ICYMI: Why AI Won't Replace All the Coders

Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and tim Stenoveek on Bloomberg Radio. Carol, did you catch this story in the New York Times over the weekend? I might have the computer science grads they're having trouble getting jobs.

I am amazed at some of the stuff that's going on and how quickly it's changed.

So like ten years ago, we were all told to go learn how to code. You can get these great jobs, entry level jobs, and some of the biggest tech firms hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Yeah. The Times profiled this twenty five year old is a computer science major at Oregon State University. He's applied to more than fifty seven hundred jobs. He's received thirteen interviews and no job offers. He was actually rejected from McDonald's because of a lack of experience.

That's amazing. Yeah, So it makes me think that the people who are out there that are all looking have tons of experience, so those people who are just kind of out don't even have a chance.

Yeah. I had this conversation some executives who are involved in AI just in the last couple of days at this Bloomberg event and they were saying, it's entry level right now, that's really seeing the effect of this.

But the thing is, and I don't know whether it's AI or some other things that are going on, if you can't get that entry experience, how can you forget to be experienced and kind of move up the chain. Hey, we're wondering what our next guest has to say about it. Katherine Costareva, she thinks about it. She is CEO and maging partner at Creatio. It's a customer relationship management company sells software that automates workflows using no code and AI tools.

It's good to be here back. Hello Carol, Hello Teams. So nice meeting you today again.

Yeah, good to see you again. You know, I was thinking of you when we were preparing for the segment and about the way that we've been talking to you for quite a bit of time about no code and low code and AI. You guys were into this really early.

Right? And as you can imagine, it is a phenomenal opportunity here at Creatia and for us as a company because we've been talking about no code for ten years now, right, So the company was founded ten years ago and every time we connected with both of you, I've been talking about no code and this is the future. So here it is the future has come, So we can be more excited, but first and foremost because of the value we delivered to our clients thanks to no code and AI.

So talk to us about the workflows that you guys are most automating for your customers. What is it that they want automated?

Absolutely, so, Creatia as a remind is a no code agentic platform. When I say agentic, meaning that we automated with applications but also with agents, and we automate CRM mostly customer front office workflows, marketing, sales service, but also middle office operations and workflows like customer onboarding, employee onboarding, loan origination, all kinds of.

Okay, time out, time out here, all right, CRM Customer Relationship Management. I understand helping companies deal with their customers, but talk to us about onboarding. Is that means about customer acquisition? Kind of break it down for us so that somebody listening is like, oh, okay, that's what they do for customers.

Oh absolutely. Just think about a bank or a credit union. When you open a new account, for example, at a credit union or a bank, the whole onboarding starts right KEYYC, know your client and all different checks and compliance checks and filling in all the data about clients and then

When does it help us customers? We customers, because man, I am so tired of filling out so much stuff you.

Just have to remember your password.

I well, yeah, that's another thing, but you know what I mean. Yeah, I feel like I'm constantly filling out wherever I go, the same stuff over and over and over again.

I want single sign on for everything. I will say one thing that's great about working here, among many things, is we have the single sign on technology. And I think a lot of companies do. But it's like it doesn't matter if we're logging into and I'm not going to name the third party services, but you know them all. Yeah, we use the same single sign on tech. How are we doing that everywhere? I mean, that's not really within your wheelhouse, but you could give me an answer just to.

Make it easier. But it just feels like more complicated at least from this perspective.

And this is a wonderful question actually, because now we dive into the security and compliance and governance questions which are critical for all the enterprises globally, and if we take regional specificity as well, like, for example, we have many many clients in Europe, and in Europe, it's going to be GDPR compliance right because of all the compliance and regulations and layers and layers of that and that is why creation is and enterprise software exists to help

And GDPR, of course, is the General Data Protection Regulation. That's the European Union law that's focusing on protecting personal data of individuals within the EU, and many say is really setting the standards for the world like that is kind of becoming the gold standard because they are super superocused on protecting individual data.

Hey, Catherine, one thing I want to talk to you about, because it's been quite a while since we spoke, is just where you are as a business. Last I found a bit over a year ago two hundred million dollars round raise from venture capitalists including Sapphire Ventures and others Horizon Capital as well, that was valuing the company at one point two billion dollars. How's that give us an update? Do you need to raise more money or you an IPO?

Oh, we absolutely not raised more money because we are a capital efficient company. But team, you remember when we spoke class time, it was around a year ago. I shared with you that we raised this fund actually to invest in AI. So that's exactly what we have been doing. And the revenues of the company has grown since then since this capital raise by forty six percent, So forty six percent capital efficient growth. So this is what we leave our first.

So you're you're never you never have to go back to venture capitalists to raise more money.

Oh, we are absolutely not. We actually even a year ago when we had a conversation, we're not in this situation then we needed this money. We just wanted to clearly articulate to the market that issue is unicorn and continues to grow very very fast.

So next stop IPO.

We'll see how it goes well.

I mean, this environment seems to be pretty good for ipoing. What would a timeline be like, what would what needs to happen at at the company before at IPOs?

We need to keep up this growth rate, and from what we're seeing right now, the demand is there and the technology we delivered because because again it is a getic platform and we raise efficiency for our clients significantly, the demand is there. So we need to deliver this growth rates that we've been delivering over the last several years.

How long do you need to continue this growth rate in order to be comfortable tapping the capital market. So we're not going to be talking to you about an IPO until twenty twenty seven.

Maybe maybe twenty twenty six. We'll see how it goes.

Okay, we got somewhere.

I love I love heathern.

One thing I want to ask you, who are your customers? And I'm curious, based on the business flow that you are seeing from them, what does it tell you about the global economy? What does it tell you about the US economy?

Okay, brilliant. So we operate in one hundred countries and we mostly serve mid sized and large organizations, organizations who have at least one hundred million in revenues. Why because they already get into this complexity with workflows and customer relationships and they have very complex infrastructures. So to make their life easier and again to automate their work with AI agents, that's who we target. That's who we mostly work with, mid sized and large organizations globally. We have

So what does it tell you with that perspective advantage point about what's going on in the global economy and what's going on? How much of your businesses to the US.

Oh, that's our biggest market by far. Of course, the company is headquartered and was founded here in Boston headquarters.

So tell me what your perspective is, just briefly, the global economy in the US economy, how would you describe it?

Listen, with all the recent changes in the economy, it's not the easiest time for our clients, I can tell you that. And again this is another reason what we're seeing on the market, what we're seeing in terms of budgets for technology, everyone is cutting costs and everyone is looking for the most efficient solutions, something that will immediately provide the ROI. So time to value. Like clients today, organizations today, because of the global economy, they have to

All right, we're going to leave it on that note. Catherine, thank you so much. Good to check in with you. Stay well, Catherine coast Reva. She is the CEO Managing Partner at Creatia, joining us from Boston.