Should AI be your next new hire?!

Your store’s phones are either making you money or quietly leaking it. We sit down with Viraj from Atlog to get past the buzzwords and talk about what AI actually does inside rent-to-own operations when the goal is simple: reach more customers, collect more consistently, and stop missing calls and texts.

We break down where Atlog started and why the first wedge was collections automation in the RTO space. Viraj explains how they learned the business by visiting dealers across the country, then turned that discovery into AI voice agents that can handle inbound calls, outbound outreach, and two-way texting. For RNR Tire Express locations, that means AI that can educate callers on the program, understand store availability, and book real appointments. Viraj shares real-world performance signals, including top stores seeing 15 to 20 extra leads per week per store, plus examples of how AI can eventually take payments by phone or text and even negotiate within dealer-approved ranges.

We also get into the stuff that makes dealers nervous for good reason: integrations, security, and compliance. Viraj explains why modern systems like Revo are easier to integrate via APIs, how Atlog connects to other tools like CRMs and texting platforms, and what “AI that won’t get you sued” looks like in practice, including TCPA rules and state-by-state dialing limits. If you’re weighing AI for rent-to-own collections, appointment scheduling, or inbound call handling, this conversation gives you the questions to ask and the guardrails to demand.

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Transcript

Welcome And Quick Housekeeping

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, that's going. Are you good?

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Good.

SPEAKER_00 0:04

All right. And three. Two. Hello and welcome to the RTO show. I'm your host, Pete Shout. And listen, every day, you guys probably listen to a podcast. You're going to hear me say something. This is somebody I brought back today. We were talking to Atlog. Listen, these guys got it going on. But when we first talked to them, when we last talked to them, they were fresh on the scene. Now I've got Virage here telling me they're doing all kinds of stuff. And uh I know for a fact that you're going to want to hear about it. But first, make sure you subscribe, make sure you hit that notification bell so you don't miss anything, especially things like we do today. Make sure you go to the podcast website at the RTO Showpodcast.com. Subscribe to the newsletter because we talk all kinds of stuff that you might not hear on the podcast. And last but not least, make sure if you listen to the show and you like it, become a sponsor. That's how we get to stay up in front of you. Now, my man, Virage, uh, dude, how long has it been? It's been uh maybe a year, 18 months that we met. Has it been almost two years now?

SPEAKER_01 1:05

A little around a year at this point, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

So last year, yeah. That's what it was. FRD. So I'm I'm I'm literally, guys, I'm literally doing my thing. I'm going around, I see them, but I don't really get to see them. And then the next time I see you guys, well, the next time I see anybody is an MRDA, right? So now we're in Missouri. We have a conversation, and uh what it seemed like is there was a lot going on. But before we tackle into that, let's find out a little about because it was somebody else last time. I want to know what's going on with you. What caused you to get into the RTO space? Because I know that you were a big part of that. And dude, I heard that there's some really nice things going on with Atlog right now. Like I at first I was kind of like, where are you guys gonna get in? You know, there's a lot of uh trepidation in the RTO world of kind of moving too fast, too quick. And next thing I know, you guys are on the money. I mean, it it's happening. So let's let's start off first because uh I hear, I hear of Raj is a historian at heart. Is that true?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Yes, yes, it is. Yeah, I studied history and computer science in college. So those were those are my two subjects, and I did a lot of history stuff in high school as well.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

So how does how does the how does the history guy start with AI? Like where does that come from?

SPEAKER_01 2:18

Well, I I had the computer science as well. So I was always doing different like AI research. Um, I was always coding, always like building things, and then history was just because I really liked reading as well. Um, so yeah, kind of just had both the analytical and the more humanities side at the same time. And I still do that now.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

So listen, uh before we get into the whole thing, I want to talk about a little bit of the uh Virage Wild Child. Did you actually get kicked out of high school?

SPEAKER_01 2:47

No, I did not. No. I did not get kicked out of high school.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Somebody, somebody, somebody said that it's possible. I was like, I don't think so. I don't think that was the guy. But listen, truthfully, you have this historian, you have this computer background. As you're going through, then you end up at Vanderbilt, you end up on the Y Combinator. I, you know, I don't think I asked this enough in the past, but why is a Y Combinator make it so much more in the field that you're in, so much better? Because being at Vanderbilt is no small thing. Going a little bit further and being a Y Combinator, what does that mean? And what does that you know afford you to have going into this AI scene?

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Yeah, for sure. So Y Combinator, they're the original funders of a lot of companies that you've heard of. So companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, DoorDash, and most important definitely is OpenAI, right? So OpenAI was founded as part of Y Combinator. And really just being in that ecosystem, number one, what they do is they give you funding to take your company off the ground, which is really important. And they're our first believers in terms of investors. Um, not only that, but also you get the name, like the credence as well. So it's like, yes, we were super smart and we're able to do all of these great things and we were able to code, but it's really nice when someone who's like a titan of the industry who has funded really, really great companies also funds you as well. Um, and then you also have like that peer network. So our mentor, David at Y Combinator, he created Google Photos. So his apps had a billion users. So getting mentorship from those kinds of people is not something that you can get anywhere, right? Um and yeah, so it honestly just helped us just with every single part of our company, just on the funding side, but also just how

Viraj’s Path Into AI

SPEAKER_01 4:40

to kind of just get off the ground as well.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

So paint me a picture. What does a typical day look like for you guys? And I know that you know, coming into this, there was a lot of discovery, right? There was not only getting into the business of AI, but finding out how the business of AI was going to affect RTO, what in ways that you could utilize AI. And like there's been like, and I think when we talked, even when we talked, there has been so much of an explosion of AI directness in what everything we do, right? It's on our phones, it's on our computers. I can have Claude do half the stuff that I needed to do. Now, so this is an iteration that is here. And I believe that, and I've always believed that Atlog is like on the forefront of ushering that in. Now, what what what does it look like that you've how first off, when did you end with Y Combinator, or is there an ending to Y Combinator? And how did you get into Atlog in the first place?

SPEAKER_01 5:34

Yeah, so Y Combinator itself is like a three-month program. So we ended in June of last year. So um yeah, so that's when we ended Y Combinator. That being said, it's like an ongoing process, it's a community that lives on um, it's like a school, right? So it's like once you're part of a school, you're always an alumni forever, and you have that community, you still have those peer networks and those mentorships as well. Um, yeah, and then specifically just around what things look like on a day-to-day for us. So especially when we were doing Discovery, honestly, what we did is we flew across the country and we just visited customers in different RTOs, RTO stores. So we would just go in person and try to learn about their different problems. So we were in Arizona, we were in Illinois, we were in Indiana, we were in Nashville, we were all over. Um, we were in Tampa and FRDA, just trying to learn about the problems that RTO dealers had. So before we even had a product, making sure that we were solving a problem that was worth solving that matter to dealers as well.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

So I'm looking at I'm looking at the overall aspect of it because I know that as you're looking at RTO, you're like, there are so many places that we can do this. There are calls that could be made, there are sales calls that could be followed up on, there's scheduling that could be done, there could be ordering situations, but it's never as easy as saying, well, that's all it needs and let's get it done, right? So there's there's more to it. First off, uh, you know, you got to come into it, look at it, do the discovery, like you said, find the pain points, and then match up what you have to those pain points or tailor what you have. Now that we're kind of already in it, because you've kind of gone through that, you've kind of done this discovery. Now you're standing in front of Rent to Own. And I've seen you do MRDA, I've seen you do FRDA. What are some of the players that you have that you've worked with where somebody can go, you know what? I know that company. I might want to try Atlog because I trust the guy that they're working with.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Yeah, for sure. So our biggest one is definitely R. So within the RR franchise, we've been working with them. Um, we've been working with corporate along with a bunch of franchisees as well. We're working with Hometown up in Pennsylvania and in uh upstate New York as well. We're working with a virtual um lease-to-owned player called U Own Leasing. They've been really great. Uh, they're headquartered down in Tampa. And we've been uh in the works with a few other dealers as well that I can't name just yet. But um, yeah, things have been going well on that side. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

So versus when you first came on. Now, when I when we first came on, and you guys might be able to see this on the on the last podcast, I actually took a call with one of the virtual assistants, and it it was it was quite phenomenal. It was actually it was actually breathtaking. It did a pretty good job. Now, mind you, I didn't get into it and I didn't say I'm not paying my damn bill. But what I did do is I get into it, and it was a little bit, you know, it was a little bit back and forth, and the bancer was good. Now, fast forward 12 months, you said one of your biggest clients right now is R and R.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Can you walk me through what is happening in the rent-to-owned space that needed AI and how were you, you know, what areas did you tackle first?

SPEAKER_01 8:44

Yeah, so honestly, so we started off just seeing that collections is a huge, huge part of the rent-to-owned space. That's how the business operates, that's how you make money. You need to make sure customers are on time, and you there's a lot of manpower there as well. So our first stop was 100% around collections. So that is something that we launched with first UON. Um, and then but for RR, we realized that with collections, we would have to have all these different software integrations and things like that. So we started with like a more introduced introductory problem around just handling inbound phone calls. Since um R is more of like a service-based business, they sell tires and wheels. They need to be able to handle every single kind of inbound call. They need to be able to educate customers on what RTO is, what the payment plan looks like, things like that, what the RR difference is, what the benefits are about going to R. So it's like, how do you bring that into a computer system? And so that was like the main challenge that we've been having to face and that we've been able to get over, is that we're able to bring kind of like the essence of what the business is and put that into an AI, which I think has been really powerful and a reason why a lot of our customers like what we've been doing.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Let me ask you a question. I know that right now R is running on what some might call a proprietary system, uh, you know, uh for their short-term uh calling is Revo, right? So they have Revo that's something they've been using for a few years. This is not somewhere that's everywhere. It's something that right now is just at R. Is there an advantage from having something that was kind of a little bit made from scratch, being able to be involved in some of the coding that happens? Or was I mean, I would imagine there's an advantage, but like did you catch it early enough to integrate well, or was it something that you had to backtrack and kind of find some backdoors to make it work?

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Yeah, 100%. I think the best thing about Revo, um, yes, it's new, it's they're really just trying to push the program forward. But I think something that's super great about them is that the team is really good. So the team is super responsive, they're really sharp, they're good developers. Um, and that's honestly the best thing about Revo is that they're all very hungry, which is great for us. Um, where, you know, in a world where you want to move as quick as possible versus before someone kind of eats your lunch, um, that's where the Revo team has like really shined for us.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

So, what is it

Discovery Trips Through RTO Stores

SPEAKER_00 11:20

that they have that allows you to integrate so well? Because there is some there's some rumors that I've heard, and I want to, I'm gonna, we're gonna approach those a little bit later because I hear that AI is all up in what we're doing. But when you're talking about systems, right, there are some there's some POS systems out there or operating systems, whatever you want to call them, that are not easily integrated with. Now they're easy, they're either using something that looks like a dot matrix or they're using a Windows 7-based operating system. What is it about the systems that has made Revo so inertly capable? And are those other systems something that you can actually work with? Or are they just out of the park? I can't, I can't get AI to go.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Yeah, so the thing about the Revo systems is that their own developers are able to develop um API. So basically just like connections, programmatic connections into the systems, right? And whereas the old ones, you have to do a lot of finagling. You might we have had to do some of our own integrations and things like that. So the best thing about Revo is that their own internal dev team kind of set themselves up, set themselves up for success to make their program very extensible and open to the right vendors and the right partners as well. Um, yeah, that's really what makes a difference. So that's why like building it from the ground up on new and modern technology has been really important, um, especially when we're trying to integrate with AI. That being said, we have figured out a few different ways to integrate with other providers.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Okay, so right now, if somebody was to hear what's going on, which we'll cover out in a few minutes, they can feel somewhat okay that you might be able to help them out as well.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

Okay. Now we when we're talking about the wheel and tire, guys, the wheel and tire business is a little bit different in the sense that we're not driving to homes to give them wheel and tires. What we do is we schedule them in the back shop, they come in and we take care of them there. Now, is there ever a time where we have to leave the building? Absolutely. You might have a flat tire somewhere or you're trying to provide a service, but in truth, is 95% is going to be in store. And the reason that happens is because we gotta service tires, they gotta be rotated and balanced, they've got to be aligned, and they've got to be bought and sold. So that aspect is a little bit different of it. What I'm hearing is is that Revo has the ability, or at least the integration ability, to have AI help them set schedules.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Yes, that's correct. Yeah. So with Atlog, you can have, you can just call someone on the phone, an RR store that's using Atlog on the phone at any time, and it'll book you for an appointment. Um, it'll understand the store's availability, it'll understand how many texts there are, understand what services um that store offers and things like that. And it'll actually fully book that appointment and bring in more revenue for the stores as well.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

So when we're talking about that, uh let's be honest. And I and I just want I want to get into the nitty-gritty. Not everything works up front. How is the integration? How well does it work versus having somebody on the phone? What I mean, the success rate of getting these things and getting people in the door, do you have those type of numbers where you can say, you know, AI booked so many, and this is the success rate on those?

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Yeah. So some of our best stores, they're booking 15 to 20 extra leads per week per store. Um, and those are people that are coming in and actually like buying things, buying services, uh, looking at tires and wheels, um, scheduling callbacks, things like that. So yeah, you if used properly, you can definitely bring in a lot of extra revenue.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

How many of those AI uh integrations that you have going on are happening, let's say during hours versus after hours? Is that 15 to 20 after hours that it's getting set up, or is that during the day, or how does that work?

SPEAKER_01 15:05

20 both during and after hours. So the way our system works is that if you want to set it during hours, um, it'll basically, if someone does come to the phone, it'll go, it'll default to the human. But let's say sometimes, you know, the store misses a message, um, then the AI will handle it after the phone has been ringing for something like 30 seconds.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

So it actually picks up. And now what is the extent of what AI does, right? Are they calling? It sets up an appointment and that's it, or is there more to it that eventually it will do, or what does it do now?

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Yeah, so it'll set up an appointment, and then what we're also rolling out with a direct revo integration is that eventually we'll be able to directly take payments over the phone or over text. So the AI will be able to run the card on file, for example, um, based on if the customer texts, like, hey, can you run my card? Um, it'll be able to take a payment, it'll be able to kind of do like the account management piece, it'll be able to do outbound calls. It's also able to do uh inbound texts as well. So if a customer prefers not to just call, but they want to text the store, um, it'll do text as well. And let's say someone from the store forgot to respond to a customer, the AI will come in and pick up that conversation to make sure the customer is always being addressed as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Wow. Uh that's pretty wild. I'm gonna ask a crazy question, but how good is the AI at negotiating?

SPEAKER_01 16:30

Yeah, um, honestly, it depends on how much you want it to negotiate. So we have some customers where they'll give AI like a range that it can negotiate from. So it's like, I need to collect $600 from this person, but I'm willing to take between 80 to 90% of that. And if you get between 80 to 90 percent, then you can go ahead and run that payment. So the AI will actually be able to negotiate, where if someone says, Hey, I can't um I can't make a payment of $600, and then the AI will say, Oh, can you do like $580? And then it's like, no, I can't do that. Oh, okay, can you do something like 573? And so it'll choose like kind of like a random number to not make it seem like it's just going down 5%, 10% each time. And then the customer is like, oh no, I can only do 200. Okay, I can't do 200. So it'll make sure to like block itself. Um, so it's only it's the negotiation of it is as good as you

Starting With Collections And Calls

SPEAKER_01 17:30

as you want it to be, really. Um, and how creative you are with setting it. And we help you do that, of course.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Uh well, I mean, I like the idea. You know, your tagline says AI that won't get you sued, which is a very, it's a very wild tagline. Be honest with you, I like it. It's catchy. Um, so as it's negotiating, as it's setting up time frames, what is something you know everybody's worried about that. They don't want AI to make a claim, to say something bold, to do something that we shouldn't do, and then it gets us in trouble. When you say that tagline, not only does it sound very useful, it sounds very you know pragmatic. So talk to me. What does that really mean? When you say AI, that won't get you sued. And do you know somebody? Do you know somebody who's been down that road that has actually had to worry about that?

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Yeah, no, honestly, it's because we saw it as like a big concern for the RTO industry, right? There are all of these concerns around technology, how it operates, what if it goes off the rails. So we wanted to make people aware that that's like on our forefront. So not even just around the AI, but everything, or not even the AI itself, but everything around it as well. So you'll we'll actually be able to handle all the TCPA rules and regulations on a state-by-state basis. So like RNR has stores in tons of states, like 30 plus states, right? And so what we can do is based on each state and each state's rules, we're able to make sure that you know the AI doesn't call someone too many times based on Florida laws uh versus Alabama might be different. Um so things like that. But then also based on what the AI says. So you never want to say financing in like an RTO context, we make sure that it doesn't say those words. Um, and those are something that's something that's like really important um for us to make sure that dealers feel safe deploying it. Um, and something that they've that we've noticed is that it tends to be a lot more safe than maybe even a human, where it'll never get mad at a customer, it'll never like um yeah, get upset with them, it'll never say anything that's totally off script, which is something I am not paying you, I'm not doing this.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

You better give me my money, man. Um so going from then to now, what were some of the things that you were running into that you uh what have you overcome in the last 12 to 18 months? What is it, you know, because I know when you first came on the spot, a lot of people were like, I'm not sure if this is gonna do it. I'm not ready to add AI to it, but the money sounds good, right? If I can do this for cheaper, listen, if anybody knows this, right now there's a lot of businesses that are going through it. They're oh, we're laying off this or we're laying off that. Well, why? Well, because computers are coding, computers are answering phones, computers are getting the natural day-to-days kind of done. Yes, there are people that are needed to do the extra, right? When if there's some brain power needed, they're gonna keep them. But honestly, like you said, uh, you know, if it if it's answering the phone, if it's texting customers, if it's making sure schedules are on time, it's a fraction of the cost. Now, I'm not saying it's good or bad, you're gonna have to make that decision for yourself, but it's here no matter what. When you first started, it wasn't that way. And I don't, you know, there was this amount of AI that you had, but now it's a little bit more vetted than it was. Have you been able to like knock some people's uh problems? You know, if I if I have a problem with it, right? If I have a conflict, have you been able to overcome those in the last 12 months with the accomplishments that you've made?

SPEAKER_01 20:51

Yeah, for sure. So I think it's a couple things. Number one, like you said, it's definitely just about education, just like how people are feeling about it, right? You need something to like sit in your mind and just kind of like, do I want this, do I not want this, what are my priorities? And that's totally fine. And yeah, that makes sense. What we want to show, um, and especially with our customers who like took that early chance on us, is just having really, really good customer service. So let's say the AI is not behaving properly, um, and just in ways that you didn't want it set. We'll be on that right away. We've had customers text us at 11 p.m. and then at 1 a.m. we put pushed up a change to the to to fix AI. So it's really just about like being there with the customer and like being able to show that like we care um about the customer and making sure that it's to their specifications and to their needs as well. Um, that's been the biggest thing. And by that, a lot of our customers have recommended it to their friends and can go from there, and then that starts just a very natural, nice sales process on that side, which is really great because our friends might have been. On the fence, or they didn't know. And so then there are those lot more proof points about not only the program, about the development, about the quality, but about us as a company as well.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

When you're talking about AI at home, I can I can go to my computer and I can ask Claude, you know, hey, analyze this, go through my emails, check this. I can chat GPT something. When you're talking about AI in the store's location, do the employees have a chance to interact with the AI, or is the AI separate from what they can interact with during their day-to-day processes?

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Yeah, so it really depends on how you as the dealer want to set it up. So we do have stores where the employees are working directly alongside of the AI. So for example, on text, sometimes the employee will come in, other times AI will come in and just

Revo Integration And Scheduling Wins

SPEAKER_01 22:50

like handle text with customers. And then we have others that just completely want to abstract it away. So if like they're doing primarily outbound calls, they just don't want employees dealing with it. They'll just like we'll have it all be AI. AI does this one function and that's it. That's the that's the only thing that it's doing. So it just really depends on the store, but we have a combination of both.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

I I think that, you know, when when people hear AI and they hear that it's this outside force and they don't get to really interact with it, they they get, you know, um schedules that come in and and people, I mean, this is a relationship business. You know, are you getting people that are like, you know what, I don't want to take AI because I'm gonna lose a relationship with the customer. I'm not gonna be able to be able to uh, you know, be as dialed in as I once was. And that's something that, you know, I as a one-store, two-store, three-store owner, I'm very interested in. How does that work? And how do you overcome that with the idea of this is brand new and you don't have to do anything, but you don't want to lose a relationship as well?

SPEAKER_01 23:47

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think the main thing is that it's not just treating it as like this black box that you can never see into and you have no idea what's going on. You just treat it as like a different employee, right? Same way you just hire an employee to maybe handle some of your customer conversations, just because you're not necessarily handling all of them doesn't mean that you can't go back and ask and see what's kind of going on with the customers. You should you still have that customer contact, right? Um, but you just have like someone else that's taking care of it. And eventually, you know, maybe once you go beyond one or two stores, you can't handle all of them yourself. Um, and so that's just kind of like the way that we've been approaching it.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

When you so we're talking about in RTO, how it affects TRTO. Here's a question I have. I'm looking at something here that says there's there's a possibility that AI, your AI, the way Atlog deals with AI, especially when it comes to R, is there an outside source that you use to deal with any other programs than just Revo, or is it just Revo now?

SPEAKER_01 24:52

Uh in RTO specifically, so we actually have been able to integrate with VerseRant as well. Um, so that's like our own integration that we built in-house. That being said, the Revo integration is like a native integration with Revo, a lot cleaner on that side and can do a lot more as well.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

What what's the help me out with that? Because I'm glad you said that. What is the difference between something that you really have to kind of port in or whatever you call it? I'm sorry, I don't know the jargon, but and and and revo where it's like you're you're there's a lot more integration because you got in at a time frame when they could start building the code to fit. Like, what are those differences? And you know, is there is there a program now that somebody could say, you know what, I'd rather go to this operating system because it's gonna work more, or are they gonna get the same regardless of the fact unless they do something like Revo where they include you in building it from ground up?

SPEAKER_01 25:40

Yeah, honestly, like there are different programs where a vast majority of them you can integrate with. That being said, for RTO specific operating systems, I'd say just because like Revo's built on newer technology, the developers are able to be a lot more nimble in the way that they create integrations. So that just gives us uh inherent advantage on that side rather than having to do kind of kind of go through hoops to get the integration done. Not that we can't do it, it's just that it's harder and more expensive. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

So how does the how does the AI integrate? I mean, you're talking about AI, right? And the way I integrate with uh AI is I go to my computer, I I log it in and gives me an answer, whether I have it do something or something like that. Now that it's it's in the system, because you know, I've heard it plenty of times. I don't want to do this because I don't know where my customers' information is gonna go. It's gonna have to go in my system to be able to find certain things, not necessarily like a social security number, but it's gonna have to know their name, their phone number, their email address, the simple integrations. I don't want that going anywhere else. How do you get it to work with the system if it's not because I mean you don't put, I would say, a server inside stores. So how does it, how does the integration work? Does it reach out through an online, a secured online source and then it it comes back and performs functions?

SPEAKER_01 26:59

Yeah, so we have like a secured well for the Revo one, totally different. But for the others, we have like a secured um like VPN connection that we use to kind of just like grab the data. Um, and then just worrying about like data side, we of course have direct controls in place to make sure all the data is secure. Just like if you were signing up with a new provider, like a new CRM provider. If you're using HubSpot, you're gonna have to give the data somehow to HubSpot, right? So that's just kind of like the way that we think about it. If you wanted to do anything and you wanted to, yeah, it's like depends on like what you want it to do. If you wanted to not have any information at all, then maybe like that log system isn't the best for you, and you just want maybe just like a normal like voicemail or like an auto attendant or an IVR would be better. But if you actually wanted to be taking action, to be doing work for you, to be taking payments, to be scheduling appointments, things like that, and actually bringing additional revenue and value to your business. Um you just have to like be able to give it the proper data to do that. And again, just kind of going back to the point of you wouldn't you wouldn't tell a story employee, oh, like try to book an someone's appointment without having access to the calendar, right? Um, that just wouldn't make sense. And so that's just kind of like the same, the same take that we that we have on that side. So we do have like a secure connection to get the data. Um, but yeah, it is definitely something that we have to prove and be able to have trust with our customers as well.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

So, how do they all use one point? I mean, right now, uh, and I don't know how many stores that you have, I know that RR has over 200 plus locations, not to mention anybody else that you're working with. As something goes on, one for one store is 200, two for two stores now 400, three for three stores, yeah, and and so on. As this goes on, how does the data integration work? And and is there a is there an overload point for the AI? Is it developed in a way that each store has its own access point and its own situation?

SPEAKER_01 29:04

So it's there there isn't Yeah, each store has its own access point. I think the their the limit to our data is quite high. Um, so we're not super worried about like that being overloaded. You could probably put like 15. We we have customers who give us 50,000 people to call per day. Um, and that's totally fine within our system. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

50,000 calls.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

When uh when so when you call, is that call show up as the the business or is it an outside number that calls?

SPEAKER_01 29:39

We register the call to be in your like locality. So if you're your store's in Orlando, then it'll have an Orlando zip code and then it'll say like your business's name on the on the phone call as well.

SPEAKER_00 29:51

You know, I would I didn't even think about this before we got on. I should we should have had a demo, right? We could just like call right here on the podcast and be like, hey, who's that? You know, and it's it's it's the rebo guys. So is there any other third-party uh and not operating software, but is there any other software that's integrated into what you guys are doing right now?

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Yeah, I mean, what is there anything that you had in mind? I guess like specifically, we can integrate with just about anything as long as they have an API. So we've put in integrations with like different calendars, Outlook, Shop Monkey, Setmore is another one that we've been working on. Podium is like another software,

Payments, Texting, And Negotiation Logic

SPEAKER_01 30:30

texting platform that we've been working with. We've been we've worked with custom software as well. Um HubSpot is another one. So basically, just like any software that has an API would we'd be able to integrate into.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

Okay, so that's exactly that's exactly what I was asking. Like not only is the operating software that we use your being able to get into, but you also have the integration for the third-party software that we have to use, like testing, like the CRMs and the funnels that we use, the schedulers that we have to get people in, um, and and the before and after hours, all that is integratable for what you do.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

Exactly. Yeah. And if we don't have an existing integration, we'll write one for you for free. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

Oh, it's and it's for free.

SPEAKER_01 31:13

Hey, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

So when you have these different industries, right? Because I'm I have been in the traditional furniture industry for a long time. I am now in the wheel and tire industry, but regardless of the fact they're both RTO, they're completely different. When you're when you're working on the programs to do one or the other, is it a big shift? And does it make a lot of difference when you're working with the AI? It should is the is there a time frame where I could say, you know what, maybe he's doing really good on the wheel and tire side, but not good on the on the furniture side right now. I should wait. Or do you have it locked down where Outlock can do the AI situation regardless of whether it's shed, virtual online, furniture, tire and wheel?

SPEAKER_01 31:53

Yeah, honestly, we can do it for all. So naturally, when we were first building up our system, we knew that we would be going into like a variety of different um like sales, sales types, wheel and tire, furniture, shads, RVs, etc. And so we designed our system from the ground up to be able to actually handle all of those different nuances, right? So the system already knows about the nuances between furniture RTO versus wheels. Um, and that's something that's important and that we we have been very intentional about from the very beginning, which has also allowed us to kind of switch between um those two contexts very quickly. So it's not just one size of like a one size fits all AI. So it's like custom to each and every store, and we're able to make that custom very quickly as well.

SPEAKER_00 32:42

All right. Well, that's good. That's great, actually. Now I'm hoping that maybe we can name drop a little bit. I know you mentioned we we talked about Revo and we've talked about Versarant. That is a huge chunk, but it's not all of it. Is there is there any other operating software out there in the RTO world that you can say ad log is definitely the ad log AI is definitely going to work and is set up and ready to go for this?

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Yeah, so honestly, like the the third biggest is of course high touch and synergy. And so that is something that we have been working on. Um honestly it's just because we haven't had a client on high touch yet. So I think once we once we're able to sign a client on high touch, we should be good to go on that side as well. I've took a taken a long look at their systems and things like that. It's like pretty confident that we can use the same approach um that we did with First Rent to to integrate with high touch as well.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

So your your job reaches thousands. Thousands. But I've only seen a few of you guys. Are you guys scaling up yet? Or is it AI you don't need anybody else, or whatever? I've seen John, I've seen you. I mean, how how many people are on a team now?

SPEAKER_01 33:57

Yeah, we just hired our first engineer. Um, and honestly, like we we want to keep the team small. It it just doesn't really make sense to um to scale it before it needs to be, I guess. Um we've done like I think a pretty good job of being able to like handle all of the volume and we do work kind of long hours, but that's also okay. Um and yeah, so yeah, we just hired a first engineer, we're looking for another one, but yeah, we're we're probably gonna keep it under under 10 for a while at least, just because with AI you can do so much, so so much more where you don't necessarily have to grow headcount to to an extremely large amount without uh yeah, in order to to to deploy code.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Now you with all the compliance that you have, especially now that you, yeah, I mean you have a tight-knit team, everybody's kind of doing everything. You got compliance, you've got different states, you've got different mandates, whether it's furniture, tire and wheel, virtual, whatever the case is. I I'm curious, who what job do you have? Like, is it is it like does everybody do everything? Is that kind of the way it works right now? Because you said you hired an engineer, but like it sounds like everybody's got a little bit of everything going on.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

Yeah, I mean the engineer is really just doing the coding, but me and John are doing just everything. So like one day I'm coding, one day I'm doing sales, one day I'm doing legal stuff, talking to lawyers, things like that. So it's all over for us, for me and John. But you know, that's that's fun. Um, we enjoy it, so it's it's pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 35:29

I'm gonna tell you guys, I'm gonna put a picture up here of uh our little Christmas. Uh it was close to Christmas, a little after Christmas, actually. We had the we had the meeting down in uh in Orlando, and uh, we got a little

Compliance Guardrails That Keep You Safe

SPEAKER_00 35:40

picture that I'm gonna post up. So you can see you can see Veriz and John looking great there. Um as as you go forward, what's next? I mean, so we have scheduling software down to assign. So you're saying that you can incorporate things like Shop Monkey and HubSpot and Podium and do things like that. So that's already there. The sales aspect of it, you're making 50,000 calls in in depending on who it is. So it could be a few hundred thousand a day that this is reaching out to. What's next? I mean, I know that I say that 12 months after you've initially started. So there might not be a next for a long while. But I mean, what's the next step from here? Right now, we've got data centers that are going up everywhere, and I got glasses that can answer half my questions. What's next for Atlog AI?

SPEAKER_01 36:27

It's really about making our program as accessible as possible to just any RTO dealer. So I think that starts with number one, the integrations, making sure it's properly being synced to your data and the software that you're already using. Number two is actually instead of just like us going to us to have to configure the AI every time, giving some of that power back um back to the end user as well. And in overall, just like improving the end user experience for all of our customers. So making our feedback loops faster, making it so that we don't have to, it doesn't take uh two hours to edit the AI, it can take two minutes, right? So a lot of it's improving like our own internal processes as well. But really at the core of everything is just making it so that this is extremely approachable to any RTO dealer. They don't have to think to think twice about it. They can upload their process, they can talk to us for a little bit, and then you can turn it on right away. Um, and I think we've been making a lot of steps in that direction, which I'm really excited about as well.

SPEAKER_00 37:34

Well, I think you're doing something right because the business insider named Atlog, one of the 10 most exciting AI agent startups at YC demo day, is spring of 2025. What was that like to have somebody say, hey, these guys are one of the top 10 to get it done?

SPEAKER_01 37:51

Yeah, no, it was really exciting. Um, we didn't actually even know the article was being written about us, but the fact that it was um so I think that was even cooler that like they didn't they we didn't even talk to them about it. Um, and so yeah, we're we're really excited about that as well.

SPEAKER_00 38:07

Yeah, I mean, I you know, being part of something new and and that something that stands out can be very daunting, especially when you're in an industry that is like, you know, they're relatively like we we have these relationships with people. We don't want to get rid of, you know, we only have we have small staffs, right? They're actually five to seven on average, depending. Bigger stores might have a couple more, but you know, you you run with a small staff, you're very integrated into the communities that you're in. I mean, when you're when you're on the other side, which you are all the time, and somebody says, Why in God's name would I put AI in my store? What is it gonna do for me? And how much better can it get with what you're doing if I'm not personally involved in it? I don't have that relationship with somebody because it's gonna be, you know, something on the phone is talking. What are some of the points that you would give somebody and say, these are all the things that I'm telling you that you will get with us that will benefit you through whatever time frame?

SPEAKER_01 39:00

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think the biggest thing is that a lot of customers actually feel more comfortable talking to it. So especially when you're talking in Spanish, um, we've seen a huge lift in Spanish speaking customers and Spanish speaking uh geographies as well. So some stores might not always have a Spanish speaker on staff, or the Spanish speaker might be out. Um, and that's something that's really important is that you always quote unquote have a Spanish speaker on staff. Um, the second part is that we don't necessarily want you to lose that customer touch, right? It's just that I'm sure every single one of these dealers, you have someone sitting on the phone for three to four hours a day who might not get through all of their calls and they are just getting hung up on, they're not getting any answers, they're trying to call these people, trying to text them, and then you don't necessarily even know if all of those, if every customer is being contacted as well. Wouldn't it make more sense to have that person instead of just being on the phone, not necessarily talking to anyone, but actually being in the store, talking to customers, selling, actually creating those human connections where you can have that like more monotonous task be done for significantly cheaper and be way more productive with the customers that are right in front of you. Um, that's something that's really important as well, right? It's like, why are you staying? No, no need to stay in the back of the store just on the phone. You can just be with the customer, guiding them through your shop and your experience and why your your store is better than the rest of the competition. So it just gives you more time, time back to to spend with everyone who's in front of you.

SPEAKER_00 40:38

Well, let's let that pendulum swing the other way. Instead of being trepidatious about what you have going on, and I'm not really sure if I want to do this and whatever the case is, you mentioned earlier virtual rent-to-hown, which is something that I want to ask you about because you do sales calls, you do collections calls, you do scheduling. What are the chances

Trust, Customer Relationships, And Adoption

SPEAKER_00 41:00

uh in the next couple of years we're gonna have a very small Atlog-ish type of crew where there's only two or three and they're running a company 90% through AI? Is that a goal of Atlog? Is that a goal of some of the guys that are on the virtual side to say, you know, I I can, I don't want to say completely eliminate because you're never really gonna be eliminate the human interaction. But, you know, I have these calls being made. I have this being scheduled for delivery, I have, you know, this as far as collection calls going on. I can kind of maneuver everything in this way. Is that a version of what's going on right now, or are they going to that in the future?

SPEAKER_01 41:37

Um, I'd say for us specifically, we're down, we aren't going to that. And in we like to service the RTO industry. We wouldn't want to become like a huge RTO player. Um, I I don't know if I can necessarily speak for any of the virtual players, but what it seems like it is not going in that direction because there's still so many like operational things that you have to fix. Um, even a virtual model where now your customers are all over the country making sure you have the right partners, uh, making sure you're assessing risk and things like that. So it's just like a different set of problems, really. So I don't I think it would be really cool if you could run. I mean, if anyone wants to run a three-person virtual rent-owned company, like let me know, and we'll get you on Atlog right away. We're all just like it's possible, we can talk about it. But um honestly, I don't know if I've I don't know if I've seen that just yet. Maybe, maybe it could be a possibility. It is something that it's not it's not out of the realm, it's not out of the realm possibility, but so far in what I've seen, I don't know if anyone's going towards that.

SPEAKER_00 42:43

I mean, it my my natural instinct is to go, okay, because you you have those guys are gonna say, I don't know if I want to get rid of somebody, I don't know if I want to cut down the manpower. I am worried about this or I am worried about that. But again, on the other side of that pendulum, you might have somebody be like, well, this is an opportunity to kind of run it by myself. You know what I mean? I could work six days a week if I'm only working five hours a day and just let and kind of let the business run itself. And, you know, as far as AI is concerned, I don't think it's ever going to cut down. I think it's only gonna get better unless we have a big asteroid that comes and wipes out half humanity. I think it's gonna be AI. I I do think at some point in time we're gonna have to worry about uh Skynet or whatever, but until we get there, please don't please don't come after me. I'm just saying that that's a that's a whole nother thing. So you know, going into the end, going into you know the twilight of of the conversation, some questions that I wanted to ask you, and you know, some of the personal, some are business, but I think that you are you are the guy to ask some of these questions. The best piece of advice you got from Y Combinator. Best piece of advice.

SPEAKER_01 43:50

I'd say I got a lot of advice at Y Combinator. I think the best one was a lot. Along the lines of it was our mentor, and he was saying it's just like, stop asking me what to do and just do it, and then you'll find out like the the answer for yourself. It's like we spend all this time trying to like pontificate on like what the best solution is, what is the best strategy, what is like the all of the strategy stuff, and honestly, the best thing to do is just to do it, right? Um, and I think that's really like brought on dividends for us as a company. Of like sometimes we'll get in these long drawn-out arguments of like what could be, and instead it's like, what if we just try it? And then we'll see what actually happens. And I think that's like been the best thing of like, what if we just tried to do something instead of just like asking if is it possible or is it not?

SPEAKER_00 44:50

I like that. I I don't know. I've I've gotten myself into some crazy situations. That's almost how I ended up on the podcast. And we're like, hey, we should just try it out. And then you know, years later, but I definitely understand that piece because there's been so many times that you get paralysis by analysis, and you're just kind of like, I don't know what to do. And it's like, just do it, dude. Just go out there and do it. Um, if you could go back and tell yourself one thing before you walk near your first RTO store, what would it be? I'd say they're not ready. They're not ready.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

No, honestly, I'd say I'd say I don't I don't even know. I I'm just like we when we walked into our first RTO store, I don't even know if we had any idea of anything that was going on. Maybe it's just like they have a more open mind than you might think, right? So it's like there you're gonna find like a wide variety of characters in every industry. But something that I we've really enjoyed about RTO is that a lot of people are at least willing to hear you out. And I think that, like just being able to know that and like internalize that um has been really powerful as well because you do get to your first believers, you do get to that first contract, that first big contract, and that really would, you know, just help keep me going.

Security, Scale, And Integration Flexibility

SPEAKER_01 46:10

And I think that belief has just kind of helped me stay, helped us stay in the industry and helped us keep going and just keep uh just keep providing good stuff, good software as well.

SPEAKER_00 46:20

Okay. And uh in five years, in your opinion, what does a well-run RTO tire store look like? Is it is it all is it 15% more integration of AI? Is it you know what what is it? Are we are we walking in and just punching, you know, digits on a screen and all of a sudden my car is gonna get taken care of? What do you see in the next five years?

SPEAKER_01 46:41

Yeah, I think the in five years, it's not even just about just it's all AI, it's not all AI. I think the main goal should be how can you get as many customers as possible? That's like the main goal. So I think in five years, every RTO store, every RTO attire store, whether that's AI or AI enabled or not, um, should try to have 1.5x the number of customers, number of people renting items. And I think obviously we try to enable that where you can do that without necessarily scaling headcount or expanding your footprint a ton. Like that's a core thesis to to what we're trying to do is like help you grow without having to grow your expenses as well. Um, but I'd say even if you do that without us, I think any RTO business should just try to do that. Um try to go the grow the customer base as much as they can.

SPEAKER_00 47:36

What so what do you want RTO dealers and RR franchisees listening uh to do? If they were listening, what would you say to do right after this episode?

SPEAKER_01 47:50

I'd say go to at log.ai, book and demo. Um, but yeah, honestly, I think just have like an open mind about where you can maybe save money. And not only that AI is just helping you save money, but think about how it can help you grow as well. I think there is like a a very big phenomenon around like any kind of software has to cut expenses by X amount to make it worth it, which I 100% agree with. But even just beyond that, you can look at the growth. And we can show you our growth numbers that we've been providing for our customers as well, where with new technology, new innovation, no matter what it is, if you invest in it, it will pay off in the long run, where you will be ahead. And at least if you understand it and you know what's going on with it, it will 100% grow your business and just grow that customer base as much as you possibly can. And so I'd say try to give it a try, and you might be surprised on how much it can help you out.

SPEAKER_00 48:54

You know, last question, uh, and I am glad that you said that. Last question is since the advent of Atlog AI integrating in the RTO industry, is there numbers to say since AI has been integrated, we have either increased revenue or decreased the amount uh towards the bottom line when it comes to the amount of labor we have or whatever the case is, is there a correlation to both? Hey, we increased the percent here, we decreased the percent there, so therefore it's two and a half, five and a half percent. Is do you have any of those uh tangible numbers to say on average this is what a store gains by using an AI?

SPEAKER_01 49:33

Yeah, so I can't give you exact numbers just to for client confidentiality purposes, but we have seen that in our most successful deployments, they're saving on headcounts, so that tends to be between four to six thousand per month that they're saving. And then we've also seen delinquency percentages go down in stores across the board as well. And then also we've seen the AI is collecting at sometimes 1.5x to 2x the rate greater than a human might. So really that's been yeah, and so that's been really, really great

Results, Advice, And Closing CTAs

SPEAKER_01 50:10

for us as well. You just always have that constant contact, you have very strict guidelines, you have that um, yeah, it's just following your exact process, right? And so we can see not only like cost improvements and savings on that side, so on headcount, or whether that's just moving people around, making them more productive, but also just on the efficiency of the calls as well.

SPEAKER_00 50:37

I you know, you got now out of everything I think you said, that number based on the collection calls that are made, and you're talking about 1.5x or a little bit higher, that's a lot. Now, would you attribute that to just basic consistency?

SPEAKER_01 50:52

Yeah, I think it's a couple things. Basic consistency is a big one. I think consistency is uh yeah, consistency around the calls, but also just the availability to meet the customer where they're at, whether that's on the phone, over text, in English, in Spanish, in French, right? You really are able to adapt to your customer a lot better when you're using a system like ours.

SPEAKER_00 51:17

Well, I will tell you guys, in French is gonna work. R and R uh Tire Express is actually now in Canada. They should be opening up this month. I'm sure that you guys are gonna be a little bit uh uh a part of that. And listen, I want to see you guys opening up your own location, and we'll see how many uh people we see how many people we can do with it. Me and Viraj are gonna be in the back uh doing a little thing like this. I'm gonna be talking about it. He's gonna be doing the AI. Maybe we can run it with one person. Guys, we do appreciate you being on. Virage, always uh just I love seeing you, man. I love seeing out and about. I'm glad to have you on the show to answer a couple questions that I had regarding this, and I know we've answered some of your questions, but if you have any more, make sure that you email me, Pete at the RTO Showpodcast.com. Let me know. Hey, this is for at log, and I have a question. That way I can get an answer for you. If anything, we can do it again, have them on. We might have like uh uh an at log AI conversation. I don't know if we're just gonna replace Virage with the AI guy and it's gonna have like an avatar, but we can see and make that happen. I would tell you guys, we are trying to be anywhere where you are. That's Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube where you're gonna see this. Make sure again that you subscribe, that you like the channel, that you go anywhere that you can, buy a shirt, buy some swag, show us some love, get on the newsletter, and uh guys, I'm gonna tell you it's been great. Vraj, real quick, how does somebody get a hold of Atlog?

SPEAKER_01 52:35

Well, you can either just go to our website, at log.ai, book a demo, um, or you can email me directly. So that's Vraj V-R-A-J at atlog.ai. I'll respond within 10 minutes. And you can also I have my personal phone number in my email footer as well, so you can uh text or call me at any time as well.

SPEAKER_00 52:56

Uh just so you guys know, Viraj is not asleep. So he will he I've I have seen the pictures of the text messages back at two o'clock in the morning. They are they are staying a little busy. They're not necessarily gonna reach out to you, but if you reach out to them, you might get a message back. So I'm gonna tell you guys don't work too hard. I appreciate everything you do. And I'm gonna tell you, listeners at home, thank you so much. And remember, get your collections low to get your sales high. Have a great one.

SPEAKER_01 53:21

Thanks, Pete.

SPEAKER_00 53:22

We're all set, man. Um, real quick, how are you doing? Everything, uh you you guys are staying busy? Yeah, yeah. Things are good. Uh, we're are you uh