Productivea number one SaaS management platform, has announced the launch of Dude, an AI-powered chatbot designed to revolutionize the best way IT leaders and finance teams manage their software licenses, usage data and budgets. With Sidekick, users can now access key insights and suggestions through natural language queries, streamlining workflows and saving helpful time.
In an interview with VentureBeat, Jody Shapiro, CEO of Productiv, highlighted Sidekick's unique capabilities. “Many software firms view their AI capabilities as an easy chatbot or medium for answering basic questions without depth or evaluation,” he said. “Productiv’s Sidekick is specifically designed to be a website expert, allowing users to get answers quickly by asking questions naturally, just as they’d ask a colleague.”
Shapiro further explained that Sidekick goes beyond just answering questions. “More than simply a chatbot, Sidekick understands the intent of questions, especially in a back-and-forth conversational sequence, and performs complex evaluation to supply digestible data, summarized answers and intelligent recommendations,” he said.
Harness the ability of knowledge
Integrated into Productiv's Expense management The Sidekick platform enables users to harness the ability of their data without the necessity for extensive technical expertise. The AI assistant can retrieve accurate data on the expansion of software applications in Teams, create tables to display and kind essentially the most incessantly used applications, analyze application usage, and even help with license renewals and negotiations.
“Sidekick enables users to acquire aggregated data on software spend to make cost optimization decisions,” said Shapiro. “Users can simply ask which contracts have unused licenses or which tools have overlapping functionality and receive easy-to-read, actionable answers translated from complicated data sets.” This saves an incredible period of time and helps ensure software ROI. “
The launch of Sidekick comes at a time when firms are increasingly searching for ways to optimize their SaaS spend and improve operational efficiency. With the rapid adoption of cloud-based software, IT leaders and finance teams are sometimes overwhelmed with the sheer volume of knowledge and complexity of managing multiple applications across different departments.
Productiv's growth and impact on the industry
Founded in 2018, Productiv has quickly established itself as a number one player within the SaaS management space, helping firms like Dropbox, Equinix and Okta optimize their software spend and improve collaboration between IT and finance teams. The company has raised over $73 million in funding from top-tier investors including Accel, Norwest Venture Partners and Okta Ventures.
The launch of Sidekick comes at a time when the SaaS industry is experiencing significant growth, with Gartner predicting this in enterprise SaaS spending increase to $195 billion by 2023, a rise of 17% over the previous yr. As organizations struggle to administer an ever-expanding portfolio of software applications, tools like Sidekick will play a critical role in optimizing spend and increasing operational efficiency.
The way forward for AI in SaaS management
Looking ahead, Shapiro sees AI tools like Sidekick as transformative for SaaS management. “Sidekick has incredible potential to empower teams to get work done faster and more transparently, with less manual input. This allows them to make decisions faster and offers them confidence that they’re making the appropriate decision,” he said.
As the AI revolution continues to unfold, Productivs Sidekick represents a big step forward in harnessing the ability of artificial intelligence to streamline SaaS management and create value for businesses.
