Creating Superfans Podcast Episode 302: Dan Michaeli

Brittany Hodak [00:00:01]:
Hi. I’m Brittany Hodak, and I wanna welcome you to another episode of the Creating Superfans Podcast. Here’s the deal. If your customers aren’t telling their friends how awesome you are, you’re in trouble. But don’t worry. By the end of this episode, you’ll have some brand new tips for turning your customers into superfans. Today, I’m talking to Dan Michele. He’s the cofounder and CEO of Glia, one of my favorite companies in the AI space right now.

Brittany Hodak [00:00:26]:
Glia is a unified interaction management platform that allows companies to provide channel less customer service. That means customers can seamlessly move between voice and screen, working with a virtual AI assistant or a live human. Let me tell you, I’ve seen this in action and it is so cool. Whether you’re using AI for your CX or not, you are gonna learn so much from this episode. Dan has been at the forefront of AI and customer experience for years, and he’s gonna talk about how you can effortlessly blend AI efficiency with human responsibility. Let’s get into it. Dan, thanks so much for joining me on the show today.

Dan Michaeli [00:01:06]:
Oh, I’m so happy to be here, Brittany. Thank you.

Brittany Hodak [00:01:09]:
Now you cofounded Glia 12 years ago, which feels like an eternity in talking about AI. I’m curious. What do you think is the most fascinating thing about how both the cultural awareness and the general conversation around AI has changed in that time.

Dan Michaeli [00:01:27]:
You know, it’s interesting because I think about it from the context of, you know, businesses as well as consumers. Right? And so there’s a little bit of both happening here. And I I think I have a unique perspective on, what’s happened, especially in the business realm because we’ve been discussing it with CX leaders now for, as you mentioned, over a decade. So I I there’s there’s a lot of excitement. Right? There’s a lot of hype around this technology. And we saw a similar cycle, I would say about 2017, where there was a lot of enthusiasm about what virtual assistants can achieve for CX, for instance, and the efficiencies we can capture. I think what’s really interesting this time around is the consumerization that’s happening. So the latest wave has a much larger consumer aspect to it, which I think is gonna be really interesting for the industry because it will heighten expectations from customers as they interact with these technologies on the business front.

Dan Michaeli [00:02:25]:
I think there will be a tendency to engage with the technologies more, and that will push companies that are actually looking to, you know, provide these solutions to innovate, in order to deliver on all of that. So I think it’s an exciting time because of that consumerization.

Brittany Hodak [00:02:41]:
Yeah. And really great dual benefits because, as you said, consumer expectations will rise, but also consumers will maybe be a little less hesitant to try engaging with a a AI technology when they come across it in in their day to day life.

Dan Michaeli [00:02:57]:
Yes. Exactly right. I’m I’m enthusiastic about that element and, you know, it’ll push us all to really make sure that we’re delivering. You know, consumers will expect much better experiences and, you know, the the best of those will rise to the top.

Brittany Hodak [00:03:13]:
Yeah. Well, with AI being such a hot topic of conversation, kind of in the the zeitgeist right now, it’s hard to go a day without reading or hearing some horror story or, you know, some hypothetical about a worst case scenario, like end of the world catastrophe, either on the business or consumer side. But the reality is AI is here to say it’s not going anywhere. It’s changing businesses in huge and profound ways already. And I think one of the really great things that I love seeing, and and everything that writes about and talks about is this idea of the efficiency of AI meeting the responsibility of humans and that they don’t have to be these, you know, complete opposites. It’s about blending them both in a way that’s really smart and makes things better. So I would love for you to talk a little bit about that because it seems like you have a very elegant solution and ideation around everybody else saying, like, it’s gotta be one way or the other, and you guys are proving that, no, like, for over a decade, you’ve shown that you can combine the best of of both worlds and have the generative AI and the kind of guardrails that humans, at least for the next, you know, hopefully, period of decades, are going to need to be around to provide. So I’d love for you to kinda talk about that AI efficiency and human responsibility intersection.

Dan Michaeli [00:04:33]:
Sure. No. I’m happy to. So, the way that we think it it’s really three things. So the first component of it for us is one platform, all interactions, the perfect balance of human and AI. Right? So the first is that one platform concept. The second one is this concept of responsible AI. Right? So what is responsible AI? It to us, it means it’s safe, turnkey, and proven.

Dan Michaeli [00:05:00]:
Right? So the guardrails are in place as you mentioned. The turnkey aspect means that we can get up and running very quickly, start realizing value very quickly, and proven means that it’s out there, it exists, their references, you know, it’s really driving impact for organizations. And then finally, it’s AI for all stakeholders. So when we think of, you know, customers, agents, and managers, how are we bringing these technologies to bear for the different stakeholders that are involved in the value chain for the customer. So first, one platform, all interactions. 2nd, responsible AI. And 3rd, AI for all stakeholders.

Brittany Hodak [00:05:37]:
You know, it would be one thing if you had said we wanna go create an an AI platform for clothing or makeup or some other category, but you went to, like, the highest stakes, most regulated, most, you you know, potential for for things seemingly to go wrong in financial services. So I would love for you to talk a little bit about that because I’m sure over the past 12 years, there have been so many instances where people said to you, this can never be done or people will never trust you. You’re never gonna be able to make this work. So I I would love for you to talk a little bit about, a, why you chose this particular vertical to to build this and prove that you could bring the AI efficiency together with the human responsibility, and some challenges maybe that you’ve had to overcome that you’re particularly proud of being able to say, even though everyone thought we were crazy x number of years ago, we’ve proven that this can improve for all of those stakeholders you just mentioned, what the experience is.

Dan Michaeli [00:06:41]:
Yeah. So I would say that, you know, bringing AI to financial services is as Frank Sinatra says, it’s the comparison to New York. Right? If you can do it here, you can do it anywhere. So we we decided to undertake the hard the hardest or amongst the hardest vertical challenges possible. I do believe though that actually focusing on a domain or a vertical when it comes to these sorts of technologies is incredibly powerful, especially when it comes to the customer facing AI or your app applications of this. So, you know, we’ve we’ve chosen to do that. Again, 1, to push the company further in the innovation, but 2, because, you know, bringing that domain expertise into bear, really makes a solution far better in our view. So, you know, but in terms of challenges that that, I think in general, our organization has, you know, overcome over the years that I’m proud of in particular is, and it it it pertains exactly to what you’re talking about within this vertical.

Dan Michaeli [00:07:39]:
You know, balancing the sort of a fast moving dynamic innovative approach with secure, compliant, and reliable is very, very challenging. You know? Constantly staying at the cutting edge, and building technology for some of the most regulated businesses in the whole world is is really, you know, something that I’m very proud of that we’ve been doing consistently for the past 12 years. You know? Very few companies are able to achieve it. I think that a lot of companies are out there pushing new features out, but they don’t really care about the needs that, some businesses like, you know, businesses like these could have. The security, the compliance, the scalability, reliability that that sort of gets lost in the effort of just pushing out a bunch of functionality. And, conversely, you have really heavy, cumbersome, you know, technologies that are built for this massive scale and for CIOs to evaluate and to make sure they can check every single box, but they’re not developing any exciting tech. So, you know, from from my standpoint, Glia bridges the gap between those two things, and that’s something I’m really, really, really proud of.

Brittany Hodak [00:08:50]:
And, it is so cool. I mean, I was saying in the introduction, I was fortunate enough to to get a demo of this with you a few weeks ago and just see how amazing it is. And exactly as you said, if you if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. I want you to talk a little bit about the responsible AI platform that you just launched. Talk a little bit about what the customer and agent experience are with Glia because I think when everybody hears this, they’re gonna say, wait. I I want that for my business. That sounds amazing. I want that as a customer, but I also want that in my business because you really are making it feel like you’ve got someone right there with you helping wherever you are.

Brittany Hodak [00:09:30]:
It’s you know, I I I feel like you’re you’re almost erasing distance in a way so that you you can feel like you’ve got someone right there to help you regardless of where you’re at, what you’re doing. So I would love for you to just talk a a little bit about the magic of Glia, what it is, and, how it’s really changing things for your financial services clients.

Dan Michaeli [00:09:51]:
Right. So when it comes to the this concept of responsible AI, I mentioned before it’s really made up of 3 things for us, the safe, turnkey, and proven. Right? So the idea here is to really provide access to the these technologies, these these AI technologies in a variety of ways across the whole fabric of our platform, and doing so in a way that is fast and reliable and you know, generating value and that you can be confident is very, very safe for your organization. What that allows you to really do is to make the interaction as you sort of as you’re alluding to feel very magical. Right? So, you know, for one thing, just having a very real conversation with a virtual assistant that very much has that has a very high level of understanding in terms of what the customer is really looking to achieve. When that conversation then gets, escalated or transferred over to a human representative, having a synthesis of everything that happened that’s perfectly accessible to that agent or that frontline, individual to absorb what was being discussed. Right? And then as that human agent is interacting, providing automation capabilities that provide suggestions and prompts to make their interactions better, you know, capabilities that then, you know, help them wrap up that interaction, summarize, synthesize, aggregate the insights from their day to day work in a way that they can focus on interacting with the customer. Right? So all that automation layered in throughout.

Dan Michaeli [00:11:25]:
Right? And at the end of the day, then bringing the same capabilities on the business level to, managers, you know, managers so that they can achieve or distill down insights, surface, information about what’s happening across all of their different frontline teams, across all of their different interactions, and using the magic of AI to ask questions in a very natural way. Tell me about all the interactions that had a positive sentiment over the past week for this particular agent. Show and display that information to me. I mean, it just once you bring all of that together using this responsible AI framework, bringing it to across these different stakeholders, it really does feel like a magical experience.

Brittany Hodak [00:12:10]:
It really does. And I wanna talk a little bit about from the customer side what this feels like. And you’re you’re in New York City right now. I lived in New York City for years. And something that I was thinking about, when I when I did this glia demo is, like, the before and after. And it reminded me of when I lived in New York in college, and there wasn’t GPS on phones yet. And I was always, like, a little bit hesitant to go south of Union Square because I knew I was gonna have a hard time figuring out, like, okay. What do I do? I go to what subway line? Because it wasn’t a grid anymore.

Brittany Hodak [00:12:46]:
Right? And it was hard. And, like, there were times in the early 2000 where I would be like, okay. Well, I’m gonna just, like, get a cab because I don’t know where I’m going. So you have to, like, you know, manually, like, you know, stand on the corner, raise your hand, get a cab. And sometimes the cab would be like, that’s 3 blocks away. And I’m like, well, can you just point me in the right direction then? Because I don’t know where I’m at. And then GPS changed everything. Right? And now, of course, like, we have Uber and and and all of the things.

Brittany Hodak [00:13:10]:
But still right now, on many websites, when a customer goes to your website and has a question, the behavior is well, first, I’m gonna, like, try to find it myself. I’m gonna click around, then maybe I’ll get a pop up that’s asking me if I wanna interact with a a chatbot, like a sort of very rudimentary chatbot that’s really like a decision tree of what’s your question, where can I send you, or I’ve gotta, like, fumble around to look at the FAQs and figure it out myself? It’s like a world before there was GPS on your phone. Right? Like, you’re trying to do the best you can and figure it out on your own. Enter glia. I want you to walk me through now A consumer lands on a website that has Glia working in the background. To them, all they say is the same website. Like, the customer has no idea, but they land on the website. They need help.

Brittany Hodak [00:14:00]:
Talk to me about what they experience when Galea is working in the background.

Dan Michaeli [00:14:06]:
So it it it really it it really comes back to sort of the first part of the flow or that that magic that I described in my previous response. I would say that when you think about it from that let’s talk about that specific kind of customer journey or part of the customer journey. I think first and foremost, one of the most important elements or one of the most important, nuances of our self serve experiences as consumers is that we are, we’re producing a lot of interesting information as we click through these websites that you’re alluding to. Right? Like, we’re we’re spending certain time in certain places. We’re clicking on certain things. We’re browsing to certain areas of the of the, of the website. And that’s a lot of information that the business can use in order to anticipate what we’re gonna need. Right? Anticipate the questions that are gonna come up and get me to the right place when I do have that question.

Dan Michaeli [00:15:04]:
So even before interaction happens, Glia is constantly evaluating that digital body language that consumers are exhibiting as they’re walking through the website. Right? And if, for instance, I’m looking for a loan and, the loan amount that I’m looking for is rather large, perhaps I’m not I should not be routed to a virtual in that case. Perhaps we wanna route that interaction directly to a human representative. So even before the interaction begins, understanding that intelligence is really, really important to provide a superior experience and anticipatory experience. Right? Now once we actually determine where that interaction is going verse if it’s, you know, it’s a human or if it’s, an a virtual assistant, we can decide on what media is best for that type of situation. Right? Is it is it messaging? Is it chat? Is it voice? Right? Am I gonna have a, like, sort of a virtual assistant like an Alexa or Siri type of interaction? Maybe that’s best for for this particular instance. Right? And so it’s understanding the intelligence, where does it go? Once we understand where it goes, right, then we can determine what the media type, that is best suited for this type of interaction using that intelligence. Right? And if the interaction has to go between media, let’s say we have to start in messaging and we have to take it then to voice or to video, or we have to start with a virtual assistant and then that has to be transferred over to a human representative, making sure that every step of the way, context is preserved.

Dan Michaeli [00:16:41]:
So I never feel like I’m as a consumer, I should never feel like I’m starting over again. There they should that is the worst feeling as a customer. We can all attest to it. We’ve all been through it, but making sure that that constant context carries through every single step of the way is absolutely essential. And then once the resolution is complete, you know, making sure that we can take a pulse on how the interaction performed on both the business and the customer side to ensure that we’re improving, with every interaction that we handle. So I would say if if that gives a a sort of a general journey, you know, of how these technologies come together for us at Glia.

Brittany Hodak [00:17:24]:
Yeah. It’s incredible. I mean, as as a customer, imagine being able to get exactly the right help you need at exactly the right time. And maybe that is an agent popping up in a chatbot saying, hey. I’m Dan. I’m in New York. I noticed you’re looking for this. Like, I I can help you out.

Brittany Hodak [00:17:41]:
And then having the option to say, let’s talk on the phone, let’s one way video chat, or something that I think is amazing that Glia is able to do to actually scroll on that customer’s device, whether they’re on their phone or their laptop to say, well, let me actually show you where you need to go to see this in your account or where you need to go to look at this. It’s it’s it’s amazing. Right? And then also as a customer, as you alluded to, one of the most frustrating things is feeling like if you’re talking to 3 different people, you’re starting over 3 different times, or you’re having to wait for that 45 seconds for that agent to be like, okay. Let me tell you what I’ve been talking to Brittany about, and you’re just, you know, like, you know, watching your life waste away as as all of this is happening.

Dan Michaeli [00:18:21]:
All

Brittany Hodak [00:18:21]:
of that is gone. As you said, from a business level, knowing that you’re preserving intelligence about the customer journey and the conversations that’s happening so you have instant real time records. You’re no longer having to have your agents spend time recapping a conversation, talking about how it went, talking about what the next steps are. That all happens automatically. So not only are you now no longer tied to, like, I know these agents are gonna do a better job than these other agents. You also don’t have to worry about, oh, we don’t have great records about something that happened 6 months or 2 years ago because that was somebody who’s no longer here. So it really almost feels like we are reaching a time where every customer can sort of, like, live in their own choose your own adventure book.

Dan Michaeli [00:19:08]:
Yeah.

Brittany Hodak [00:19:08]:
And it’s all of the right adventures that are happening, and it’s not that much harder for a business to be able to architect 17,000 different journeys in one day than it is to have the 6 or 7 that they had maybe 10 years ago.

Dan Michaeli [00:19:23]:
100%. That is that is spot on. And, you know, a testament to that is at Glia, we we make fun of the question, how may I help you? The question that is most popular you know, that is that is the most popular initial question that a service rep or somebody in the service industry is is taught to ask. Right? I mean, it’s the most base at the most basic level. How can I help you as a customer? If we’re using all of the information that we have, if we’re leveraging these capabilities in the right way, we can start the conversation 5 steps ahead of that. Right? And that’s what’s so exciting that we can anticipate. As you alluded to, you know, this the idea of understanding exactly what the customer needs, what the best recommended journey is for them, and then meeting them in that journey effectively. And the last step of that is also continuing that journey with them.

Dan Michaeli [00:20:16]:
Right? Like, if they if they move or they or or a change is required, not breaking down the interaction. Right? Meeting them on the screen as you mentioned. Right? So many interactions today are taking place on on screens. How many times are we calling servicing departments to ask about something that we’re looking at on our phone? Like, we have our phone in our hand. How do how come they can’t see that? I mean, it should be immediate. If we’re on the device or if we’re on a website or on a portal, the servicing rep should immediately know that that’s what’s happening. And that’s the kind of magic that we wanna bring to to this industry.

Brittany Hodak [00:20:52]:
Yeah. And for anybody listening right now who hasn’t had a chance to check out , I highly recommend you check it out, especially if you’re in the financial services industry. But even if you’re not, it’s just it’s very cool. But what Dan is talking about is it it’s something that you opt into. Right? It’s a customer says, I would like to give you permission to see what I’m doing. So this is not like we can see everything that’s on your device. This is if you were having trouble, you now have the ability within that chat conversation to say, yes. I want you to call me on the phone, or, yes.

Brittany Hodak [00:21:24]:
I want you to call me on the phone, and, also, I want you to be able to see what I’m scrolling with on my device. And with the click of a button, now the agent who’s helping you is able to see exactly what’s happening on your device. They can even turn on a one way video conversation. So if they wanna show you something on their screen or something at their terminal, they’re able to do all of that. And, again, I hate to use the word magic, but that is what it feels like As somebody who has been through this customer journey on a demo, it legit feels magic.

Dan Michaeli [00:21:54]:
Oh, thank you for that. Yes. We’re we’re we’re, you know, really excited about the opportunities that it has, opened up to ultimately, at the end of the day, we wanna make this the expect the expectation rather than the exception. You know? It shouldn’t feel like an exceptional experience every time. It should really be what we come to expect as consumers. And, you know, that’s what we’re looking to change in the world, so we’re really excited about that.

Brittany Hodak [00:22:18]:
Well and let’s talk about that. Obviously, you’ve been in this space for over a decade, so this is you know, you’re not somebody who’s, like, jumped on the AI train because it’s, like, you know, up in Google Trends right now. So let’s talk about the future. When you think 10, 15 years from now, how is the world different for a customer? How are the expectations different, and how are the experiences different because of all of the things that AI is going to continue to make possible over the next decade or so?

Dan Michaeli [00:22:47]:
Well, you know, 10 years is a long is a long time. So 10 years into the future is it’s a I would say it’s a little bit challenging for me to, paint a vision that’s 10 years ahead with these technologies. I I would say that, you know, as I look to it, I’m I tend to be more in the optimistic camp, right, that these technologies are going to bring out what it truly means to be human. So as we achieve that balance that that Glia strives for, Glia is all about bringing out the balance between human and AI. We want one platform that allows businesses to achieve that, to find the right balance, to empower their frontline teams with a I a I, but also to bring that human element to the interactions in really exciting and different ways. Right? We’re not trying to automate away every single human interaction. So I believe that that’s the future that we’re in store for. My, I I I over time, we will become, more we will put a higher and higher premium on those qualities that mean human.

Dan Michaeli [00:23:57]:
Right? That that that that represent human nature. And I think that that’s what the customer will want at at many points in their journey. And so, I see a future where these technologies actually bring that out and empower us to deliver it to

Brittany Hodak [00:24:11]:
I totally agree. And I think that if you look back over human history, the technological changes that have allowed people to, you know, not have to wake up and think, what am I gonna kill to survive today? Or, like, am I gonna be able to move fast enough to escape whatever is trying to kill me? And, you know, I’ve gotta make shoes and I’ve gotta make clothes and, you know, all of the things that we just don’t have to do any now anymore because the technology exists for those for those things to no longer be burdensome. I think one of the great promises of AI is, obviously, it’s gonna eliminate some redundant tasks that can be automated. But in doing that, it’s going to open up so much time and potential for people to serve humans in a way that maybe right now isn’t happening. Right? So it’s like we’re doubling down on not just the higher order things, but also those those human things that can’t yet be automated. And I think because of that, we’re gonna see service really expand in 2 directions. Right? Things are gonna become a lot more convenient because of the technology, and, hopefully, they’re gonna become a lot kinder and more personal because of the human side. And, you know, one of the things I talk about is high-tech and high touch combining to create high impact, And I think that’s what we’re gonna continue to see because of technologies like Glia.

Dan Michaeli [00:25:41]:
Oh, I I couldn’t agree more. I think that’s exactly, where I that’s exactly where I see it going. A lot of a lot of businesses are hyper focused around how can I achieve these incredible efficiency benefits with automation or with AI? I think oftentimes, they’re they’re neglecting the incredible experiences that you can create as well, by orienting differently and by not only thinking about AI, but by thinking about human and AI together. How do we how are we going to both achieve incredible efficiency, but also deliver an experience that’s far superior than what we’re able to do today. So that’s exciting to me. Yep.

Brittany Hodak [00:26:17]:
Yeah. Because the efficiency, at some point, will be a commodity. Like, everyone else will have access to that same efficiency. It’s the human part that you’re layering on top of the efficiency that is what your brand is built on.

Dan Michaeli [00:26:29]:
That’s right. That’s

Brittany Hodak [00:26:30]:
right. I wanna know from you, what is, as a customer, something that you can now not imagine living without? Like, some type of AI that over the past few years has changed your way at a point where you’re like, I can never go back. I cannot imagine not having this anymore.

Dan Michaeli [00:26:48]:
One thing that I’ve really enjoyed, doing with these, consumer cape or consumer tools that are out there is brainstorming. So, I actually find it really effective to have a to generate ideas and to say, okay. I’m thinking about these types of analogies. Give me some more examples of these sorts of analogies, and then to kinda meander and go down a path and sort of have this conversation around different ideas or concepts. And, you know, funnily enough, I would say that many times I don’t use any of the ideas that are generated, but I I’m able to get to the best idea through that conversation because I I basically have an infinite source of, generation right there with you. You know? Like Yeah. I mean, and so it’s it’s it’s really interesting to brainstorm, and I have found it to be, to to to be a very easy way to remove any sort of block. Because in spot, you know, in spot creative thinking, in you you you oftentimes are waiting for this inspiration or you’re walking down the street and suddenly this great idea comes to you.

Dan Michaeli [00:27:53]:
Right? This can short circuit that a little bit. You can actually say start having a conversation, generate some creative ideas, and and brainstorm. And that’s what I’ve really enjoyed, actually.

Brittany Hodak [00:28:03]:
Yeah. I I do that all the time. I a couple of nights ago, I was working on a newsletter, and I had this crazy idea that was not at all what I had been writing on, because cicadas kept flying into the window. And I was like, wouldn’t it be funny if I could write a newsletter about the CX lessons that cicadas are here to teach us? And it was, you know, midnight, and I went to chat GPT and just, you know, posed the question and instantly had 8 things that I was like, these aren’t all that far fetched that I would’ve been able to edit and curate and put in my voice and turn into I think it was 5 lessons that I ended up sharing, but it would’ve taken me hours to come up with those. But to to not have to ever stare at a blank page again, as you said, or I can’t imagine being a parent without AI. You know? And not just the fact that Alexa can entertain my kids for a really long time and answer all their crazy questions of, you know, the this morning goes, is a centipede more poisonous than a millipede? And I’m like, I I don’t know. Luckily, we have someone that we can ask who knows answer. What was

Dan Michaeli [00:29:01]:
the answer? Now you got me curious.

Brittany Hodak [00:29:03]:
Well, I learned that there are I think it was 2,000 different species of centipedes. Okay. And almost as many of that millipedes. And then, you know, it was like a 5 minute answer that had my 4 year old captivated. And he’s like, well, show me a picture of this and tell me about this and do this. And then my 6a half year old loves now. I showed him how to use chat gpt. He loves to go into chat gpt on the iPad and ask for things to be drawn because now he can be like, show me Pikachu with ice Godzilla, but make the background a volcano.

Brittany Hodak [00:29:33]:
And then he now knows how to, like, say no, like, do the you know, change this, change that.

Dan Michaeli [00:29:38]:
Wow.

Brittany Hodak [00:29:39]:
And I’m like, imagine what these kids are gonna be able to do with technology when they’re 12 years old, when they’re 15 years old, when they’re 20 years old, because they don’t live in a world where you can’t just, like, ask for it and have it exist. It’s like a magic wand. Right? Like, Alexa has never said to my kid, no. I can’t show you this, or, no, I won’t do this. It’s just they ask for the craziest things, and like a magic wand, it happens. And I think that’s what’s gonna be really cool about the creativity that will drive innovation in AI over the next, you know, 10, 15, 20 years.

Dan Michaeli [00:30:17]:
Definitely. It’s really exciting, and it’s only constrained by our by our imagination, which is one of those human qualities that will become, more and more important as time goes on. So

Brittany Hodak [00:30:27]:
Yeah. Well, Dan, thank you so much for joining me. This has been such a fun fun conversation. Before I let you go, I wanna ask you a question that I always ask people on the podcast. What’s a company that you’re a superfan of and why? What is it about the experience, whether it’s AI or not, that makes you be a superfan of this company?

Dan Michaeli [00:30:46]:
I I I wanna I wanna think of something creative, and in the spirit of creativity, I will say Pixar. Uh-huh. Okay. I I believe that, you know, Pixar has achieved some remarkable outcomes when it comes to the film industry to entertainment. I mean, the amount of, hits that they’ve produced consistently, the quality, I think there’s something really special about that company. I’m a I’m a big fan about that intersection of creativity and technological innovation with a really, really strong focus on a quality product. Right? And, and so I I I would say Pixar would be my answer. That is a company I am a superfan of.

Brittany Hodak [00:31:28]:
And, you know, something that Pixar has always done an incredible job of is keeping the story at the center. So, yes, the innovation, yes, all of the things that they’ve pioneered, but part of what makes it work is that there’s always an amazing story at the root of whatever it is that they’re producing.

Dan Michaeli [00:31:46]:
Creativity incorporated as they say. Absolutely. Yes. Story is at the heart.

Brittany Hodak [00:31:51]:
Alright, Dan. Where can people go to learn more about Glia or get in touch with you?

Dan Michaeli [00:31:56]:
Absolutely. You can visit our website glia.comglia.com, or you can find me on LinkedIn, and I would be happy to connect, more on any of these topics.

Brittany Hodak [00:32:08]:
Thanks so much, Dan, for joining us, and I’ll talk to you soon.

Dan Michaeli [00:32:10]:
Thank you, Brittany.

Brittany Hodak [00:32:11]:
That’s it for today’s episode. Please help me out by leaving a review for the show or sharing it with a friend. Until next time, remember, don’t settle for standard. Be super.