsibility into the heart of the organisation, even though the AI continues to get better and better, your North Star is anchored towards that responsible aspect of it and it shouldn't hinder your innovation.'
Kenny says that the next version of the platform is almost ready to launch, with a big upgrade in accents for Irish users.
'I would say the difference between versions 1.0 and 2.0 and our voice product is mind-blowing,' he says.
