As enterprises increasingly integrate AI applications across their operations, conversational AI tools are transforming customer engagement while significantly cutting costs. Gupshup, a conversational messaging platform which enables businesses to interact and transact with customers through various messaging channels like WhatsApp, SMS, and voice offering tools for building and deploying AI-powered chatbots and conversational experiences, sees a huge demand for its tools. Co-founder and CEO Beerud Sheth speaks with Ayanti Bera about AI adoption, market trends, and the company’s future. Excerpts:
Over the past two years, we have made significant investments in expanding our Conversation Cloud. Last year, we introduced this platform to enable businesses to create their own AI agents for marketing and customer support. However, many companies lack the expertise to build these solutions from scratch. To address this, we launched pre-built AI agents earlier this year, allowing enterprises to leverage AI without extensive technical know-how.
How strong is the demand for your AI applications?
The global appetite for AI is surging. Every CEO today needs an AI strategy, and as a result, demand for our solutions is growing rapidly, especially in regions like the Middle East, Latin America, and India. These areas are highly dependent on WhatsApp for communication, making them ideal for businesses to deploy AI-powered chatbots and agents. We are riding the wave of AI adoption at the right time.
Are enterprises keen on adopting AI tools, or do they remain hesitant?
There comes a tipping point where the risk of inaction outweighs the risk of innovation. We are now at an inflection point in the S-curve of AI adoption, where early experimentation is shifting to broader implementation. More businesses are realising that delaying AI integration could mean falling behind competitors, making AI adoption inevitable.
Which industries are leading the adoption of conversational AI?
Banking and retail are at the forefront, followed closely by travel, hospitality, education, healthcare, and even government agencies. Any sector that engages with a large customer base is increasingly turning to AI. AI-powered tools are the only viable alternative that can scale and match the quality of human interactions at a fraction of the cost.
How cost-effective are these conversational AI tools for enterprises?
AI tools are significantly more affordable than traditional customer support models. With AI costs declining rapidly, these solutions are not only becoming more sophisticated but also more economical. Compared to maintaining a team of human customer service representatives, AI reduces operational expenses by at least 50%, making it an attractive investment for businesses.
Is Gupshup planning to raise fresh funding soon?
We have effectively utilised the funding raised four years ago and maintain ongoing discussions with our investors. While we are not in urgent need of fresh capital, we remain open to strategic opportunities. A public listing is also a possibility at some stage, though we view an IPO as a milestone rather than a final goal. Our focus remains on building a stable and predictable business —something public markets highly value.
Fidelity Investments sharply reduced Gupshup’s valuation last year. Are you comfortable with your current valuation?
Valuation is ultimately an opinion unless validated by a real transaction. The true value of a company is determined when a willing buyer and seller agree on a price. Until then, market fluctuations in valuation are just external estimates that don’t necessarily reflect our actual business fundamentals.
How has Gupshup performed in the current financial year?
We achieved 20-30% topline growth in FY25, with our new AI-driven products experiencing even faster adoption. AI is shaping the future of both our industry and Gupshup itself. We are nearing breakeven and, having moved past our major investment phase, we anticipate strong profitability in the coming years.
