Carecode Raises $4.3 Million for AI-Powered Customer Service in Healthcare

Brazilian startup Carecode has closed a pre-seed round to support the development of its service that uses conversational artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver customer service in healthcare.

The service enables healthcare companies to talk in the tone of their brand, “with empathy and clarity”; provide answers about scheduling, billing, FAQs and other issues; reduce costs; and increase operational efficiency, the company said in a Monday (Dec. 30) post translated to English by LinkedIn.

“Our mission is clear: to help healthcare companies deliver faster, more efficient and more humane care,” the company said in the post.

Carecode raised $4.3 million in its pre-seed round, which was mostly funded by a16z and QED, TechCrunch reported Monday in an article to which Carecode linked in another post.

Early results in tests that Carecode is conducting with a partner suggest that the company’s AI agents can handle most of the tasks performed by a typical healthcare call center at “a fraction of the cost,” according to the report.

The company’s service supports both text and audio messages on WhatsApp and will handle voice calls in the future, the report said.

Currently, healthcare companies in Brazil spend 50% of their revenue on contact centers and administrative payroll, per the report.

Generative AI is reshaping the landscape of customer service by automating repetitive tasks, improving personalization and enabling real-time support, according to PYMNTS Intelligence’s “The AI MonitorEdge Report: AI in the Chat: Generative AI’s Growing Role in Customer Service.”

The report found that 97% of chief marketing officers (CMOs) said they found generative AI highly effective for assisting employees and customers in accessing information quickly and easily.

Enterprise software providers like Microsoft and Salesforce are racing to give companies AI systems that can independently handle customer service and business tasks like scheduling meetings, resolving customer complaints and processing orders, PYMNTS reported in October.

Bank of America’s virtual assistant, Erica, has dealt with over 50 million client requests since its launch in 2018, PYMNTS reported in June.

Jorge Camargo, managing director of digital product management at Bank of America, told PYMNTS: “Over 98% of clients get the answers they need from Erica.”