ChatXi v1.201, our core conversational marketing product, is now available. This release includes the following changes:

• Improved the logic for setting conversation tags in the conversation engine.
• Improved scaling for Docker deployments: in our benchmark, a fast scale-out now takes 15 seconds.
• Improved the efficiency of data sync between MongoDB and rqlite.
• Added API support for the Discord platform. Conversation setup for Discord is not yet available in the interface.
• Added multi-threaded downloading of conversation attachments for Xtransfport.

If you have questions about this release, contact us.

Start where the work repeats

Look for work that happens many times a week, follows a recognisable pattern and has a clear right answer most of the time. In e-commerce, the usual candidates are:

• answering order-status, shipping and returns questions;
• checking stock and price before replying to a reseller;
• moving orders and customer records between the storefront, ERP and CRM;
• writing the weekly summary of what changed in sales and advertising.

Rare, high-judgement work is a poor first project. It is hard to test, and mistakes are expensive.

Make sure the data is reachable

An agent is only as good as what it can look up. Before committing, check that the answers live somewhere a system can read: an order database, a product catalogue, a policy document, an API. If the answer only exists in someone's head, the first project is writing it down.

Define "done" before you build

Agree on a few measures you can read from records, not from opinion:

• the share of conversations or tasks handled without a person;
• how long customers wait for a first answer;
• how often a person has to correct the agent.

If you cannot measure it, you cannot tell whether the agent helped.

Keep a person in the loop

Design the hand-off before the automation. When the agent is unsure, or the stakes are high, it should pass the case to a person with the context attached. A good first project makes your team faster; it does not remove their judgement.

Ship small, then widen

Launch on one channel, one product line or one type of question. Watch real conversations for a few weeks, fix what goes wrong, then widen the scope. A narrow agent that works earns the trust a broad one needs.

A simple test

If you can describe the task in one sentence, point to where the data lives, and name the number you expect to move, you have a good first project.

If you would like a second opinion on yours, email kris@chudaxi.com.

Our client is a well-known cross-border e-commerce brand that sells consumer electronics overseas and works with a network of resellers.

In 2022, Chudaxi connected the brand's main social media and search channels, including Facebook and Google, to a single conversational marketing system. The brand can now respond quickly to customer enquiries and handle follow-up sales in the same conversation.

To learn more about what we do, see Products.

What changed

We are AI-native. Chudaxi is now one founder working with a set of AI agents. Agents do research, drafting, software development and routine operations; I set direction, review the work and talk to every client myself. This website was planned, written and built that way, and every page was reviewed before it went live.

We work in four areas.

• Chudaxi Chat: conversational AI agents for your messaging channels.
• Chudaxi Data: data intelligence across your sales channels.
• Chudaxi Connect: automation and integration between your storefront, ERP and CRM.
• Custom AI Solutions: consult, build and deploy, when the problem does not fit a product.

Our products have new names. Our conversational marketing platform, headless order platform and data pipeline have grown into Chudaxi Chat, Chudaxi Connect and Chudaxi Data. The new names say what each product does.

What did not change

E-commerce is still the field we know best. We still build for the systems brands already run, rather than asking them to replace everything. And we still only claim what we can show: where this website uses product visuals that are not real client data, they are labelled "Illustrative".

Why founder-led

A small company that runs on AI can give clients something larger companies find hard to offer: direct access to the person who designs and builds the system, and advice that has been tested on our own work first.

If you want to see what that looks like for your business, email me at kris@chudaxi.com.

Kris Newey, Founder & CEO