Nikola has been building voice AI since it was basically a lab experiment.
Cambridge → a startup that got acquired by Apple → then straight into the deep end with PolyAI: enterprise voice agents for customer support, CX, and the brutal reality of contact centers.
In this episode, Nikola and Manny go right at the parts people avoid:
why voice is still the dominant interface, why contact centers are structurally broken (attrition, no-shows, “hiring as strategy”), and why the BPO model collapses the second you try to automate it.
Then the real fight: monetisation.
They unpack why CCaaS incumbents move slowly, why “outcome-based” is trickier than it sounds in enterprise, and how PolyAI actually prices today — consumption vs outcome vs license, plus what happens when buyers demand predictability.
If you’re building agentic CX, selling into enterprise, or trying to price AI without nuking your margins — this one is for you.
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Previous guests include: Dharmesh Shah of HubSpot, Amjad Masad of Replit, Wade Foster of Zapier, Eric Simons of Bolt.new, Nick Mehta of Gainsight, Flo Crivello of Lindy AI, and Karan Parekh of Clay.
Check out our three most downloaded episodes:
- From “Tinder for Co-founders” to $7M ARR: Maximus Greenwald’s Wild Ride Building Warmly
- Why Clay Cut Its Own Revenue to Prove a Point About SaaS Pricing | Karan Parekh | Get Paid with Manny Medina
- How Intercom’s CFO Bet the Business on Outcome-Based Pricing