A text away: Amara’s path to help companies improve employee engagement with AI chatbots

When Vikas Kakkar set up HireXP in 2016, little did he realise that Amara—an artificial intelligence-based bot which it used for onboarding would become the main feature. 

“Within HireXP, we were helping companies to automate the onboarding process using Amara, a voice-based feature. It helped candidates to understand the company processes and policies, after they accepted the offer letter,” he recalls. 

It would only be three years later that Kakkar set up Amara to solve issues beyond onboarding. Today it counts Philips, Honda, Moglix, Vymo, Mahindra First Choice Wheels as clients and began its United Arab Emirates (UAE) operations this year. 

Meanwhile, HRtech as a sector is in a  phase of rapid growth. Its global market size was valued at $22.90 billion in 2021, as per a report by Fortune Business Insights and is  expected to reach $39.90 billion by 2029, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.5% between 2022-29. 

Amara now competes with Leena AI (US), Yellow.ai (US), inFeedo (US) globally in a heated sector. 

Finding a problem to solve 

For any organisation, the key to keeping employees is understanding a few things—sensing if they face an issue or noting if they are disengaged being chief among them. 

According to Kakkar, the gap in this area was related to the timeliness, frequency, and reliability among employers and employees when discussing such issues in the workplace. 

“There will be 20-25 questions at the end of the year. By the time an action is taken, the data lags, because the survey would have been completed months back. The employee had a problem at that point in time; the situation may be different now,” he said.  

Kakkar felt like artificial intelligence could solve many of these issues. This is what Amara does—it provides organisations with an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot that ensures employee engagement. 

Amara interacts with employees at different points in their life cycle within a company. This means, understanding their level of psychological investment in the organisation, and in the process, identifying those who are highly disengaged or at attrition risk. 

Companies can also pre-define these touchpoints and can decide when and how often Amara should reach out to employees, says Kakkar. 

Entering the UAE 

To Kakkar, the UAE presented a dynamic market and has untapped potential. 

“The nation is always receptive to new technology products,” says Kakkar, adding there is an opportunity to provide innovative solutions that can enhance employee engagement and contribute to growth. 

While the majority of Amara’s customers—just over 50 of its clients—are in India and Southeast Asia, since its entry this year, it has already secured 3 customers. According to Kakkar, setting up in Dubai gives the firm access to a diverse pool of talent and partners from across the world. 

This particularly helps with the model Amara uses.

“We pitch from India and then travel to the UAE to meet with potential customers and close deals. This approach allows us to optimise our resources while also building strong relationships with our customers and partners. In addition to our sales strategy, we also engage with local partners to support our operations and establish a base in the UAE,” Kakkar explains. 

It also plans to set up an office in the Middle East by Q3 2023.

“Right now, the entire focus is in Malaysia and the UAE. In the UAE, we aim to cover Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and eventually move to Saudi Arabia. We want to capture the market,” he says. 

Putting the AI to work 

Amara helps its clients understand the pulse of employees and save attrition in real time.

“The questions it asks are based on the time an employee has spent in the company and are relevant to them. For example, if an employee is one month old, and we ask them a question on whether they are happy with their performance management, it would be irrelevant. Instead, they should be asked about their onboarding experience, settlement in the team, KRAs, and so on,” says Kakkar. 

The artificial intelligence market in the GCC is expected to register a CAGR of 14.4%, as per market research firm, Imarc Group.

It also has an in-house assessment feature based on six key pillars or drivers of engagement. This includes culture, career opportunity, employee wellbeing, rewards and recognition, performance management, learning and development. 

It categories them further into more than 40 sub-drivers, with an option to include more dimensions based on an organisation’s requirement. Kakkar illustrates this with an example, 

“All the questions are mapped to the sub drivers…within culture, we look at work environment, autonomy, diversity and inclusion. Within career opportunities, we look at growth opportunities, learning and development."

It also has in-built capabilities like sentiment analysis and psychological interpretation, which helps personalise Amara to every employee.

Employees can anonymously contact Amara with work-related issues at any time. Upon this, companies can get in touch with them, understand their issues or grievances, and proceed with asking for their identities to resolve the concern.

At present, Amara follows a software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model. “The companies are billed on a per user, per month/ per year basis. Additionally, there may be a one-time setup cost, third party integration costs, and so on,” Kakkar says. 

“We will also be bringing voice back to Amara. With voice incorporation, they [employees] can record their messages, grievances. We will be able to use sentiment analysis, and more.” he adds. 

“We will enter the US by Q4 of 2023,” says Kakkar.