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Back to Advice Line with Tope Awotona of Calendly, with Tope Awotona.

What Is Calendly's AI Assistant Kali?

Tope Awotona says Calendly's AI assistant is Kali. The company has repositioned from a scheduling platform to a meeting assistant platform. Online scheduling is still a large part of the business and will stay that way for a long time, because it serves a real purpose. Kali sits on top of that, with several skills, and one of them is scheduling.

A person can add Kali to an email thread. If someone writes to set up coffee, Kali replies like a human assistant with that person's availability. It knows the preferences, who the meeting is with, and which times to offer. The classic scheduling product remains. The new layer is an AI system meant to be as flexible as a person.

Transcript

Advice Line with Tope Awotona of Calendly ·

How I Built This with Guy Raz

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  5. Why Did Calendly's Marketer Become Customer Success?Tope Awotona's first employee at Calendly was an engineer. The next hire was a marketer, brought in to grow the top line and increase demand.
  6. What Is Builder Gel at the Nail Room?Danny, who owns The Nail Room in Greer, South Carolina, says builder gel is a clear, thick gel applied to the natural nail so the nail gets stronger.
  7. Should a Full Nail Salon Open a Second Location?Tope Awotona tells Danny, who owns The Nail Room, not to open a second location yet.
  8. How Should a Small Brand Pick Which Sales Channel to Focus on?Tope Awotona says a small brand should pick one or two sales channels and put 80% of the founder's time there, while still keeping some diversification.
  9. Why Build Calendly Around the Customer?Tope Awotona says the lesson 13 years into Calendly is to build a business around a customer and not a product, and he calls that shift maybe the biggest…

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