Episode Transcript
Kyle James (00:01.121)
Hey, welcome to AI Chronicles podcast. I'm your host, Kyle James. Today we're gonna be diving in headfirst into how an AI revenue operations company called Peel is using AI inside of their own business. And we'll share the exact steps that you can take in order to implement AI for yourself. Now, before I get into that, listen closely. Are you looking to implement AI inside of your own company or just struggling to get the AI to stop hallucinating? Speak to GPT trainer.
GPT Trainer literally builds out and manages your AI agent for you, eliminating hallucinations for good. Go to gpt-trainer.com. I promise you, it'll be the biggest time saving decision that you've made all year. Trying to set up AI on your own is like trying to build a house from scratch. Sure, you could do it, but the time and frustration that's gonna take you to get it finished just isn't worth it. It's a thousand times faster and safer to hire professionals.
Schedule your consultation today. Once again, that's gpt-trainer.com. To have with me Ben Henson, who is the co-founder of Peel. Peel is a company that is turning static content into dynamic, AI-led conversations that helps buyers move faster. Ben has spent his career at the intersection of demand gen, buyer behavior, and emerging tech. So excited to have you on today, Ben. How are you doing, my friend?
Ben Henson (01:23.948)
I'm doing great, Colin. Thank you so much for having me. I just would love to start out by saying I could not build a house by myself. could only use professionals. I could barely change a toilet seat. Yeah.
Kyle James (01:30.817)
I don't want to build a house. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, aren't you so glad we're not around the day where we have to build a house from scratch? That would be terrible. I like full time job for the whole year. And even when I finished with it, I maybe be a pile of mud. And honestly, in my case, I just throw mud on the lawn. So tell me a little bit, Ben, like, like give us some backstory. How did peel, you know, come to be?
Ben Henson (01:41.518)
Yeah, it would not be great. It would not be my skill set. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Ben Henson (02:00.248)
You know, my co-founder, Brandon Santos and I had, had come in from two different places. My side was in demand gen. So I'd spent my entire career really starting at the beginning of the 2000s and late nineties in content syndication, programmatic display, physical events. mean, way back then there was even magazines that you would have advertisements in. And each of those different things over that period of time were to
strike up conversations between companies and their prospects and companies and their existing customers and to learn and educate and sort of do all the things that marketing does. But the challenge is, that we overdid that over the last 25 years. We just overdid that so aggressively that the buyer said, hey, listen, we're the ones with the checkbook. We're going to reach out to you. Don't call us. We'll call you kind of thing. And that was just the reality, right?
Kyle James (02:55.541)
Yeah, yeah.
Ben Henson (02:58.482)
And so as AI was coming onto the scene, our idea was what if we could create an experience that was asynchronous? So it was buyer led. It was on their own terms. It was available when they wanted to do it. didn't require a 22 year old version of me sort of like trying to reach out to them in every single way and Hey, what college did you go to? And Hey, I love the summer. You know, I mean, it's just stuff people didn't want and
Kyle James (03:20.577)
Yeah. Yeah, right, right.
Ben Henson (03:27.758)
Peel was created with this idea that we could help peel back the layers, pun intended, if we could allow the buyer to stay in their own self-described journey and if they could choose their own adventure.
Kyle James (03:35.649)
Hmm.
Kyle James (03:43.061)
Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. so obviously the AI piece is a big piece, would say, inside of PEO. What exactly, tell me, is there something specific that it's tailoring most to as far as challenges go? And what exactly are you trying to solve when implementing that for, not just internally, but even for your own customers?
Ben Henson (04:07.66)
Yeah. You know, I've worked in tech on the publishing side, but I've worked in tech my whole career and we're in this interesting place in time where older companies, the, the, the ones that existed in the pre AI era are trying to say, Hey, we're AI, we're AI. We're going to wrap it. We're going to integrate it. We're going to do all these things. Peel is different than that. Peel is an AI native company. This is how we started. So our entire product.
Kyle James (04:27.723)
Mm-hmm.
Ben Henson (04:36.238)
is derived from AI. So we have asynchronous conversations where the prospect or customer is going to have a conversation with the AI, whether that's with our discovery product, which is a scripted sort of conversation starts at the beginning and ends at the end, or if it's with our new product called Talkable. So it's coming out just in the next couple of weeks, which allows your content to be fully interactive. I'm talking about a subject matter expert.
within that ebook, within that white paper, within that PowerPoint deck. So now they can engage it. They can have it personalized to them. It'll speak in any language that they natively speak in. So now we just open up the aperture in so many different ways for the prospect or for the customer to learn. And then all of that rich data feeds back to the organization. So their revenue team, their CX team,
Kyle James (05:33.995)
Right.
Ben Henson (05:34.038)
those folks are able to really look at this person level intent. They're going to understand who Kyle is, what you care about with regard to this topic, the language that you use, how you're thinking about it, how you've identified the problems that you're thinking about, how you're looking at solutions, et cetera. And it just eases that friction that has existed because for so many years, the revenue teams were going,
Well, you kind of look like this or we have this little intent thing over here that says you might be interested in that, but now we're actually just getting the actual voice, the actual conversation from the prospect. And can you imagine how well you could support, mean, you know, go back to your builder example, go back to the doctor or lawyer example. In each of those cases, they need to understand what's going on before they can offer solutions.
Kyle James (06:04.321)
Mm-hmm.
Kyle James (06:13.377)
Hmm.
Ben Henson (06:28.46)
or what you want to build or how you want to achieve goal X, Y, or Z. And that's what Peel accomplishes in a compressed time for pennies versus dollars.
Kyle James (06:34.579)
I see.
Kyle James (06:38.057)
Yeah, yeah. like these, you the different examples you shared, like with a, you know, kind of like more talkative and the more scripted, like, like, can you go a little bit deeper there? Like, walk me through kind of a step-by-step, like, is this something like, is the process going to be really walk me through the process here? Like, what is the user going through from the, like both maybe the actual front end user and then maybe even kind of like either management or the backend users, like walk me through what that looks like.
Ben Henson (07:00.771)
Mm-hmm.
Ben Henson (07:06.744)
Sure. Have you ever talked to Siri or Alexa or Google? It's just like that.
Kyle James (07:09.902)
yeah, it's just like my all day every day, guess.
Ben Henson (07:13.802)
Yeah, it's just like that, but it's on a specific piece of content. So you had mentioned hallucination and that that's a big thing that GPT GPT trainer removes from the equation. We've done that in a different way. The way that we've done it is we've, we isolate the data to a specific context and that context could be that document, that white paper or ebook or PowerPoint, or that.
Kyle James (07:20.821)
Mm-hmm.
Kyle James (07:25.665)
Sure.
Ben Henson (07:41.634)
document could be the script that the appeal agent is going to follow. But in either case, we're not trying to be subject matter experts of the entire world or even that entire organization. It's about this very specific topic and we're going to help educate and move them through because we know conversations move deals faster, conversations retain customers better. But there's so many of these conversations.
Kyle James (07:53.771)
Sure.
Ben Henson (08:10.008)
that just don't need to happen between human to human or aren't happening well when it is happening human to human. So we've taken that out of the equation. So now that whole discovery piece in whatever use that is, just it goes away. And now the prospect can do it in three minutes time, four minutes time, be able to collect a ton of different information, get feedback to them about, you know, X, Y, or Z or how this
Kyle James (08:12.075)
Sure.
Kyle James (08:35.85)
Mm-hmm.
Ben Henson (08:38.638)
product could solve for that issue that they're trying to solve for. And then they can move on or say, you know what, that's interesting. Let me now book a demo. Let me now schedule time. In fact, Peel could even, uh, deliver that demo asynchronously to that prospect, whether it's 2 AM or 2 PM.
Kyle James (08:54.879)
Mmm.
Kyle James (08:58.857)
Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. So is this, is this like something that's live currently that people can access to? Okay.
Ben Henson (09:04.522)
yeah, yeah, yeah, we have 20 plus customers these days and we've been commercially selling since last fall.
Kyle James (09:11.487)
What types of, from kind of the data that's been coming through and maybe even some of the feedback from your current clients, like what types of results have you been seeing so far?
Ben Henson (09:22.208)
I mean, it's really truly remarkable and it's, it's, it, it's not a step change. It's a revolutionary improvement in marketing. Marketing is so hard. It is so hard. Right? I mean, that's why podcasts exist. That's why, you know, written content exists. That's why video content exists is because people consume content in different ways, but just because we consume content doesn't mean we necessarily want to do anything more than.
Kyle James (09:34.159)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kyle James (09:38.815)
Mm-hmm.
Ben Henson (09:51.81)
consume that content. So when you, when you open up the aperture to allow for feedback in that content consumption or allow for an asynchronous way, so I don't have to put on a face and prep for a 30 minute zoom call and deal with the scheduling that entails, you know, and sort of like all of those calories expended. And then for what you're going to ask me a bunch of questions. You're going to try and qualify me. You're going to
Kyle James (09:53.217)
Mm-hmm.
Kyle James (10:11.905)
Alright.
Kyle James (10:15.361)
Mmm.
Ben Henson (10:20.846)
see if I budget authority needs timeframe, right? I mean, like, come on, man, it's 2025. We don't do that anymore. We don't do that anymore. If we're advanced marketers, but threading that needle is hard. So can we do that in a new and interesting way that supports the buyer in their self-described journey as she wants to go proceed and educate herself and do all those things? Could we do that?
Kyle James (10:23.027)
Yeah, yeah, all the stamps.
Yeah, yeah.
Ben Henson (10:48.224)
And the answer resoundingly is yes. And that that's what we're finding. We're finding conversion is very high. We're finding demos get booked, deals get piped because we just took that friction out of the process. And then everything that happens after appeal engagement is, is goes back to that person level detail.
So we'll collect somewhere between 15 to 25, sometimes 50 different data points about an individual as they're having a conversation with a Peel agent. And then it just allows us to understand, back to the house idea, are you a minimalist? Are you into Gothic architecture? Are you into a Frank Lloyd Wright type mid-century modern? There's all these different things. And if we understand that.
Then we can start, okay, well, let me take the entire rest of the world away. Mid-century modern, that's it. Okay. So this is the kind of woods that people typically buy. This is how they engage it with metal. This is what sort of like that layout would look like. And now you're having a conversation about something I actually care about and I'm interested in, and it makes sense to me.
Kyle James (11:59.541)
Yeah, that's, love that because it's like, that's the end of the day. it's, it's taking con like even like in a, in a sales call, it's like, you're just gathering information that's relevant to the sales person. But in this case, it's going, okay, look, let's understand the intent of the customer or the user of the AI and go, okay, well, based on the types of questions that they're asking and the answers that they're giving, then that means this is the most relevant topic that we need to talk to them about today versus.
something completely out of the blue, which obviously getting that AI to gather that information, it makes it that much easier. And it's almost like the ads we see on Instagram and like they're so tailored. Like sometimes I don't even need go to Amazon and look for something. I just go to Facebook or Instagram and just let the algorithm is like, I need to find me. Like we're trying to find a water gun for our vacation here this summer.
Ben Henson (12:30.286)
100%.
Ben Henson (12:45.89)
thousand percent.
Ben Henson (12:52.031)
Yeah, nice.
Kyle James (12:52.609)
I'm like, you know just go to Facebook. I just look up some Facebook things on water guns. The next thing I know, I got the best ads. You know what mean? So, I don't need it yet.
Ben Henson (12:57.11)
Yeah, it'll find you. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Totally. A hundred percent. mean, think about, think about the last time you went to the doctor and think about in that appointment, if you hadn't done the intake form, that same stupid intake form that's still on pen and paper or in some goofy Google sheet or whatever it is, but you go through that. So then when you walk in the door and you get your 15 minutes with your doc,
Kyle James (13:16.374)
Mm-hmm.
Ben Henson (13:24.792)
They're talking about you, Kyle. They're, you know, they understand, Hey, that elbow is banged up. And I understand that it hurts when I do this, you know, whatever, right? Whatever that is. That's a compression of time that is for your benefit and for the docs benefit. Well, the peel does that same accomplished goal, but in a much broader context, whether that's automating case studies, whether that's using it for discovery, like we're talking about, whether that's.
Kyle James (13:26.687)
Yeah, they know.
Kyle James (13:32.267)
Yeah, right.
Kyle James (13:44.47)
Hmm.
Ben Henson (13:53.91)
You know, Hey, we just closed one in deal and we want to kick this client off. we know. Cause I'm sure you know that a month after closed one, you're on this desert here. Like, do, am I still a customer? Like, you know, like I went through my one kickoff, but now instead we can programmatically deploy conversations. Hey, you're six weeks in. How's it going choke points.
Kyle James (14:06.975)
Yeah, right. Yeah, I know.
Kyle James (14:16.46)
I love that.
Ben Henson (14:20.046)
Other usage here's some things you should be thinking about. We're starting to see it in nurture emails. We just switched over from read AI to fathom for our note taker in yesterday and I got I got kind of like. You know, a nice CSM customer success person sort of like sent out a couple sequenced emails. Hey, you should watch this video. You should do this thing. That was good. What would be great if they knew who I am? What I'm about?
Kyle James (14:29.876)
huh, yeah, yeah, we use the same.
Kyle James (14:41.441)
Sure.
Ben Henson (14:49.166)
So if I had sent appeal to myself from Fathom and it was five questions, Hey, how are you going to use this? Who are you? What, what do you sort of, you know, about think what that content could look like and think what that CSM could follow up with me on, you know, and you know, we're not a huge company, but we're not a tiny company either anymore. You know, we were sort of growing and I'm the CRO, like they probably would want to know about that. So.
Kyle James (14:49.227)
Mm-hmm.
Kyle James (15:00.511)
Right, right.
Kyle James (15:06.657)
Hmm.
Kyle James (15:11.168)
Yeah, right.
Kyle James (15:16.929)
For sure. think it's so important because AI is such a topic is like, almost like in a data side, it's got to be relevant to the business and the revenue side. like for your team to have like the sales background and understanding on that, like is okay, gathering information from the AI, like that's one thing, but how do we turn that into better customer experiences? How do we turn that into, you know, reducing churn for some of the prospect or some of the clients?
Ben Henson (15:41.806)
Totally.
Kyle James (15:42.475)
There's got to be that connection piece. Otherwise it's just data. It's just, it's just fuel with no fire. Like we need, we need more than that. You know what mean? So looking at everyone, everyone listening in today, you know, talking a little bit about like this, you know, 2025, I'm just 2026. Who knows what's going to be out by there's probably going to be, I'm going to have probably a robot doing my laundry here at my house, probably six months. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.
Ben Henson (15:48.302)
100%. Yeah.
Ben Henson (15:58.858)
Yeah.
Yeah, I hope so. hope so. Walking the dog. Yeah. Cleaning the dishes. Yeah. I want Rosie from the Jetsons. Heck yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly.
Kyle James (16:08.979)
I know, I know. You're going to see me, I'm going to be at the pool. I'm going be at the poolside, playing with my water gun. So, 2026, is upcoming couple of months. What are the upcoming AI initiatives that Peel is looking towards and what do see it playing the biggest role in your operations next?
Ben Henson (16:31.15)
We are truly, truly an AI native company. So every single thing that we do is AI first. So you're seeing so many trends of CEOs going, know, don't hire unless it can't, we've never even had that philosophy because we always say, okay, how can AI accomplish this goal? And then finally, do we need a person ultimately at the other end of it? So as we think about the evolution of our business,
There's, there's a couple of different primary categories that we think about, but it's all in support of automating conversations to go back to like marketing and sales at its most basic companies don't buy people do. Companies are concentrated people, excuse me, people, organizations. So if we can continue to evolve our, our business in such a way that we're able to support the entire website, we're in
Kyle James (17:07.713)
Hmm.
Ben Henson (17:30.036)
and able to support entire life cycles of customers for organizations, that will be us doing a really great job for our customers and for their customers. And if we can consistently think about how can we support our customers' customer, we're going to win.
Kyle James (17:42.113)
you
Kyle James (17:49.759)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. No, for sure. And as we wrap up here today, where can people learn a little bit more about you, Ben, and maybe a little bit more about Peele?
Ben Henson (18:00.806)
yeah. So we would encourage everybody who's interested in, in automating a conversation to go to get peel.ai and we've leaned very heavily into the whole vibe coding vibe marketing side of it. So you can actually build conversations right on our, right on our site and be able to automate a case study or automated discovery conversation or
create really whatever that use is that you need, whether it's sales enablement or whatever that conversation may be, they're welcome to do that. And I'm very proud to say that the only socials I'm on is LinkedIn, but I encourage anyone to join me in my ongoing LinkedIn quest for relevance by linking me in and saying hi.
Kyle James (18:46.993)
Yes, please.
Kyle James (18:53.663)
Yeah. Awesome. Great. Well, hey, Ben, it's pleasure. I appreciate the conversation today. And for everyone listening in, remember, if you're looking to implement AI into your business today, don't try and do it yourself. The time of stress that AI could cause just isn't worth it. Schedule a call with GPT Trainer and let them build out and manage your AI for you. Once again, that's gpt-trainer.com. Signing off for now, have a wonderful rest of your day. Thanks again, Ben. Appreciate you, brother.
Ben Henson (19:20.6)
Thanks, Kyle.
Kyle James (19:20.817)
and looking forward to seeing you on the next episode of AI Chronicles.
