The option of shopping online makes life much easier in the rush of everyday life. But only until the first doubt arises. "Do you have my number? When will the product arrive? Can I pay in installments?" With the idea of making life easier for those who manage an e-commerce and offering the customer an experience close to that of physical stores, Unicamp alumni created the gobots, a startup that develops artificial intelligence robots and implements them in virtual stores. The system is responsible for serving consumers quickly and efficiently, reducing the tasks of website administrators.
Robots work by answering customer questions and queries in the websites’ chat spaces. To serve customers with agility and precision, they use a bank of general information pre-programmed by GoBots and, based on the information exchanged in dialogues with customers, they learn new answers and are able to respond even faster.
Another difference is that each store or website has its own robot, with specific information accessed only by the store, such as inventory data and customer purchase history, which guarantees privacy. However, if necessary, general information can be exchanged between different robots, which also helps to improve the systems.
Created in 2017, GoBots technology debuted on the market with a fire test, on the website of a large bookstore chain during Black Friday. At the time, everything went well. Today the company's robots serve more than 130 stores and e-commerce sites. Now in 2020, GoBots is preparing for two innovations: expanding its operations to other countries in Latin America and combining its development with research carried out by the university.
"The risk was not to undertake"
The initiative came from Victor Hochgreb and Samuel Birocchi. Graduated in Computer Engineering from Unicamp, they had the idea of creating some type of solution for the market that involved artificial intelligence. Together with Daniel Buglia, a graduate in administration from the Methodist University of São Paulo and a friend of Victor since high school, they thought about how they could apply the resource to simpler everyday things. "We didn't have a very clear idea that we would end up working with online stores, but we were betting a lot on artificial intelligence as a way of accessing millions of people. More and more people have cell phones, access to the internet is growing around the world, and we thought: 'imagine if there was a little robot that could talk to millions of people, what impact would we be able to generate?", explains Victor.
Until then, artificial intelligence systems were more complex to implement in companies, in addition to solving very specific problems. Samuel says that it was thanks to their participation in an acceleration program that it was possible to expand this perspective and bring the use of robots closer to common commercial tasks. "We created personalized projects, personalized software. Then we started thinking about a product that we could sell on a large scale. We analyzed the design thinking of websites and identified this niche, this pain point for the retailer, who has a lot of orders, a lot of people to serve, and it can't. By using artificial intelligence, we can have the robot's mind and use it for various clients", comments the young entrepreneur.
To start the company, they made a brave choice. The three worked in large companies, consolidated in the market, but they thought they could make a much bigger difference if they had the freedom to put into practice what they believe to be most promising. "There is a risk that you won't undertake. I think that joining a traditional company and making a career there also means being a little stuck with it over the years. I had just graduated, I don't have children, I think it's a very It's good that I could take a risk. In other situations it might not be possible", explains Victor.
Another factor that motivated the boys was the awareness that, after receiving a solid education at a public university, it was time to repay the investment made by society. "Unicamp is a public university, the people invested in us, so we have a responsibility to give that back. I think we can give that back by developing new technologies, making an impact", says Samuel.
Partnership in research and packed suitcases for Chile
Recently, GoBots had an Innovative Research Project in Small Businesses approved by the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (Fapesp) (PIPE). With it, the startup will open the doors for undergraduate and postgraduate students to carry out research involving artificial intelligence and the development of new technologies.
"It's a project that we're going to start in March, with resources from Fapesp. With the research group, we're going to improve artificial intelligence even further. We have a professor responsible for the Computing Institute, Júlio César dos Reis, he's our partner. These Projects approved by Fapesp receive funding for scholarship holders and the purchase of materials, so we will have scholarships for anyone who wants to research artificial intelligence here at GoBots, always with a scientific bias, but for PIPE it is necessary to have a market application. In our case It fit very well", explains Victor.
They also start the year with their bags packed and heading to Santiago, Chile. The company was selected to participate in the acceleration program Chile Startups. Daniel is the one who will represent them in the country for nine months. There, they will receive consultancy and support in the GoBots expansion process with Chilean companies and, according to the expectations of young entrepreneurs, throughout Latin America. "It's a global acceleration program, their objective is to promote local business. They bring these companies with high growth potential, make a financial contribution to these companies so that they can set up an operation there, rent space, open an account, hire employees Our expectation is to open a commercial arm of GoBots in Chile, start prospecting local customers and, in the future, we imagine bringing customers from other countries through this unit", says Daniel.
