J.A.R.V.I.S.-like program for business wins PLDT, Smart startup tilt

From over 80 submissions, promising start up Nudgyt bested the top 10 entries with in the first PLDT and Smart Start Up Challenge with its Behaviorial Science-powered Artificial Intelligence program similar to the fictional AI Marvel assistant J.A.R.V.I.S. (Just a really very intelligent system).

Nudgyt’s Kathleen Yu confidently pitched their team’s innovative program to PLDT’s key executives including PLDT VP and Head of Enterprise Innovations and IoT Business Development Melvin Jeffrey Chan, FVP for Investor Relations and Chief Sustainability Officer Melissa Vergel De Dios, VP and Head of Technology Strategy and Transformation Office Arvin Siena, VP and Head of Enterprise Busines Ding Villarino, Smart’s Strategic Partnerships Consultant Espen Wiig Warendorph, and IdeaSpace Executive Director Katrina Rausa-Chan, with PLDT FVP and Group Corporate Communications Head Cathy Yap-Yang hosting the pitches and awarding segment.

Nudgyt is an AI that uses behavioral science to help managers monitor, challenge, engage and grow their hybrid and work from home teams. It uses cutting edge personality technology localized to understand individual motivations, enable managers to monitor and challenge their team in unique ways, as well as monitor organizational productivity through chatbot intelligence.

Originating from a “nudge” or a prompt that changes behavior, Nudgyt is the first to exclusively use personality specific ‘Nudges’ powered by Behavioral science and Machine Learning to achieve desired bahavior and business goals. It also takes into account localized behavior unique among communities such as nationality.

“Nudgyt is like Jarvis for your business. Just a very intelligent system that uses Behavioral science and machine learning to help organizations make better decisions about their people. Nudges are essentially a prompt that changes behavior,” explains Yu.

Yu’s winning pitch also expounded on the program’s potential to analyze customer behavior that could help sales and relationship managers prepare and offer custom-fit solutions to potential customers based on data and analytics. She further elaborates how companies like Google and Facebook are widely using nudges to increase sales for their customers.

“We at Nudgyt have already been able to deliver value to some of our clients, increasing their productivity by over 500%, increasing sales by 600% as well as helping them hire and retain talent who perform twice as better, and stay twice as longer,” she added.

The team behind Nudgyt took home Php 150,000 as cash prize, 5G Smartphones, Fortinet routers, 1-year free subscription to PLDT’s Beyond Fiber service, and the opportunity to collaborate with the PLDT Group to further develop their solution. Also placing in the top five, respectively, were teams Olivia, PacketWorx, KargaX, and UpRoot Urban systems.

PLDT, together with the other companies in the Group, continues to support and collaborate with the country’s thriving start up community. PLDT Innolab, which serves as PLDT’s internal innovation team for exploring potential collaboration and opportunities with startups, continues its vision to be PLDT and Smart’s Innovation laboratory creating customer value with every successful co-development ventures with partners.