Kore.ai expands into A/NZ hiring Paul Rilstone

As part of its significant international expansion plans, enterprise conversational and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) platform Kore.ai has hired Paul Rilstone as its new Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) vice president.

Headquartered in Orlando, Kore.ai’s platform, no-code tools and solutions are used to deliver end-to-end customer and employee experiences from automated to human-assisted and to build generative AI enabled applications.

Kore.ai secured a US$150 million funding round in late January to aid its expansion efforts and has a network of offices including in India, the UK, the Middle East, Japan, South Korea and Europe. 

Based in Sydney, Rilstone will be responsible for propelling the company’s A/NZ presence and sales growth in the GenAI enterprise market.

He will also lead the region’s partner strategy, addressing a growing market need for generating optimal conversational experiences among the region’s enterprises and public sector agencies.

Rilstone comes into the role with more than 20 years experience in the IT industry, including more than 10 years’ experience in the customer contact centre market, previously working for Amelia, Telstra and Commonwealth Bank.

“Paul understands the unique challenges which customers in Australia and New Zealand face when it comes to putting AI to work to deliver end-to-end automation that drives business value, and he knows how to execute successful customer engagement,” Kore.ai executive vice president Sreeni Unnamatia said. 

“We look forward to the important role he will play in further establishing Kore.ai in empowering organisations with AI powered tools for greater productivity.”

Rilstone added Kore.ai was one of the fastest growing AI companies globally and is reshaping the way companies harness the power of AI, simplifying and enhancing accessibility. 

“Today’s dynamic business leaders in Australia and New Zealand are moving quickly toward an AI-first framework, making it critical to provide the best AI solutions to every employee,” Rilstone said. 

“I’m looking forward to working with our partners and customers and providing our no-code platform which provides for exceptional multichannel conversational experiences across automation AI, contact centre AI and Search AI to deliver end-to-end automation that drive business value.”