Deep Learning with PolyAI
PolyAI's CEO/co-founder Nikola Mrkšić and team invite guests to candidly discuss trends and tech in AI, voice throughout the enterprise, and nailing the customer experience.
Episodes
101 episodes
What happens when anyone can build an AI agent?
What happens when the ability to build an AI agent is no longer limited to developers?In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Nikola Mrkšić sits down with Michael Chen, VP of Strategic Alliances at PolyAI, to explore what's drivin...
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Why do specialized AI models win in CX?
Many AI models today are designed as generalists. But in customer experience, that approach often falls short.In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Nikola Mrkšić sits down with Matt Henderson, VP of Research at PolyAI, to unpack ...
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Why are CX leaders stuck on the sidelines of AI?
In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Nikola Mrkšić sits down with Bill Staikos, Founder of Be Customer Led, to unpack why many CX leaders are still on the sidelines of the AI conversation — and what that means for the future of the fun...
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How can employee experience drive better CX? with Sam Stern, LinkedIn
Customer experience is often measured at the surface. But it’s built behind the scenes.In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Michelle Schroeder sits down with Sam Stern, who leads service design at LinkedIn, to explore how employ...
Is Faster Always Better in Customer Experience?
In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Michelle Schroeder sits down with Nate Brown, Head of Education and Enablement at Metric Sherpa and cofounder of CX Accelerator, to discuss how AI is reshaping the way companies think about customer...
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The History of Restaurant CX: From Maître d' to AI
In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Nikola Mrkšić sits down with Steven Fine, GM of Restaurants at PolyAI, to explore how technology has shaped the customer experience in restaurants over the past century.From the first phone ...
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What will it take to climb healthcare’s “AI Everest”?
In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Michelle Schroeder sits down with Sarah Wright, Vice President of Global Customer Service at ResMed, to talk about what it really takes to transform healthcare CX. Sarah describes the challenge as a...
What happens when AI takes over healthcare admin?
In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, your host Nikola Mrkšić chats with Alex Brown to unpack what happens when AI takes over the administrative work that quietly defines modern healthcare. Instead of replacing doctors and clinicians, A...
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From ATMs to AI: The History of Personalized Banking
In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Nikola Mrkšić sits down with Nathan Pearson, GM, Financial Services at PolyAi, to trace the evolution of personalized banking. From branch tellers and ATMs to digital channels and AI-driven experien...
Is visual context the missing link in AI for CX?
AI has become remarkably good at answering questions — but customer experience should go beyond answers. It’s about resolution. Too often, AI fails when customers can’t easily explain what they’re seeing on their screen.In this episode o...
Can journalism teach us how to trust AI?
In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Michelle Schroeder sits down with Dom Nicastro, Editor-in-Chief at Simpler Media Group and longtime journalist covering CX, content, and enterprise tech.Dom has spent years wa...
What does truly multilingual CX sound like?
Every customer expresses themselves differently, and their choice of language is no exception. So how can brands bridge the gap when customers come to them speaking different languages?In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Jenn ...
How can enterprises become fluent in AI? (VOX 2025 conference recap!)
At VOX 2025, one thing was clear: the best brands aren’t just adopting AI — they’re becoming fluent
Can we solve AI's "deer-in-headlights" problem? (with Dan Miller, founder of Opus Research)
The conversational AI market has exploded: ~650 companies, even more tools, and way too many promises. For business leaders, navigating all this can be paralyzing.In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, your host Nikola Mrkšić sit...
Should hyper-growth brands still pick up the phone? (with Austin Towns, CTO of Hello Sugar)
Hello Sugar is one of the fastest-growing service brands in America, with more than 140 locations and counting. From the start, they built a text-first, digital experience that customers loved. But growth brought new insights: even in a digital...
Why do LLMs ramble on and on? (with Oliver Shoulson, Lead Dialogue Designer at PolyAI)
Large language models are powerful tools — but why do they ramble on and on instead of just getting to the point?In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, Nikola Mrkšić sits down with Oliver Shoulson, one of PolyAI’s original dialog...
Are "silent complaints" killing your brand? (with Adrian Swinscoe of Punk CX)
Most companies measure CX through surveys, reviews, and dashboards. But there is real danger in “silent complaints”: the underwhelming experiences that customers never report, but quietly share with friends or that stop them from coming back.
Is agentic AI the answer to broken analytics?
Analytics has always been the hardest part of the contact center. Dashboards are slow, incomplete, and rarely used outside of specialist teams. But what if analytics could be as simple as asking a question?In this episode of Deep Learni...
Your new favorite colleagues aren’t human
We all know AI agents can answer calls (with varying success rates depending upon their sophistication). But what if AI agents could also help CX leaders analyze their deployments, ask questions about their unique challenges and opportunities, ...
Did OpenAI’s Realtime API just change everything?
🚨 OpenAI just made its Realtime API generally available, and it's got everyone talking. But is it a true game-changer, or just another update?In this episode, your host Nikola Mrkšić (Co-founder & CEO, PolyAI) is joined by Shawn Wen...
Behind the Tech: How Dialogue Design Really Works (Deep Learning with PolyAI podcast, Ep. 82)
Ever wonder what really makes an AI voice feel human? In this episode of Deep Learning with PolyAI, an all-star panel from our dialogue design and engineering teams takes you behind-the-scenes to share how the hardest part of CX automation actu...
Raven v2 and the Race to Smarter Voice Agents with Matt Henderson (Deep Learning with PolyAI, Episode 81)
In this episode, your host Nikola Mrkšić sits down with Matt Henderson, VP of Research at PolyAI, to unpack the state of large language models, their quirks, and what really matters when building smarter voice agents for customer service.
“Everybody wants AI, nobody wants BS” with Brian Jeppesen, Fertitta Entertainment
Brian Jeppesen, who serves as Director, Contact Center Operations at Fertitta Entertainment, joined your host Nikola Mrkšić to discuss his vision for the AI-powered contact center.Listen to hear Nikola and Brian cover:• How to o...
079: GPT-5 Era Starts Now: The AI Arms Race Just Escalated
PolyAI co-founder and CTO Shawn Wen joins Nikola for a deep dive into the just-released OpenAI GPT-5 model. From model-flipping and 4o's depreciation to curbing sycophancy and determining which LLM out there is #1 for coding, they cover it all....
078: Forward deployed engineers: From the frontline of bringing AI to the world
This week, Nikola is joined by Becky Kershaw, Deployments Lead at PolyAI.Becky shares how using her own British accent for AI voice cloning increased engagement in outbound sales, showing the power of personalization and cultural fit.