The company doubles down on product innovation with a new Machine Learning Center and expansion of the C-Suite team

Ada, on a mission to help the world’s most innovative brands automate more valuable interactions, announced the opening of a new Machine Learning Center in Israel and the appointment of Mike Gozzo as Chief Product Officer.

Israel’s AI market has seen explosive growth over the last decade, now a host to over 1,100 startups and several acquisitions. This includes Apple’s acquisition of Primesense for $345 billion in 2011, Waze by Google for $1 billion in 2013, Mobileye by Intel in 2017 for $15.3 billion, and Moovit’s 2020 acquisition by Intel at approximately $1 billion — asserting Israel as one of the world’s most innovative tech hubs.

Similarly, Ada’s home of Toronto has received recent recognition of becoming the third-largest tech hub in North America, with tech firms such as Apple, Klarna, and Google setting up shop in the city. As a result of this office expansion, Ada will now be based in two of the strongest AI ecosystems in the world. The company’s Israel office will be hiring machine learning, engineering, and product teams to expedite the company’s objective to continue delivering world-class conversational AI and machine learning innovation to underpin its automated brand interaction platform.

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“The motivation to open the Machine Learning Center in Israel stems from the pool of talent there in conversational AI and in machine learning in general, along with companies like Gong, LivePerson, Nice, Verint, Amdocs in addition to Google and Meta that have their R&D there as well,” says Yochai Konig, Ada’s VP of Machine Learning, who has personal experience building R&D centers in Israel in the past.

Accompanying this global expansion is the appointment of Mike Gozzo to a new C-Suite role, CPO. Mike joins Ada following the successful co-founding of Smooch.io in 2014, a platform built to transform the way businesses and consumers communicate over messaging applications. While there, he led the product team as the CTO and Head of Product. The messaging platform was acquired by Zendesk in May 2019, where he then served as SVP of Product. Mike has an extensive history in Canadian startups dating back to his first venture, Appifier, in 2011. The platform was acquired in late 2013, and in 2012, Gozzo was named one of Quebec’s top 25 emerging entrepreneurs by the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Foundation. He’s an expert in the conversational AI and customer experience industries — including two original patents — with a long career in product management.

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“Ada’s technology, culture and team represent a unique blend of empathy and technical know-how. Working with Ada since its inception as a partner has provided me with a unique perspective into the transformative force it offers up to customers,” Gozzo said. “I’m excited to help the team turbocharge its efforts and mature its offering.”

Mike joins Ada to drive its mission to create VIP experiences for every customer and employee, repairing broken interactions and restoring the customer experience. Reporting to CEO and co-founder Mike Murchison, Gozzo will oversee all product and design efforts and be responsible for maximizing customer impact as Ada’s product evolves.

“Mike’s product and technology domain expertise is the perfect complement to our executive team today,” says Mike Murchison. “He has long shared the goal of building a generational Canadian company, and we are thrilled about what we will accomplish with him on board.”