AI & ML

Your employees spend most of their workday searching for information and moving data from one place to another

By
Joel Passen
May 9, 2023
5 min read

In today's world, the power of AI is undeniable and, in many cases, is yet unknown. Businesses are leveraging this technology to increase their productivity and efficiency in ways that were never before possible. From semantic search to content generation, AI has enabled teams across the globe to work smarter, faster, and more effectively than ever before. But what really takes AI-powered productivity to the next level is converging information. Zeya Yan and Kristina Shen contend,

To date, generative AI applications have overwhelmingly focused on the divergence of information. That is, they create new content based on a set of instructions. In Wave 2, we believe we will see more applications of AI to converge information…While Wave 1 has created some value at the application layer, we believe Wave 2 will bring a step function change.”

In other words, this synthesis or convergence of information promises to revolutionize how businesses operate. In this blog post, we'll explore how much time teams are currently wasting with mundane tasks and how Synthesis AI can ameliorate that. 

Generative and Synthesis AI

Before we do that, let’s first define what Synthesis or Applied AI is. In simple terms, it is the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in a practical context. It involves using AI algorithms and techniques to solve real-world problems or create new products or services by synthesizing vast volumes of data into insights. Examples include self-driving cars, facial recognition software, natural language processing, and machine learning. Applied AI can help businesses save time and money by automating routine tasks and providing better insights into customer behavior. For example, Sturdy is an Applied AI vendor using several AI techniques to help businesses understand and act on customer and prospect interactions more effectively.

Let’s take a deeper look at how Applied AI can power the productivity of your team. We’ll begin by taking a close look at the standard American work week. According to a 2023 Zippia study, the average American adult works 38.7 hours weekly. That is roughly 8 hours a day during the standard work week. There seems to be plenty of time to accomplish meaningful work, but there’s a catch. Workers spend more than half of their workday searching for information and doing manual data entry. A 2022 Coveo report found that “the average employee spends 3.6 hours daily searching for information.” The report highlights an increase in one hour per day over the last year, a “trend heading in the wrong direction.” Imagine the impact that has on your business. To keep the math simple, if you have 100 employees working 262 days a year, that’s nearly 100,000 hours of wasted time a year. And as the old adage goes, time is money. 

wasted hours in a workday

But it doesn’t end there. Your employees spend nearly as much time simply moving data from one place to another as they are searching for information. A 2021 Zapier study concluded,

76% of respondents said they spend 1-3 hours a day simply moving data from one place to another. Additionally, 73% of workers spend 1-3 hours just trying to find information or a particular document.”

Put that into perspective for one moment. That means your workforce is potentially spending up to 75% of their time looking for information or moving data from one location to another. Thanks to AI, it doesn’t need to be this way.

Sturdy doubles your team's productivity

For example, Sturdy uses Applied AI to make data entry and searching for information unnecessary. Sturdy collects all unstructured interactions with your prospects and customers—the stuff stuck in various silos—emails, chats, tickets, call transcripts, etc. It cleans it up, synthesizes it with different data sources, and gets it into one searchable system every team will use. And let’s be honest, your business will never generate less data than it does now. With Sturdy, the dark data trapped in your business finds the people, systems, and teams that need it most without requiring data entry. Now organizations can route cancellation insights to account managers—surface unbiased feature requests to product teams—send bug reports to the engineering team, and more. Sturdy automatically delivers the insights to answer the “why?” and “what next?” to the teams and systems that need it most. Yesterday you searched for information. With Sturdy, it will find you. 

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Integrations

Product Update! Sturdy now integrates with Jira

Joel Passen
March 10, 2025
5 min read

We’re making it easier than ever to turn customer feedback into action while saving businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. With Sturdy’s new Jira Connect, any AI-powered Signal in Sturdy can be automatically logged in Jira—helping teams capture, prioritize, and resolve issues faster than ever.

Sturdy for Jira is a Game Changer

Every team needs to know more about their customers. 

Turn customer feedback into valuable Jira content automatically. Sturdy’s AI accurately detects feature requests, bug reports, and other critical product feedback. Customizable agents then deliver this context-rich intelligence to a configurable staging area in Jira with all relevant user and account details, such as segment, ARR, and more. The content is objectively summarized automatically. From there, assigning it to an epic, task, sprint, or release is just one click.

Productivity Gains that Move the Needle

Businesses are unknowingly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on something as simple as manually logging Jira issues. A single customer-facing rep wastes nearly 87 hours annually on repetitive data entry—scaling up to a staggering $354,200 per year for a team of 100 reps. By integrating Sturdy’s AI-driven automation, businesses can reclaim thousands of hours, improve productivity, and reinvest those savings into growth and innovation—all while ensuring more accurate, real-time data flows into Jira effortlessly.

Align product teams with customer reality.

By centralizing AI-powered insights in Jira, Sturdy ensures that product and engineering teams get a complete, objective picture of what’s working, what’s broken, and what needs to be built—without relying on anecdotal feedback. Customer-reported issues appear in Jira moments after they happen, ensuring your product and engineering teams stay ahead of emerging trends and critical bugs—without the lag of traditional reporting.

Effortless setup, immediate impact.

Sturdy’s turnkey integration takes minutes to configure. Once connected, your team gains instant access to context-rich, structured feedback—helping you make faster, data-driven decisions that improve customer satisfaction.

Want to get started? Click the 'Schedule Demo' button at the top of the page.

Integrations

Product Update! Sturdy Now Analyzes Customer Slack Channels

Joel Passen
March 3, 2025
5 min read

We’re making it easier than ever for teams to tap into the power of customer conversations. With this integration, Sturdy’s AI-driven insights—trained to spot key behaviors and trends unique to your business—are now right where your team works. That means more proactive decisions, better collaboration, and a serious productivity boost.

Here’s how Sturdy works with Slack.

  • Get the right insights, right in Slack. Sturdy delivers AI-powered Signals where your team already works, flagging risks, expansion opportunities, and other key moments in real-time. No more digging through conversations—just actionable insights when you need them.

  • Stay on top of every conversation. If your team works asynchronously in Slack channels, it’s easy for important feedback to get lost. Sturdy keeps you ahead by surfacing critical insights before they slip through the cracks.

  • Act fast, not after the fact. Whether it’s a service risk, a feature request, or a potential upsell, Sturdy helps teams spot and respond to what matters—without disrupting their workflow.

Seamless sync with your tools. Sturdy doesn’t just stop at Slack. Insights discovered in customer Slack channels automatically flow into Jira, CSPs, CRMs, and other systems, ensuring the right teams get the right info—without extra work.

Customer Intelligence

He doesn’t talk much, but when he does, you’d better listen.

Steve Hazelton
February 27, 2025
5 min read

He doesn’t talk much, but when he does, you’d better listen.

Quote from C-3PO, Star Wars: A New Hope

A few days ago, I spoke to a business leader, and they asked, "How would Sturdy work for customers who never contact us?"

"Do you know who those customers are?"

"No idea."

"Would you like to?"

“Dark Customers.” It is almost impossible to source this list. Your customer might be dark to five silos, and bright in just one. 

(By the way, there is a little-known filter in the Accounts page of Sturdy that lets you sort by “Last Inbound.”  Check it out. You can see the last time any customer sent you an inbound message.)

Let’s be fair. In a recurring-revenue business, a lack of inbound contact isn’t necessarily bad. Sometimes your customers don’t feel the need to chat with you, but they like you just the same. 

But, here’s the cool thought. What should happen when a Dark Customer suddenly reaches out? 

For example, Acme Corp sends an email to your CS team for the first time in 18 months. What needs to happen next?

I would want to know. So, we’re working on that. Naming such a signal is a bit tricky, if you have ideas, let us know.

How many customers will you have to lose before you try Sturdy?

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