Latest news with #AlexLevin
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Why Voice AI Agents Will Dominate Customer Service By 2030
Alex Levin is the Co-founder & CEO of In five years, talking to a human in a contact center will feel as quaint as dialing a rotary phone. I believe voice AI agents built on large language models (LLMs) that answer immediately and know everything about you will handle the majority of customer interactions. Not clunky chatbots or email autoresponders using natural language processing but smart, empathetic agents built on GenAI that sound (and reason) like humans. This isn't a sci-fi fantasy. The shift is already underway and accelerating. In my opinion, companies that cling to human-only support models are setting themselves up for extinction. Here's why: 1. Consumers will demand instant, voice-first interactions. No one wants to type a support email and wait four days for a scripted reply. People want to say what they need and get an answer immediately. Talking is faster. It's more natural, and it's already embedded into how we live; phones, cars, homes and even appliances are voice-enabled. In the next decade, I believe voice AI agents will become the default interface for customer interactions, embedded in every device we own. Think ChatGPT voice mode version 100.0 but tailored to your brand, product and customer. These agents should solve problems in seconds. No hold music. No transfers. No need to repeat yourself about what you told them last time. Once people experience this kind of interaction, there's no going back. 2. AI agents will talk like humans but work like software. Voice AI agents have infinite learning potential. They can instantly remember every customer interaction. They can speak any language and understand any accent. They can detect sentiment and respond with the perfect tone. They don't get flustered, annoyed or distracted. Human agents need weeks of training yet can still make mistakes. Also, the job can be tough, as answering the same five questions all day can lead to burnout. AI can handle the repetitive interactions so that humans can focus on high-value tasks instead. 3. The cost of human labor can't compete. A single contact center agent costs around $40,000 a year in salary, training and overhead, according to ZipRecruiter. Globally, that's nearly $1 trillion annually for a model that can be inefficient and inconsistent, and it's becoming increasingly outdated. Our voice AI agents cost between 10 cents and 20 cents, which is 90% less than the human cost—and the price should continue to go down. More importantly, you're only charged for actual productive talk time, not training or after-call work. In a decade, the 60-inch TV that was $10,000 for mediocre picture quality is now $1,000 for unreal picture quality. Just like flat-screen TVs over the last 20 years, the price-performance curve for AI agents is accelerating. 4. Personalization at scale will become the norm. AI agents will access real-time customer data (purchase history, preferences, prior issues) and offer seamless, hyper-personalized support instantly. While human reps need time to review accounts, AI agents can know exactly who customers are and what they need before they even finish a sentence. 5. Resistance to ethical, regulatory and emotional concerns will fade. Today, many companies hesitate to go all in on AI due to compliance concerns or fear of replacing humans too quickly. However, the barriers are falling. Regulations are already allowing AI in most industries, and the technology can stay in compliance. Meanwhile, new AI-adjacent jobs are emerging for human agents who may feel burnt out—allowing them to be redeployed to higher-value, more meaningful work. Real Blockers Exist I often get asked some version of the following: "These voice AI agents are amazing. Why isn't every company using them?" It's hard to do well, and companies that want to implement agents still have material work to do. Some companies get bogged down trying to build their own infrastructure. More get bogged down due to their knowledge base and policies not being well-documented, as AI agents can't use "tribal knowledge." Most get stuck focusing on a use case that is too small to have a material impact on their business, which limits the willingness of internal teams to support the changeover from human agents. Conclusion Even with these challenges, I expect the best customer experience to be built on GenAI agents, and I don't believe companies can afford to let these stop them for too long. The big change in voice AI in the last 12 to 18 months is that voice AI agents are performing as well as human agents for the first time. You can now have high-quality, lower-cost voice interactions available to all. I expect the companies that lean into this transformation today to gain massive operational leverage and unmatched customer satisfaction. The ones that don't might want to start putting their growth plans on hold—just like they do their customers. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Forbes
15-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
AI To Cut Expenses Can Boost Sales Through Better Customer Service
Robots in a call center A huge breakthrough in artificial intelligence came from a simple answer: 'I don't know.' Early AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT or Claude, would often hallucinate when they didn't know an answer, making up stuff. More recent versions have been willing to admit their own ignorance. According to the CEO of a call center automation company, admitting that one doesn't know an answer was a huge breakthrough. Artificial intelligence has been helping call center employees provide better answers to customers. Now AI agents are handling calls themselves, with high satisfaction rates and only occasional human conversations. Though initiated as cost-savings initiatives, the ultimate result—when done right—will be greater customer satisfaction and improved sales. Regal is one company offering AI agents that don't need humans in almost all cases. CEO Alex Levin told me in a video call about the 'I don't know' breakthrough. He said that enabled his company's AI agents to handle both outbound and inbound calls. Although humans are available as needed, most customers are happy to have their issues resolved regardless of whom they are speaking with. Two key drivers help this business. One is that people will answer telephone calls from trusted names, even if the caller is robotic. For example, a doctor may refer a patient to a specialist. The clinic's AI scheduler calls the patient for a conversation about available days and times. The patient is happy to get a very prompt call, and the scheduler can ask the usual questions, such as which day of the week or time of day is best for the patient. This is cheaper for the health system than having a staff of people calling patients or receiving in-bound calls. Another driver is the surge of call volume at various times. Medicare Advantage plans, for example, tend to have open enrollment periods with high volume of inbound calls. The insurance company's choices are to staff up for the surge period with temporary employees—poorly trained and lacking experience—or to maintain excessive staffing curing the slack months. AI, in contrast, scales up easily. Creating the AI system that can handle complex conversations requires a good bit of set-up work. The system must connect to customer databases and know about the company's contracts, terms, procedures and regulations. The current technology can handle this, but getting all the pieces together takes significant work up front. Regal is selling these services with a cost-savings pitch, but that may be trivial compared to the benefits of good customer service that technology can provide. WFG National Title Company has found this to be the case. Company staff proposed a cost-savings measure. The company's escrow agents were fielding multiple calls, texts and emails by the participants in every transaction. Staff members envisioned an app that would enable the property buyers and sellers to see real-time information about the status of the closing. They would be able to see which documents were complete, which steps were delaying the process, and what they needed to do. (Disclosure: WFG is a client of mine, though I did not work on this project.) The company's founder and executive chairman, Pat Stone, told me that he was mistaken in seeing the proposal as a cost reduction program. It certainly was a cost saver, but the big impact was improved customer service. The property buyers and sellers found that with the app, much of the stress and worry evaporated. The real estate agents spent less time answering their clients' questions—and many of those questions had required the real estate agent to call the title insurance agent. The real estate agents loved the app for two reasons. First, their clients were happier. Second, it reduced the number of trivial calls the real estate agents needed to answer. So the agents recommended WFG for escrow service. When someone has a great customer experience from one company, they expect other experiences to meet that standard. That was the message I got from a video call with Justin Tucker, WFG's lead on its MyHome app. One customer compared his escrow experience before the app with FedEx's ability to let a customer track a package. This is a key concept: a company's customer experience can't just be as good as the competition; it should be at least as good as the best experience anywhere, by any company, that the customer has experienced. Improved customer experience helped the company build market share. Though only 15 years old, WFG is now the country's sixth largest title company, with high market share in some of its key markets. The common view that people want to talk to other people makes sense for friends and neighbors. But a person trying to buy insurance, schedule a medical appointment or prepare for a real estate closing wants accurate and complete information, with a quick response to questions and concerns. Good technology can provide this. If a company like Regal can deliver great experience through AI agents, the cost savings will be nice but the marketing value will prove far greater.
Top Gear
30-05-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
Expedition Motor Company 250GD Wolf (US) review: the OG Wolf rides again Reviews 2025
It's true, the long-lived Geländewagen has strayed into ludicrous ubiquity, passing the point when it was unique and different to becoming a standard-issue status accessory. While the former military vehicle retains some of its original character – either through design or attitude – we need only to look at variants like the AMG G 63 6x6 to see how far it's strayed from its roots. That's an extreme example, sure, but even the current run of 'normal' G-Classes and the EV version are wild departures from the original. Advertisement - Page continues below This one aims to be a solution for those seeking to get back to the raw appeal of the classic G-Wagen, one that's more Hinterland than Hollywood. It's the EMC Wolf, a restored Mercedes-Benz 250GD from Expedition Motor Company. Wow, so EMC does G-Wagen restos? EMC restores *one* specific G-Class. The 250GD 'Wolf' is the convertible version of the military vehicle built with a 2.5-liter five-cylinder diesel engine and a fold down windshield. Company founder Alex Levin grew up in these and loved them so much, he started EMC to build top-notch 250GD restorations for folks with similar passions. Alright, we're intrigued. What's the story? We'll always find rugged, practical equipment tough enough for the military to be intriguing, with the Jeep Wrangler being the most famous example. Sorry, Defender fans. For the G, it's the same thing but with that particular German sensibility. The classic Wolf has this in spades – ammo box, a gun mount, a built-in map light and the aforementioned fold-down windshield for easier, er, aiming. Powering it all is the OM602, a 2.5-liter straight-five diesel engine that puts out around 100hp and maybe 114lb ft of torque. Power output varies by vehicle so if you want specifics, feel free to travel back in time and dyno several military diesel trucks yourself. Advertisement - Page continues below That's pretty much the case with the builds out of EMC. The company sources disused Wolfs (Wolves?) from around the world, takes them to a facility and begins the restoration process with a full breakdown. You'll never find its facility on a map, by the way, it's the convenient side effect of having a lot full of camouflaged vehicles. Apart from certain custom requests, Alex and crew tend to stick to the original builds as possible, and even those are quite limited. Everything from the donor car is broken down, rehabilitated, and put back together while paired with a few modern components like a working HVAC and some sound absorbing materials. The ammo box even sticks around, though it's home to the new sound system's subwoofer instead. Customers can either choose from an existing Wolf in the EMC inventory or build their own with the help of the website's 'Wolf Builder' that displays the available interior and exterior color options, add-ons and powertrain configurations. You can go full 'mil-sim' and spec a murdered-out Wolf for nighttime ops, or have some joy in your life with a colorful, beach-ready G-Wagen complete with extra jump seats. All Wolfs roll away with creature comforts like that HVAC system, heated seats, a six-speaker Harman sound system and wireless Apple CarPlay connectivity. How does it drive? It doesn't take long at all for the EMC Wolf to work its charms on you. We first drove one of two builds, a Sahara-colored Wolf with the naturally aspirated diesel paired with a five-speed 'ironbox' manual. The fully-synchronized gearbox is easy and familiar for any modern manual driver, though the lack of a tachometer did take us by surprise. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox. Might as well take the speedo off, too. The maybe-100hp engine isn't built for modern highway pace and indeed takes its sweet time getting up to neighborhood limits, too. This isn't meant as a knock, it's very much part of the Wolf's character, but it's easy to see how someone used to modern G-Wagens would be put off. The EMC Wolf isn't difficult to drive, it's fundamentally basic, and therein lies the joy. Skip 14 photos in the image carousel and continue reading With the ration of power on hand, you're hyper focused on the act of driving the G-Wagen – carrying momentum through an incline, scrutinizing bends in the road and thinking about what to do four steps ahead from now. You're not even looking at gauges for much info, you're listening and feeling for the car's behavior and thus more connected to the act of driving. You quickly realize how much we take the effortlessness afforded by modern-day cars for granted. You said that was one of two builds… Yes, due to some arm-twisting, Expedition Motor Company does offer a couple of different engines for their Wolf builds, including a six-cylinder turbodiesel. This power unit is era-accurate and stems from the same family of diesels as the original. A conservative estimate puts the power output at around 225hp, but it's likely more. The Wolf with this engine was married to a five-speed automatic transmission this time around, and while it shared the charm of its more authentic sibling, the character was quite different. In short, it's the build for folks interested in the 250GD but aren't 'hardcore' about the lifestyle. We also fibbed a bit. We drove the two builds that were on hand. There is a third engine option, a 430hp LS3 V8, which sounds like… a lot. To date, EMC has only built six. Even so, to my original point, super-powered G-Wagen builds are a dime a dozen, and as fun as they can be, it changes the experience of what something like the 250GD offers. Silly question: can it off road? It's certainly built for it, of course. How much you'd want to is another question. The Wolf has two- and four-wheel drive capability, locking diffs for both axles and multiple ranges for the transfer case since powering out of trouble isn't going to happen. It also rides on a rugged off-road ready suspension, with the option to upgrade to one with adjustable dampers if you're looking to get serious about it. Would you, though? We ask because if you want to pretend you're traversing the Ardennes, there are cheaper ways to do it. A naked build on the Expedition Motor Company's configurator starts at $180,000. Accessories like a brush bar and a winch up the price, as does the inclusion of the automatic and, of course, the optional engine upgrades. We suppose if you're the one paying for all of this custom craftsmanship, it's up to you to decide. We'd be happy to let this retired service vehicle enjoy the peace of civilian life. What's the final takeaway? The Expedition Motor Company's 250GD Wolf restorations are wonderfully analog vehicles that honor the character of the original, with just enough upgrades to bring them in line with modern sensibilities. Along with giving junked military vehicles a second life, they are fun, back-to-basics rides that allow us to be romantic about our automotive past while being authentic to the experience. LS3 swap notwithstanding. READ MORE Please buy this incredibly cool restored Merc G-Wagen As with most cars in this category, the craftsmanship comes with a cost, but even after a short time with the 'Wolf pack', it's hard to say it isn't worth it.
Associated Press
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Renowned Artist Alex Levin Captures the Soul of Jerusalem in Breathtaking Paintings
Experience the soul of Jerusalem through Alex Levin's captivating Jerusalem paintings, bringing history, faith, and beauty into your home. 'You Are Not Here to Buy a Jerusalem Painting – You Are Here to Bring the Soul of Jerusalem Home'— Alex Levin STATEN ISLAND, NY, UNITED STATES, April 16, 2025 / / -- Jerusalem Paintings – Where Tradition and Israeli Art Come Together in Elegance for Wall Décor You Are Not Here to Buy a Painting – You Are Here to Bring the Soul of Jerusalem Home Acclaimed Israeli artist Alex Levin presents an extraordinary collection of Jerusalem paintings, capturing the spiritual and historical essence of the Holy City. With over 30 years of artistic dedication, Levin's artwork is more than just decorative—it's an emotional journey through time, faith, and heritage. For centuries, Jerusalem has stood as a beacon of hope and devotion for Jewish people around the world. It is a city where ancient traditions meet modern life, where prayers echo against the Western Wall, and where the past and future intertwine. Inspired by its deep historical significance, Levin has created timeless masterpieces that bring the beauty and spirituality of Jerusalem into homes, synagogues, and galleries worldwide. The Inspiration Behind Alex Levin's Jerusalem Paintings Alex Levin's artistic journey began when he first visited Jerusalem in 1990, an experience that left a profound impact on his work. From the moment he laid eyes on the golden-stoned streets, the sacred Western Wall, and the towering domes of synagogues, he knew his mission was to preserve the city's essence through art. 'Every stone in Jerusalem tells a story, and my goal is to capture that story in every brushstroke,' says Levin. 'Through my paintings, I want to bring people closer to the heart of the Jewish world.' Levin's work is deeply rooted in Jewish history and faith, often depicting the most sacred landmarks of Jerusalem. His Jewish paintings frequently feature: The Western Wall ( Kotel Paintings ) – A symbol of Jewish resilience and prayer, this ancient remnant of the Second Temple is a focal point in many of his pieces. The Tower of David – A historic fortress representing the strength and endurance of Jerusalem. The Gates of the Old City – Each gate tells a story of Jerusalem's role as a crossroads of civilizations. The Jerusalem Temple – An artistic vision of the Holy Temple, evoking a deep spiritual connection. Bringing the Spirit of Jerusalem Into Your Home Levin's Jerusalem wall art offers more than just a visual experience - it creates a deep emotional and spiritual connection. His unique use of color, texture, and light transports viewers to the heart of the city, allowing them to feel the warmth of sunrise over the Kotel or the peaceful glow of Shabbat candles reflecting on Jerusalem's ancient walls. Whether displayed in a home, office, or synagogue, these paintings serve as a powerful reminder of Jerusalem's everlasting significance. They also make meaningful gifts for weddings, anniversaries, bar/bat mitzvahs, and Jewish holidays. A Vision of the Past, Present, and Future Beyond capturing the historical beauty of Jerusalem, Levin's paintings also offer a vision of hope and peace. His work reflects the unity of Jewish people and the dream of a brighter future, where Jerusalem remains a source of faith, strength, and inspiration. As an artist, Levin continuously explores new ways to honor Jewish heritage through his work, from traditional oil paintings to modern artistic techniques, including stained-glass-inspired designs and monochrome studies that highlight Jerusalem's architectural grandeur. Where to Find Alex Levin's Jerusalem Paintings Alex Levin's Jerusalem paintings are available for purchase through his official website, where collectors and art enthusiasts can explore a wide selection of original paintings, limited-edition prints, and custom commissions. Each piece is crafted with exceptional attention to detail and quality, ensuring that it remains a cherished part of any art collection. For those looking to experience Jerusalem's timeless beauty through art, Alex Levin's paintings offer an opportunity to bring a piece of the Holy City into their lives. About Alex Levin Alex Levin is a renowned Israeli artist known for his Jewish, Jerusalem, and Judaica paintings. His work is featured in private collections, museums, and galleries worldwide, celebrated for its deep connection to Jewish heritage, history, and spirituality. For more information, interviews, or media inquiries, please contact: Media Contact: Art Studio Levin Corp, Inc. Website: Tel: +1 718-415-3127 Email: [email protected] Address: Staten Island, NY, USA Follow Us: Like Us: Subscribe Us: Gene Levin Art Studio Levin Corp, Inc. +1 718-415-3127 email us here Visit us on social media: Facebook Instagram YouTube Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content 'as is' without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
