Applied Labs is a privately held company specializing in the development and deployment of AI agents designed to enhance operational efficiency for businesses. Founded in 2024 by Michael Woo and Soham Waychal, the company focuses on creating AI support and operations agents tailored for enterprises and small businesses, leveraging human creativity and artificial intelligence to solve real-world challenges.
Key Strategic Focus
Applied Labs is dedicated to transforming how businesses deploy AI agents for complex support and operations tasks. Their primary objective is to build high-quality, reliable, and easy-to-use AI agents that can handle intricate workflows with unprecedented reliability. The company's solutions uniquely combine omnichannel interactions spanning chat, email, and phone to manage 100% of volume; sophisticated AI agent orchestration for handling Q&A and AI workflows; and comprehensive evaluation tools for testing, auditing, and monitoring AI outputs. This approach includes built-in human-in-the-loop escalations, ensuring a balance between AI efficiency and human judgment for complex, emotional interactions.
Financials and Funding
In January 2025, Applied Labs secured $4.2 million in seed funding, bringing the total raised to $5.2 million. The seed round was led by Abstract, with participation from Point72 Ventures, Outlander, and Tetra. Notable angel investors include Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch, Modal CTO Akshat Bubna, and former Twitter executive Ali Rowghani. The funding is intended to accelerate hiring of engineers to advance the company's ambitious product roadmap.
Technological Platform and Innovation
Applied Labs' technological platform is distinguished by its integration of advanced AI capabilities with human oversight. The company's AI agents are fine-tuned to businesses' knowledge bases and empowered with AI actions, which typically involve first and third-party integrations. Their approach includes built-in human-in-the-loop escalations, recognizing that finding the right balance between AI efficiency and human touch for complex, emotional interactions remains crucial.
Leadership Team
- Michael Woo, CEO: Joined Scale AI as employee #20 and led a team of 30 focused on operations scalability. Recognized the opportunity to build AI agents capable of handling complex workflows with unprecedented reliability.
- Soham Waychal, CTO: Previously led engineering at a16z-backed Canal and holds five AI patents. Brings deep technical expertise to the challenge of developing reliable AI agents.
Competitor Profile
Applied Labs operates in the competitive landscape of AI-driven automation solutions. Key competitors include:
- Gumloop: A Canada-based no-code platform designed to automate repetitive and complex workflows end-to-end using AI.
- Simplifai: A Norwegian company specializing in AI automation solutions for the insurance and banking industries, creating a variety of solutions including email processing and document handling.
- RevvedUp: A UK-based provider of a SaaS platform that uses AI and automation to transform prospect engagement, enabling B2B SaaS revenue teams to accelerate growth.
Strategic Collaborations and Partnerships
Applied Labs has established partnerships with ambitious companies to build exceptional AI support and operations agents. The company is trusted by the world's largest enterprises, modern small businesses, and everyone in between.
Operational Insights
Applied Labs' strategic considerations in relation to major competitors focus on their distinct competitive advantages, including their unique combination of omnichannel interactions, sophisticated AI agent orchestration, and comprehensive evaluation tools. Their approach includes built-in human-in-the-loop escalations, ensuring a balance between AI efficiency and human judgment for complex, emotional interactions.
Strategic Opportunities and Future Directions
Looking ahead, Applied Labs plans to double its headcount in the coming months to meet growing customer interest. The funding will accelerate hiring of engineers to advance the company's ambitious product roadmap. By focusing on quality, reliability, and empowering non-technical teams to resolve the most complex, painful issues with AI, the company is building toward a future where almost every company can confidently deploy AI across their most complex operations—transforming not just how work gets done, but redefining what's possible when artificial and human intelligence work in harmony.
Contact Information
- Website: appliedlabs.ai
- LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/applied-labs/
- X (formerly Twitter): twitter.com/appliedlabs
