AI & ML

The Rise of AI Operations Management

By
Steve Hazelton
September 6, 2023
5 min read

About the Author

Hi, I'm Steve Hazelton. I am one of the founders of a startup that helps businesses better understand their customers by using AI to identify risks and opportunities inside the unstructured data trapped in emails, chats, and phone calls. I received help writing this article by using generative AI for data collection (if you don’t know what that means, you are not alone, go here).

Caveat Emptor: Since I am the founder of a startup that relies heavily on AI to find happy and unhappy customers, I certainly have "bought in" to using AI for business to leverage untapped data streams. So, consider yourself warned. I also started my career a long time ago as a recruiter for technology companies, later built and sold an HR tech company, and later started an AI company…so the intersection of AI and career advice collide here.

Introduction

Often lost in this discussion of AI technology is the discussion of its impacts on our teammates and coworkers. What does the widespread adoption of AI in business mean for the careers of people who work at these businesses? While many of us are, and should be, concerned about job destruction, I want to talk about job creation. 

Note: There is, at present, endless discussion on AI technology, which I won't bore you with here. If you want to learn about the different types of AI and AI tools, like Generative AI, Synth AI, Machine Learning, and others, you can read an article our co-founder wrote here.

From a career standpoint, the most significant change our businesses will see this decade is creating a new, high-paying job in AI Operations. This article will help you, the reader, define this role when you decide to hire this person, or if you desire to be that person, how to create the role in your company.

This person will leverage AI tools and products to improve a business's top and bottom-line revenue. They'll find revenue opportunities, prevent cancellations or churn, and make people more efficient. They will be indispensable. 

Dan Corbin, an instructor at the Pragmatic Institute, states, "If you can change your mindset as a company and understand the capabilities of AI, this is where AI operations come in. You need this AI Operations Director to ask, "How do we tackle this from a macro level?" You must think about AI from an organizational perspective to leverage it to its full capacity."

We are at the beginning of a major, major shift in employment. Fifty years ago, did companies have an IT Manager? No, but they do now. Thirty years ago, did they have an e-commerce manager? Again, no, but they do now. Ten years from now, will companies have someone in charge of AI operations? Of course, they will.

Adoption is inevitable because the gains are too significant. As Mike Evans, Director of Customer Care and Analytics at Laerdal Medical, states, "You need someone to own this." Companies like MassPay have already implemented such a role, which they attribute to the 100% customer retention of their "Top 100" last year. Hawke Media, the top performance marketing agency in the country, shifted the purview of their existing Director of Business Intelligence to include AI Ops. They then improved revenue retention by 30% MoM in less than six weeks.

With that out of the way, let's get started.

The Role of a Director of AI Operations

As businesses continue to embrace AI technologies, the need for dedicated professionals to implement and oversee these systems will become critical. Enter the Director of AI Operations.

At its core, this role is creative: you need to think of new ways to solve old problems in ways that have never been done before. "How can we use tomorrow's tools to solve our problems today?" This is a key point. AI will help you solve problems in ways you never considered before because they were previously impossible.

The Director of AI Operations will be the key player responsible for developing, implementing, and managing AI strategies.

The AI Business Director should be able to create and implement an AI strategy that answers the following:

How can we use AI to find revenue opportunities?”
How can we use AI to identify and reduce revenue risks?”
How can AI make our teammates more efficient?”

This multifaceted role requires a deep understanding of AI vendors, data privacy, and a visionary mindset to leverage AI's potential effectively. 

Note: This job does not require coding. This person isn't building AI; they are identifying the areas where AI can improve business performance.

Let's take a closer look at the responsibilities of this job:

Strategy Development: "What problems are we trying to solve?" The Director of AI Operations collaborates with various departments to identify areas where AI can be integrated to capture risk and opportunities or to improve efficiency. They create a comprehensive AI strategy aligned with the business's overall objectives. 

Data Discovery: "What data could AI illuminate that we've previously been unable to use?" For example, a Director of AI Operations could use emails to create a new data stream that correlates customer product confusion with unhappiness and eventual cancellation. 

Data Management: "What are the security, privacy, and regulatory challenges with our approach." AI heavily relies on quality data to make accurate predictions and decisions. The Director ensures that data is collected, cleaned, and stored securely. This person should be able to deep-dive on a vendor's privacy and regulatory compliance.

Implementation: "What systems will we need to leverage, and how will we accomplish this?" Once the AI strategy is in place, the Director oversees the implementation of AI projects, ensuring seamless integration with existing systems and addressing any technical challenges that arise. Just as important, this person will need to drive the "people-side" integrations and help people leverage these new data streams. 

Performance Monitoring: "What are the success criteria?" Monitoring the performance of AI systems is critical. The Director tracks key performance indicators to measure the impact of AI applications and makes adjustments as needed. Critical here is to answer, "Is this driving the desired outcomes?"

Ethical Considerations: "Should we even use AI for this?" Some AI systems handle sensitive data and will replicate previous biases. A crucial question is, "Is the AI making decisions?" If "yes," then much thought should be put into whether or not AI is appropriate.

Growth of AI Jobs

According to a study conducted by the World Economic Forum, AI is estimated to create 58 million new jobs by 2024. This includes a wide range of roles, from data scientists and AI engineers to, of course, Directors of AI Operations. According to HireEZ, one of the world's largest outbound recruiting platforms, demand for AI-related positions has risen by 60% since 2021.

On the flip side of that coin, higher education and e-learning platforms are seeing a surge in interest in AI courses. Pablo Garcia, Content Lead at CXL, the top marketing e-learning platform, states, "CXL saw a much higher interest in AI courses among our students in 2023, with a 785% increase in engagement for the Advanced AI in Marketing course."

As more companies recognize the potential of AI and seek to stay competitive in the market, the demand for AI professionals is set to skyrocket. A survey conducted by Deloitte further reinforces the growing importance of AI in businesses. It revealed that around 61% of surveyed companies have already implemented some form of AI into their operations. That means 61% of respondents are looking to hire a Director of AI Operations if they haven't already. Don't get left behind. 

Where to Start

If becoming your company's Director of AI Operations seems daunting, don't be discouraged if you don't have experience. Very, very few people do. Get started now, and you'll be far ahead of everyone else.

Where would I start? I would look at my current role and think, "How could AI help my current company keep customers longer? Or, how could AI make my group more efficient?"

What problems are we trying to solve?”
What data could AI illuminate that we’ve previously been unable to use?
What are the security, privacy, and regulatory challenges with our approach?”
What systems will we need to leverage, and how will we accomplish this?” 
What are the success criteria?”
Should we even use AI for this?” 

Get on it! Also, if you’d like more help, download our AI Retention Plan & Calculator.

Are you looking to hire someone to manage AI Operations?

While writing this article, a friend sent me a job description for a “Head of AI Product Management” at a significant online streaming company. It pays 900k/year. Hmmm… A recent Sturdy poll on LinkedIn concluded that over 50% of respondents already have someone in an AI Operations position, with 25% looking to fill the role in 2024. If you’re interested in hiring for a Director of AI Operations, feel free to copy and paste the job description below:

Director of AI Operations

Role Overview: The Director of AI Operations will be the key player responsible for developing, implementing, and managing AI strategies. This multifaceted role requires a deep understanding of AI vendors, data privacy, and a visionary mindset to leverage AI's potential effectively.

Key Responsibilities:

  • The Director of AI Operations collaborates with various departments to identify areas where AI can be integrated to capture risk and opportunities or to improve efficiency. They create a comprehensive AI strategy aligned with the business's overall objectives. 
  • Identify areas of improvement throughout the business and implement AI workflows.
  • The Director ensures that data is collected, cleaned, and stored securely. This person should be able to deep-dive on a vendor's privacy and regulatory compliance.
  • The Director tracks key performance indicators to measure the impact of AI applications and makes adjustments as needed.
  • Once the AI strategy is in place, the Director oversees the implementation of AI projects, ensuring seamless integration with existing systems and addressing any technical challenges that arise.
  • Stay updated with the latest generative and synthesis AI trends and technologies to ensure the company stays ahead of the curve.
  • Develop AI strategy and roadmap and act as the foremost thought leader on ethical considerations such as how AI systems handle sensitive data.
  • Train colleagues and other teams on AI workflows and best practices for their departments.

Requirements:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field. Master’s degree preferred.
  • Proven experience identifying areas where AI can improve business performance and executing those strategies.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
  • Ability to work collaboratively with diverse teams.
  • Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal.

As always, thanks for reading. Feel free to reach out to us to talk further.

Steve

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Joel Passen
April 1, 2025
5 min read

Sturdy's Customer Intelligence Platform performs real-time revenue threat root cause analysis, and delivers cross-functional insights to the teams and systems to mitigate churn.

Portland, OR — April 1, 2025 — Sturdy.ai, a pioneer in AI-powered customer intelligence, today announced it has raised $6M in Series Seed funding. Voyager Capital led this round, with participation from Fortson VC as well as existing investor, Grotech Ventures. The funds will be used to deepen Sturdy’s AI capabilities, expand integrations with customer data silos, and grow its go-to-market and engineering teams.

Modern Teams Need Actionable Intelligence to Protect and Grow Revenue

With customer expectations higher than ever and retention under pressure, the need for proactive, AI-driven revenue insights has never been more urgent. According to industry data, reducing churn by just 5% can increase profits by up to 95%. Enterprises have spent millions on building silos of applications to get closer to their customers and create active communication channels in the hope of mitigating churn risk early. Yet, this has failed to provide the proactive warning signals required. Sturdy closes the gap by seeing across these silos for a unified view of customer communication.

“We’re creating an AI-first intelligent interface for all things customer. This allows Sturdy to provide an almost magical understanding of every customer interaction across every data silo,” said Steve Hazelton, CEO and co-founder of Sturdy.ai. “This funding enables us to move faster to empower teams to stay ahead of risk and unlock new revenue opportunities.”

Investors Bet Big on AI-Powered Revenue Threat Detection

The funding round attracted a strong syndicate of investors aligned on Sturdy’s vision for a more innovative, AI-native approach to revenue intelligence. Voyager Capital, known for backing category-defining SaaS platforms, led the round, with General Partner Diane Fraiman joining Sturdy's board.

“Sturdy is tackling one of the most urgent and overlooked problems in enterprise software—how to extract proactive insights from the flood of daily customer interactions,” said Diane Fraiman, Managing Director of Voyager Capital. “Retention has become a critical topic in boardrooms. We believe that every business will have a system of intelligence in the next 3 years. Sturdy’s platform is positioned to become essential infrastructure for any company serious about protecting and growing revenues while truly putting their customers first.”

“Sturdy is one of the most powerful and immediate applications of AI and natural language processing we’ve seen,” said Thomas O’Keefe, CEO of Solo LLC. “At both Solo and previously at Syntrio, it has delivered instant value—surfacing proactive, actionable customer insights and driving measurable improvements in retention.”

About Voyager

Voyager Capital is a leading West Coast early-stage venture firm, providing entrepreneurs with the resources, experience, and connections to build successful companies for today’s modern economy. Voyager invests primarily in B2B technology companies, including AI-driven business solutions, software-driven hardware, sustainable agriculture, and supply chain. The firm's domain expertise, go-to-market, and team-building resources are proven to help build market leaders. Voyager Capital has over $550 million under management with offices and resources in Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, and Calgary. 

About Fortson VC

Fortson VC is a seed-stage venture firm based in the Pacific Northwest, built for exceptionally rare founders who are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.  Led by Cole Younger, Fortson brings over two decades of early-stage investing experience and a disciplined approach grounded in authenticity, grit, and courage.  While driven by curiosity, our primary focus is B2B software and the technological frontier around it—the infrastructure, intelligence, and automation shaping the future of how businesses create value.

About Grotech Ventures

Founded in 1984, Grotech Ventures is a leading early investor in high-potential technology companies. Grotech seeks innovative, early-stage investments across the technology landscape and continues to invest and add value throughout the life cycle of each portfolio company. The firm has a strong combination of financial backing, industry relationships, and deep domain and operational expertise to accelerate growth. With more than $1.0 billion in committed capital, Grotech supports early-stage companies through investments starting as small as $500,000. For more information, visit http://www.grotech.com.

About Sturdy

Founded in 2020, Sturdy is an AI-forward autonomous Customer Intelligence platform that proactively identifies churn risks across all customer-facing silos. Sturdy analyzes unstructured customer interactions—emails, calls, support tickets, chats, and more—discovering revenue threats, pinpointing root causes, and delivering cross-functional insights in real time. Sturdy has analyzed billions of customer interactions, giving it one of the largest proprietary datasets in the category and enabling its models to surface insights faster and more accurately than competitors. At a time when customer retention is a top priority for every business, Sturdy turns the noise of customer conversations into a strategic advantage.

For more information, visit www.sturdy.ai or reach out to Joel Passen at joel@sturdy.ai

Integrations

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Joel Passen
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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
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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.

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  • 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.

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

Schedule Demo
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