Bedford tech company expands with an eye on AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an important subject to Nick Soggu, CEO of SilverTech, a Bedford-based digital experience agency.

AI is near and dear to Soggu not only as SilverTech expands its business pursuits with the recent purchase of another tech company, Paragon, but also personally to Soggu as he works toward a doctorate degree in AI and machine learning.

AI has far-reaching consequences for business and for society as a whole, according to Soggu.

“The ethics and the threat side of things is very real. I think as these reasoning models are being created and now start to get more advanced, they do take on interesting types of personalities,” Soggu said.

“These models are getting to that level of thinking and cognizant behavior capabilities, where they’re starting to do more than regurgitate facts and provide the next best word fit,” he added.

Enhancing the use of AI was cited as one of the benefits cited in SilverTech’s recent purchase of Paragon, which is based in Ohio and brings to the table a broad client list that deepens SilverTech’s portfolio.

SilverTech’s headcount, as a result of the purchase, grew from around 85 to about 150, making it “uniquely positioned to lead innovation and drive transformative growth in the tech sector,” according to the statement that announced the purchase July 24.

Soggu said there were two primary reasons for the Paragon purchase: one technical, one strategic.

The technical part has to do with what Soggu called “digital experience products,” otherwise known as content management systems (CMS products such as WordPress) or digital experience platforms (DXPs).

“Paragon happens to be in a market providing the same types of services we do, but they’re working with a whole different set of these digital experience solutions. And so what you have is the best of both worlds when you combine the two firms,” said Soggu.

Strategically, said Soggu, Paragon had clients in certain areas that SilverTech did not.

“They work with just like we do with a variety of brands that are different than we are, in verticals that are different than we are. And at the end of the day, it’s a diversification strategy in the client concentration,” said Soggu. “They don’t work with a lot of banks and credit unions that we do, as an example, but they have a lot of direct-to-consumer type brands like Ugg and brands of that nature that they’re providing services for. And so it expands our customer hopeful portfolio as well.”

The AI component adds some horsepower to the organization, according to Soggu.

“The future is really about what we’re going to be doing together using artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies for our client base, and the combined horsepower, from an engineering perspective, that we’re able to bring to the table,” said Soggu.

According to the company, the combined strength of the companies offers the following benefits:

Scale the delivery of AI-powered personalization, predictive analytics and intelligent search.

Accelerate innovation in machine learning, conversational interfaces and process automation.

Deepen customer research and deliver digital strategy that is aligned with business strategy.

Expand CMS and DXP platform expertise with top-tier technology partnerships and solutions, and is certified and well credentialed in Sitecore, Progress Sitefinity, Kentico, Hubspot, Contentstack, Contentful, Salesforce, Sanity and Big Commerce.

“This acquisition brings together Paragon’s deep enterprise experience and consulting expertise with SilverTech’s strengths in digital marketing, media and managed services,” said Jeff McPherson, chief growth officer at SilverTech. “Together, we are expanding our ability to serve a broader range of markets with a powerful mix of strategic insight and technical innovation — helping clients harness data, personalize experiences, improve decision-making and drive automation.”

In that growing use of AI, there are threats and opportunities, as Soggu has studied both as a tech executive and PhD student.

“The world of deep fakes and the world of creating content that looks and feels like human created content — and it’s very compelling content — that’s a dangerous and slippery slope,” said Soggu. “I think there’s a lot, from an ethics perspective, that’s yet to be determined, things that we should be certainly concerned about.”

At the same time, according to Soggu, AI can produce efficiencies that ultimately benefit a business.

“The opportunities are very compelling in terms of efficiency gains, in terms of work output gains,” he said. “Large corporations are seeing upwards of 30% to 50% gains in efficiency and work output.”

In his work, Soggu said AI can be applied to some quality assurance tasks.

“We can put a website through its paces using AI tools and technologies to do user testing much more efficiently and effectively than we can with five or six humans involved in that process,” Soggu said.