The company is working with Italiaonline, Italy’s largest internet company to bring the AI employee to more than 100,000 small businesses.
Vendasta’s new Italian AI doesn’t answer the phone with “It’s-a me,” but it is named MARiO.
The Saskatoon-based tech company announced late last month that it had inked a deal to roll out MARiO, an AI-driven employee platform, to more than 100,000 small- and medium-sized businesses across Italy. And yes, the company is seemingly leaning into the comparison with the moustachioed video-game star—its ad features a plumber.
“Vendasta stood alone in its ability to address a comprehensive set of small business needs.”
Umberto Poschi, Italiaonline
Founded in 2008 as a digital agency and software provider focused digital solutions around reputation management, customer engagement and search-engine optimization, the company rebranded itself in the early 2020s as an AI company with a focus on AI workforce tools and AI employees. It counts around 700 employees under its banner.
Capable of answering phones, booking appointments and managing customer relations across a diversity of enterprise types and languages, MARiO’s jump into action comes on the heels of a deal between Vendasta and Italiaonline, Italy’s largest internet company. Vendasta won the contract after Italiaonline searched globally for a provider, meaning the Saskatchewan firm beat out Silicon Valley companies.
“We conducted a deep-dive search for a partner who could match our scale with industrial-grade reliability,” said Umberto Poschi, the chief web and media services officer with Italiaonline in a release.
“Vendasta stood alone in its ability to address a comprehensive set of small business needs,” he added.
Vendasta said MARiO is purpose built for small business, characterizing its rollout as a way to remove barriers preventing uptake of AI tools in small business. In a press release issued by the company, Vendasta claimed that only around 17 percent of small businesses currently use AI compared to 52 percent of large businesses. That disparity, the company claims, is more about cost and complexity than relevance.
“By powering MARiO, we are proving that an AI workforce is a scalable reality for every local plumber, lawyer, and retailer,” Brendan King, CEO of Vendasta said in a press release. “Italiaonline is setting a global standard that other service providers will inevitably follow.”
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Recently, the company received $1.4 million in funding from the federal government’s Regional Artificial Intelligence Initiative (RAII) to accelerate Vendasta’s efforts at “democratizing” enterprise-AI among small and local businesses.
“At a time of global uncertainty, it is more important than ever to support homegrown innovations,” Eleanor Olszewski, the minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada, which delivers the RAII funding, said.
Built on Vendasta’s conversational AI and CRM infrastructure, Vendasta intends to expand the platform’s capabilities, including integrated automated WhatsApp and email follow-up campaigns, in the coming months.
BetaKit’s Prairies reporting is funded in part by YEGAF, a not-for-profit dedicated to amplifying business stories in Alberta.
Photo via YouTube screen capture.