Cultivating Agentic AI innovation: IBM Ecosystem's Build Partner program facilitates AI collaborations
IBM's Build Partner program fosters an environment where businesses can collaborate, learn and grow together. As technologies continue to reshape industries, initiatives like IBM’s Build Partner program are serving as the bedrock of meaningful innovations.
A compelling illustration is the recent collaboration between two startups, Bakstage.AI and Ovum Health.
After meeting at an IBM Build Partner advisory board networking event, the two companies united in a shared goal of enhancing their user experiences with AI. They began exploring a partnership that resulted in a collaboration with IBM to integrate watsonx.ai into a solution that combines Bakstage's AI-enhanced video chat platform with Ovum's clinical acumen—ultimately offering insights into patients' health, ensuring adherence to clinical guidelines and providing highly personalized care.
Founded by Shashank Singh, Bakstage.AI has been pivotal in redefining sales and customer service through its AI-empowered, human-focused video communication platform. Their AI agents work seamlessly with humans and other AI agents, offering 1:1 live video communication. By incorporating IBM's watsonx.ai, Bakstage's video concierge has evolved, introducing advanced features including AI notetaking and sentiment analysis. These developments have not only enriched customer interactions but also provided valuable insights for quality assessments aligned with CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) guidelines.
In parallel, Ovum Health, a fertility-focused telehealth provider, has been dedicated to delivering accessible, personalized pre-pregnancy, pre- and postnatal care to expectant mothers. Ovum Health's clinicians have benefited from Bakstage's remote capabilities, enabling more engaging, face-to-face interactions with patients, designed to boost patient satisfaction and the depth of consultations.
The impact is real. Alice Crisci, Ovum Health’s CEO, shared that since integrating Bakstage.AI, their free, live nursing consults’ no-show rate dropped from as high as 70% to under 10%, and their conversion rate to paying patients rose to 77%. The integration not only improved patient access and trust, but also dramatically lowered customer acquisition cost from USD 156 to USD 56.
The sentiment analysis feature delivers immense value. Ovum Health can track both patient and provider sentiment during video calls, offering powerful insights into emotional tone and care quality — something that has significantly enhanced their payer positioning and patient experience.
Ovum Health's clinicians can deduce profound insights from patient data to formulate more precise diagnoses and customized treatment plans. Dr. Laurence A. Jacobs, fertility specialist at Ovum Health, explains that the technology has made patient care more human—his focus is no longer taking notes on his computer during patient calls, he is able to fully engage in quality face time and conversation. Additionally, Bakstage’s platform facilitates training to help clinicians to glean lessons from extensive health data and refine their clinical abilities and knowledge. Ovum Health's Chief of Clinical Operations, Lauren Haring, points to the value of Bakstage in onboarding, scaling and monitoring clinician performance. It enables her to audit clinicians' sessions, identify top performers and facilitate targeted learning opportunities.
The fruits of this collaboration highlight how effectively IBM’s Build promotion team works with its Partner community to build personal relationships and broker introductions, based on a deep understanding of partners’ businesses and associated use cases. By amalgamating companies with complementary strengths, the program cultivates innovation, nurturing the creation and transformative potential of solutions that can propel business in new ways.
As we look to the future of healthcare and beyond, collaborations like Ovum Health and Bakstage exemplify possibilities that arise from partnerships. The team behind IBM's Partner program remains steadfast in its mission to orchestrate these kinds of opportunities, reinforcing a dedication to fostering progress in the AI era.
Learn more about this inspiring collaboration and the impact of IBM's Build Partner program. See how watsonx can power your next success story.