Eightfold Founders Secure $35M for Viven, AI Digital Twin for Accessing Unavailable Coworkers
Image Credits:Viven
The Evolving Landscape of Workplace Communication
In today’s fast-paced work environment, effective communication among team members is crucial for project success. However, many employees face significant challenges when key individuals are unavailable, whether due to holidays or time zone differences. This often leads to costly delays as teams await vital information.
Introducing Viven: A Revolutionary Solution
Ashutosh Garg and Varun Kacholia, co-founders of the successful AI recruiting platform Eightfold, identified this issue and sought to address it. With the recent advancements in Large Language Models (LLMs) and data privacy technologies, they aimed to minimize downtime caused by absent colleagues. Earlier this year, they unveiled a new venture called Viven, which strives to provide employees access to essential information, even when their teammates are unavailable.
In a notable launch on Wednesday, Viven emerged from its stealth phase with $35 million in seed funding from prominent investors, including Khosla Ventures and Foundation Capital.
How Viven Operates
Viven specializes in creating a personalized digital twin for each employee by leveraging a unique LLM that accesses internal documents like emails, Slack messages, and Google Docs. This innovative approach allows team members to query an employee’s digital twin, receiving real-time answers related to ongoing projects and shared knowledge.
“When every employee has a digital twin, you can interact with them just like you would with the actual person,” Ashutosh Garg explained to TechCrunch.
Addressing Privacy Concerns
One of the most pressing challenges in implementing such a technology is ensuring the privacy of sensitive information. Employees often handle confidential data or possess personal files they prefer to keep private from colleagues.
Ashutosh Garg emphasized that Viven’s technology tackles this issue through a concept known as “pairwise context and privacy.” This enables Viven’s LLMs to determine what information can be shared and with whom, maintaining a fine balance between collaboration and confidentiality.
Advanced Privacy Safeguards
Viven’s LLMs are designed to recognize personal contexts and distinguish what should remain private, such as sensitive questions regarding an employee’s personal life. A significant feature of Viven is that all users can view the query history of their digital twin. This transparency acts as a deterrent against inappropriate inquiries and further secures personal data.
“It’s a very intricate problem to address, and it remained unsolvable until recently,” said Ashu Garg, a General Partner at Foundation Capital.
Early Adoption and Client Success
Today, Viven has already garnered attention from several enterprise clients, including Genpact and, of course, Eightfold. Notably, Garg and Kacholia continue to lead Eightfold while balancing their responsibilities at Viven, demonstrating their belief in the potential of this pioneering technology.
A Unique Market Position
Despite skepticism about competition, Ashutosh Garg asserts that no other company is currently utilizing the concept of digital twins for enterprise efficiency. His initial uncertainty regarding competitors led him to reach out to industry titan Vinod Khosla, who confirmed that no comparable solutions were available and subsequently chose to invest in Viven.
Ashu Garg from Foundation Capital shares this enthusiasm, stating, “When Ashutosh presented the product, the revelation for me was that there’s a universal problem in coordination and communication across all jobs that remains unaided by automation.”
Potential Competition on the Horizon
Though Viven stands alone in the digital twin market now, it’s crucial to note that this may not be the case indefinitely. Ashu Garg mentioned that tech giants such as Anthropic, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and OpenAI are incorporating personalized components in their enterprise solutions. Should they enter this budding market, Viven hopes to maintain its competitive edge through “pairwise” context technology.
The Future of Workplace Communication
Viven represents a significant leap forward in addressing the age-old issue of team communication and coordination. By utilizing LLMs to create digital twins that facilitate access to crucial information, the company not only improves efficiency but also tailors insights with a high degree of privacy safety.
As workplace dynamics continue to evolve, Viven is poised to play a crucial role in shaping the future of enterprise communication, enabling teams to work smarter and more collaboratively — regardless of the physical presence of their colleagues.
Conclusion
In essence, Viven addresses a prevalent issue that many organizations face while simultaneously pioneering a new approach to workplace communication. As more clients embrace this technology, and as developers work to refine and expand its capabilities, Viven could become an industry standard for seamless collaboration and information sharing.
The path ahead promises to be transformative, not only for workplace dynamics but also for the entire realm of organizational communication. Ultimately, the success of Viven in this uncharted territory may inspire future innovations aimed at enhancing employee productivity and teamwork.
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