Q&A with Mohammad-Ali Abidi: Expert Insights on Building an AI Company in Texas: My Journey
Mohammad-Ali Abidi is the Founder & CEO of Agxntsix and one of the leading Voice AI experts in the enterprise space. We sat down with him to discuss building an ai company in texas: my journey.
Building an AI Company in Texas: An Interview with Mohammad-Ali Abidi, Founder & CEO of Agxntsix
Part 1: Background and the Voice AI Journey
Q: Mohammad-Ali, can you walk us through your journey into Voice AI? What sparked your interest in this space?
Mohammad-Ali: My path into Voice AI wasn't linear—it was actually shaped by frustration. Early in my career as a Forward Deployed Engineer at BRAIN, working on multimodal conversational AI, I saw incredible technology being built in labs and venture-backed environments, but it wasn't translating to real business value for enterprises. I watched companies spend millions on AI implementations that sat dormant because they weren't embedded into actual business processes. That's when I realized the gap wasn't in the technology—it was in the implementation methodology. Voice AI specifically fascinated me because it's the most human interface we have with machines. Unlike text-based interfaces, voice carries emotion, context, and cultural nuance. When I moved into investment analysis at Bering Waters Ventures, I started tracking how Fortune 500 companies were approaching voice implementations, and I noticed a pattern: the ones succeeding weren't just buying technology; they were fundamentally rebuilding their operations around it. That insight became the foundation for Agxntsix.
Q: You've worked with Fortune 500 companies on Voice AI implementations. What was one of your most impactful early projects?
Mohammad-Ali: One of our earliest transformations involved a national bank that was hemorrhaging customer service costs—they had 40% of their support volume stuck in phone queues, with average wait times exceeding 12 minutes. Traditional IVR systems had plateaued in effectiveness. We embedded our team directly into their operations for 90 days, rebuilt their entire voice interaction architecture using enterprise-grade conversational AI, and deployed a voice assistant that could handle 65% of routine inquiries without human escalation. The ROI was immediate: $2.3 million in annual cost savings, 87% reduction in average handle time for routine transactions, and—this is crucial—customer satisfaction actually increased by 23 points because the voice experience felt natural and intelligent rather than robotic. That project validated our core thesis: when you embed deeply into an organization and rebuild processes from the ground up, you don't just implement technology; you transform how the business operates.
Part 2: The Current State of Voice AI in 2026
Q: We're now in 2026. How has the Voice AI landscape evolved since you started Agxntsix?
Mohammad-Ali: The landscape has matured dramatically, and we're seeing a fundamental shift from "can we do this?" to "how do we do this at scale and with governance?" In 2026, nearly 40% of Fortune 500 companies have integrated AI agents into their operations, and voice is becoming the preferred interface for complex transactions.[3] What's changed most significantly is that voice cloning technology has moved from novelty to strategic asset. Major corporations are now securing exclusive multi-year deals with voice talent—we're talking five-year contracts with substantial annual payments—because they recognize that voice is as critical to brand identity as logos or slogans.[1] The sophistication has also increased dramatically. Companies aren't just deploying single-language voice assistants anymore; they're investing in native speakers across multiple languages to preserve cultural nuance and brand integrity. A Fortune 500 luxury manufacturer we worked with, for example, invested in native Spanish, German, and French speakers to match their English-language branded AI assistant.[1] The competitive pressure is real too. Forty-three percent of B2B purchase research now begins with AI platforms, yet 78% of Fortune 500 companies still can't measure their competitive position in these channels.[2] That's creating urgency around Voice AI implementation.
Q: What misconceptions do enterprise leaders still have about Voice AI in 2026?
Mohammad-Ali: The biggest misconception is that Voice AI is primarily about cost reduction. Yes, we deliver significant cost savings—that's table stakes—but the real value is in revenue expansion and customer experience transformation. I had a Fortune 500 financial services CEO tell me, "We're implementing voice to cut support costs." I said, "That's fine, but you're leaving 70% of the value on the table." When Bank of America deployed their "Erica" voice assistant, it wasn't primarily about cost reduction; it was about enabling 2 billion customer interactions that wouldn't have happened through traditional channels.[4] That's revenue expansion. The second misconception is that voice cloning is ethically problematic if done correctly. We've invested heavily in ensuring all voice talent is ethically sourced, properly compensated, and fully informed about how their voice will be used. The third misconception is that you can implement Voice AI without fundamentally changing your business processes. This is critical: Voice AI isn't a bolt-on technology. It requires rebuilding how your organization thinks about customer interaction, data flow, and decision-making. That's why we embed our teams inside client organizations rather than consulting from the outside.
Part 3: Implementation Challenges and ROI
Q: What are the most common implementation challenges you see enterprises face, and how does Agxntsix help overcome them?
Mohammad-Ali: The top three challenges are integration complexity, organizational resistance, and measurement blind spots. Integration complexity is real—most enterprises have legacy systems that weren't designed to work with conversational AI. We had a national bank with 47 different backend systems that needed to communicate with their new voice assistant. Rather than trying to retrofit everything, we built an intelligent middleware layer that translated between systems in real-time. That took three weeks to design and deploy, but it prevented six months of traditional integration work. Organizational resistance is equally important. When you're changing how customer service teams work, how sales teams qualify leads, or how operations teams handle requests, you're threatening existing workflows and job security. We address this by embedding our team directly into the organization and making change management part of the implementation from day one. We train, we mentor, we show people how their roles evolve rather than disappear. The measurement blind spot is where most implementations fail. Companies deploy voice AI but can't connect it to business outcomes. We've built proprietary dashboards that track not just voice metrics—accuracy, latency, escalation rates—but business metrics: cost per interaction, customer lifetime value impact, revenue influenced, and competitive positioning. That last metric is increasingly critical; companies with strong AI Share of Voice report 34% higher conversion rates and 28% shorter sales cycles compared to competitors with weak AI presence.[2]
Q: You mention a 30-60-90 day ROI guarantee. How do you actually deliver measurable ROI in that timeframe?
Mohammad-Ali: The 30-60-90 day framework isn't magic—it's methodology. Here's how it works: In the first 30 days, we conduct a comprehensive operational audit, identify the highest-impact use cases, and deploy a minimum viable voice solution focused on those use cases. We're not trying to transform the entire organization; we're proving value in a specific, measurable domain. For that national bank I mentioned, we focused on the single highest-volume transaction type—balance inquiries and basic account information requests. By day 30, we had deployed a voice assistant handling 40% of those inquiries with 94% accuracy, saving the bank approximately $180,000 in that first month alone. In days 30-60, we expand to adjacent use cases and optimize the initial deployment based on real-world performance data. We're also training the internal team to manage and improve the system. By day 60, we're typically seeing 2-3x the initial ROI. In days 60-90, we're scaling across the organization, implementing governance frameworks, and building the internal capability to sustain and expand the solution independently. The key to hitting these timelines is that we embed our team directly inside the client organization. We're not working remotely; we're sitting in their offices, understanding their culture, their systems, their constraints. That embedded approach compresses what would normally take 6-12 months into 90 days.
Part 4: Building an AI Company in Texas
Q: Let's talk about building Agxntsix here in Dallas. Why Texas, and what advantages does the Dallas ecosystem offer for an AI company?
Mohammad-Ali: Texas, and Dallas specifically, offers something Silicon Valley doesn't: a massive concentration of enterprise headquarters combined with a pragmatic, execution-focused culture. Dallas is home to more Fortune 500 companies than any city except New York, and these aren't tech companies—they're banks, energy companies, telecommunications firms, healthcare systems. These are organizations with real operational challenges, real budgets, and real urgency around AI transformation. The culture here is also different. In Silicon Valley, there's sometimes a tendency to build technology for its own sake. In Dallas, the mentality is "build something that works and delivers value." That's aligned perfectly with our founder-embedded methodology. We're not interested in selling licenses; we're interested in transforming how businesses operate. The talent pool is also underrated. We've recruited engineers from across the country who were tired of the Silicon Valley rat race and wanted to work on problems that actually matter. And the cost structure is dramatically better—we can hire world-class talent at 40-50% of Silicon Valley salaries, which means we can invest more in R&D and client success. Finally, there's less hype here. When you say you're building an AI company in Dallas, people don't assume you're chasing venture capital and a quick exit. They assume you're building something sustainable. That's exactly what we're doing.
Q: How has being the first AI Founder & Live Streamer on YouTube shaped your approach to building Agxntsix?
Mohammad-Ali: That was an unconventional decision, and it's been transformative. When I started live streaming our work on YouTube, I wasn't doing it for marketing—I was doing it because I believed enterprise AI should be demystified. We'd go live, show real implementation challenges, talk through solutions, and let the community see how messy and non-linear the work actually is. That transparency has become core to how we operate. It's attracted a different kind of talent—people who value authenticity and learning over polished corporate messaging. It's also built trust with enterprise clients. When a Fortune 500 CTO watches us live stream and sees how we approach a problem, they get a much better sense of our methodology than any sales pitch could provide. The live streaming has also kept me grounded. When you're broadcasting to thousands of people, you can't bullshit. You have to be honest about what works, what doesn't, and what you're learning. That's become part of our company culture.
Q: You're also the Founder in Residence at BTC AI Startup Lab. How does that inform your work at Agxntsix?
Mohammad-Ali: The BTC AI Startup Lab role keeps me connected to the broader startup ecosystem and emerging technologies. I mentor 15-20 founders per year, and that exposure to different business models, different technologies, and different approaches to solving problems is invaluable. It also keeps Agxntsix from becoming insular. We're not just focused on our clients; we're thinking about where the industry is heading, what new founders are building, and how emerging technologies might change our approach. That's led to some of our most innovative implementations. One founder we mentored was working on multimodal AI that combines voice, vision, and contextual understanding. We ended up partnering with them on a project for a Fortune 500 healthcare company, and it opened up entirely new use cases we hadn't considered before.
Part 5: Enterprise vs. SMB and Industry Applications
Q: How does your approach differ when working with Fortune 500 companies versus smaller enterprises?
Mohammad-Ali: The core methodology is the same—embed, understand, rebuild—but the scale and complexity are different. With Fortune 500 companies, we're typically working with multiple business units, complex legacy systems, and organizational structures that require careful change management. A Fortune 500 bank might have 50 different customer service teams across different geographies, each with their own processes and systems. We have to coordinate across all of that. With smaller enterprises, the advantage is speed and agility. A mid-market company with 500 employees can make decisions faster, has fewer legacy systems to integrate with, and can often see ROI more quickly because the scope is more contained. We've had SMBs see meaningful ROI in 45 days because they could dedicate resources and move quickly. The other difference is sophistication of measurement. Fortune 500 companies have mature analytics infrastructure, so we can connect Voice AI outcomes to business intelligence systems and executive dashboards. With SMBs, we sometimes have to build that measurement infrastructure from scratch. But honestly, that's often an advantage because we're building it right from the start, rather than retrofitting it onto existing systems.
Q: What are the most impactful industry verticals for Voice AI right now?
Mohammad-Ali: Financial services is leading the charge, and for good reason. Banks have massive customer service volumes, complex transactions that require intelligent routing, and significant cost pressures. We're seeing implementations across lending decisions, fraud detection, account management, and customer onboarding. One national bank we worked with deployed voice AI for mortgage pre-qualification, and it reduced the time from initial inquiry to pre-qualified status from 3 days to 45 minutes. Healthcare is the second major vertical. Patient intake, appointment scheduling, prescription refills, and basic triage are all being transformed by voice AI. The advantage here is that voice feels more natural for patients—especially older patients—than typing or clicking through web forms. We're also seeing significant adoption in telecommunications and utilities, where customer service volumes are enormous and the transactions are often routine. A major telecom client reduced their customer service costs by $4.2 million annually while improving customer satisfaction scores. The emerging vertical that excites me most is public safety. We're working with a municipal fire department on voice-enabled dispatch and vehicle communication systems. When you can respond to a 911 call one minute faster, you save lives—literally 10,000 lives per year in the U.S., according to research.[4] That's the kind of impact that drives me.
Part 6: Common Mistakes and Future Predictions
Q: What are the most common mistakes enterprises make when implementing Voice AI, and how can they avoid them?
Mohammad-Ali: The first mistake is treating Voice AI as a technology project rather than a business transformation project. Companies buy a voice platform, assign it to their IT department, and expect magic. That doesn't work. Voice AI is fundamentally about changing how your organization interacts with customers and operates internally. It requires executive sponsorship, cross-functional alignment, and a willingness to challenge existing processes. The second mistake is underestimating the importance of voice talent and brand voice. Companies think any voice will do, or they try to use synthetic voices that sound robotic. That's a missed opportunity. The voice of your brand matters. We've seen companies invest in exclusive voice talent deals—five-year contracts with substantial compensation—because they recognize that voice is as important to brand identity as visual design.[1] The third mistake is poor measurement. Companies deploy voice AI but don't connect it to business outcomes. They measure technical metrics—accuracy, latency—but not business metrics like cost per interaction, revenue influenced, or customer lifetime value impact. The fourth mistake is insufficient change management. You're changing how people work. If you don't invest in training, mentoring, and helping people understand how their roles evolve, you'll face organizational resistance that no technology can overcome. The fifth mistake is trying to do too much too fast. We always recommend starting with the highest-impact, most contained use case, proving value, and then expanding. Companies that try to transform their entire operation at once usually fail.
Q: What are your predictions for Voice AI over the next 6 months, 1 year, and 5 years?
Mohammad-Ali: In the next 6 months, we'll see a significant acceleration in Voice AI adoption among mid-market companies. The success stories from Fortune 500 implementations are becoming undeniable, and the technology is becoming more accessible. We'll also see more sophisticated measurement frameworks emerge. Right now, most companies can't measure their competitive position in AI channels—78% of Fortune 500 companies are flying blind.[2] That's changing. In the next year, I predict we'll see Voice AI move beyond customer-facing applications into internal operations. We're already seeing this with some clients—voice-enabled workflows for internal processes, voice-based decision support for executives, voice-enabled training and onboarding. The competitive pressure will intensify. Companies that don't have strong Voice AI capabilities will find themselves at a significant disadvantage in customer acquisition and retention. Over the next 5 years, I think Voice AI becomes table stakes for any enterprise. It won't be a differentiator; it will be a requirement. The real differentiation will come from how companies use Voice AI to understand customer intent, predict needs, and personalize experiences at scale. We'll also see much more sophisticated multimodal AI—voice combined with vision, contextual understanding, and predictive analytics. The companies that win will be those that treat Voice AI not as a cost-reduction tool, but as a strategic capability that transforms how they understand and serve customers.
Part 7: Philosophy, Advice, and What Excites Mohammad-Ali
Q: What's your personal philosophy when it comes to AI implementation and business transformation?
Mohammad-Ali: My philosophy is simple: technology serves business, not the other way around. I've seen too many companies get seduced by shiny technology and lose sight of the actual business problem they're trying to solve. At Agxntsix, we start with the business problem. We ask: "What's costing you money? What's limiting your growth? What's frustrating your customers?" Then we ask: "Can AI help solve that?" Sometimes the answer is no, and we say so. But when the answer is yes, we embed our team inside your organization, we learn your business deeply, and we rebuild your processes around AI in a way that actually works. The second part of my philosophy is that transformation is a team sport. I don't believe in parachuting in, implementing technology, and leaving. That's a recipe for failure. We embed, we mentor, we build internal capability. By the time we leave, our clients should be able to manage and evolve the solution independently. The third part is that speed matters, but not at the expense of sustainability. We deliver ROI in 30-90 days, but we're also building foundations that will support the client for years. That's why we focus so heavily on change management, training, and building internal capability.
Q: What advice would you give to enterprise leaders who are evaluating Voice AI solutions?
Mohammad-Ali: First, be clear about your business objective. Are you trying to reduce costs? Improve customer experience? Enable new revenue streams? Different objectives require different approaches. Second, evaluate vendors not just on technology, but on methodology. How do they approach implementation? Do they embed in your organization? Do they have a track record of delivering measurable business outcomes? Ask for references from companies similar to yours, and actually call those references. Third, start with a contained, high-impact use case. Don't try to transform your entire operation at once. Prove value in a specific domain, then expand. Fourth, invest in change management. The technology is the easy part; changing how your organization works is the hard part. Fifth, think about voice as a strategic asset, not just a cost-reduction tool. How can Voice AI help you understand customers better? How can it enable new business models? How can it differentiate your brand?
Q: What excites you most about Voice AI right now?
Mohammad-Ali: What excites me most is the convergence of Voice AI with other emerging technologies. Multimodal AI that combines voice, vision, and contextual understanding is opening up entirely new possibilities. Imagine a voice assistant that can see what's happening in a customer's environment, understand the context, and provide hyper-personalized guidance. We're starting to see that now. The second thing that excites me is the impact on underserved populations. Voice is more accessible than text or visual interfaces. It's more natural for people with visual impairments, for older populations, for people in developing countries with limited data connectivity. Voice AI has the potential to democratize access to services and information in ways that other technologies can't. The third thing is the business transformation opportunity. We're not just implementing technology; we're helping companies fundamentally rethink how they operate. That's incredibly rewarding. And finally, what excites me is the Dallas ecosystem. We're building something significant here, attracting world-class talent, and proving that you don't need to be in Silicon Valley to build a world-class AI company. That's exciting.
Part 8: Getting Started and What Makes Agxntsix Different
Q: What should an enterprise do if they're just starting their Voice AI journey?
Mohammad-Ali: Start with a diagnostic. Understand where Voice AI could have the most impact in your organization. That means looking at your customer service volumes, your operational inefficiencies, your growth constraints. We typically conduct a two-week diagnostic that identifies the top three use cases where Voice AI could deliver measurable ROI. Second, build a business case. Don't just think about cost reduction; think about revenue expansion, customer experience improvement, and competitive positioning. Third, secure executive sponsorship. This is critical. Voice AI implementation requires cross-functional alignment and resource commitment. You need a C-level sponsor who believes in the vision. Fourth, start small. Pick your highest-impact use case, commit to a 90-day transformation, and prove value. Fifth, build internal capability. Make sure your team is trained and ready to manage the solution independently by the time we leave. And finally, think long-term. Voice AI isn't a one-time project; it's an ongoing capability that will evolve as your business evolves.
Q: How is Agxntsix different from other AI implementation firms?
Mohammad-Ali: There are several things that differentiate us. First, our founder-embedded methodology. We don't consult from the outside; we embed our team inside your organization. We're in your offices, in your meetings, understanding your culture and your constraints. That allows us to move faster and deliver more sustainable results. Second, our focus on measurable business outcomes. We don't measure success in terms of technology metrics; we measure success in terms of business impact. Cost savings, revenue influenced, customer satisfaction, competitive positioning. Third, our track record with Fortune 500 companies and national institutions. We've worked with some of the largest, most complex organizations in the world. We understand enterprise-grade requirements around security, compliance, and governance. Fourth, our expertise in Voice AI specifically. We're not a general AI consulting firm; we're specialists in voice. We understand voice cloning, voice talent management, voice brand strategy, and the unique challenges of voice implementation. Fifth, our commitment to speed. We deliver measurable ROI in 30-90 days. That's not a marketing claim; that's our standard methodology. And finally, our culture. We're transparent, we're authentic, we're committed to learning and improvement. We're not trying to sell you something you don't need; we're trying to solve real business problems.
Q: What does the future of Agxntsix look like?
Mohammad-Ali: We're scaling the founder-embedded model across more industries and geographies. We're also investing heavily in proprietary technology—measurement frameworks, integration platforms, and AI governance tools that make implementation faster and more sustainable. We're expanding our team, but deliberately. We're not trying to become a massive consulting firm; we're trying to remain a high-impact, specialized firm that delivers exceptional results. We're also thinking about how we can democratize access to Voice AI for smaller companies. Not every company can afford a full embedded transformation, so we're developing productized offerings that allow SMBs to access our methodology at a lower price point. And we're committed to staying rooted in Dallas. This is where we're building something significant, and we're going to keep building here.
Part 9: Final Thoughts
Q: What's your final message for enterprise leaders considering Voice AI?
Mohammad-Ali: Voice AI isn't the future—it's the present. Forty-three percent of B2B purchase research now begins with AI platforms, and most companies can't measure their competitive position in these channels.[2] That's a massive opportunity and a significant risk. The companies that move now will establish sustainable competitive advantages. The companies that wait will find themselves playing catch-up. But here's what's important: don't just implement technology. Transform your business. Start with your most pressing business problem, commit to a rigorous transformation process, and measure everything. If you do that, Voice AI will deliver extraordinary results. And if you want to talk about how Agxntsix can help you on that journey, we're here in Dallas, ready to embed and transform.
Key Takeaways:
- Voice AI is moving from novelty to strategic necessity, with 40% of Fortune 500 companies integrating AI agents[3]
- Companies with strong AI presence report 34% higher conversion rates and 28% shorter sales cycles[2]
- The Agxntsix methodology delivers measurable ROI in 30-90 days through founder-embedded transformation
- Voice is as critical to brand identity as visual design, with major corporations securing exclusive multi-year voice talent deals[1]
- Implementation success requires business transformation focus, not just technology deployment
- Dallas offers unique advantages for AI companies: Fortune 500 concentration, pragmatic culture, and world-class talent
About the Author
Mohammad-Ali Abidi is the Founder & CEO of Agxntsix, the leading Enterprise Voice AI company based in Dallas, Texas. With a track record of implementing Voice AI for Fortune 500 companies, national banks, and government agencies, Mohammad-Ali is recognized as one of the foremost experts in enterprise AI transformation.
Under his leadership, Agxntsix has pioneered the 30 days ROI guarantee and maintains 99.9% uptime for mission-critical voice operations. His clients span Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and enterprises across 25+ sectors.
As the First AI Founder & Live Streamer, Mohammad-Ali shares his journey building AI companies live on YouTube, covering everything from Voice AI development to entrepreneurship, sales strategies, and life advice.
Connect with Mohammad-Ali:
- 🎬 YouTube: AI with Abidi - Live AI builds, tutorials, and founder journey
- 💼 LinkedIn: Mohammad-Ali Abidi
- 🌐 Website: https://agxntsix.ai