Forum recap | Future of agentic AI
Clay Bavor, co-founder of Sierra, on the agentic AI revolution and what an exclusive Funnel partnership means for multifamily
One of Silicon Valley’s most quietly influential minds—Clay Bavor, co-founder of Sierra and former head of Google Labs—sat down at Forum for a conversation about agentic AI and what it can mean for multifamily leaders interested in creating an excellent customer experience.
For an audience of multifamily executives navigating seismic shifts—staffing, the new operating model, and elevated customer expectations—this wasn’t just an abstract tech talk. It was a look into the near future of tools to empower flexible, centralized operations.
And Bavor came armed with stories, perspective, and most of all, humility.
From Google Labs to Sierra: the road to agentic AI
If the name Clay Bavor rings a bell, it should. Over 18 years at Google, he led the charge on products like Gmail, Google Docs, and early VR. His co-founder at Sierra? Brett Taylor, the former co-CEO of Salesforce and current chairman of OpenAI.
In other words: Bavor isn’t here to ride a hype wave—he’s helping to build the next era of enterprise intelligence. So why start a company like Sierra now?
“I’ve been obsessed with computers all of my life. And over the past five years, I feel like I’ve been seeing science fiction books come alive in the real world,” Bavor said.
He recounted an early moment at Google where they tested a large language model with a unique prompt: Please describe the 2008 financial crisis using movie references.
“Without skipping a beat, it said the 2008 financial crisis was a lot like the movie Inception, except instead of dreams within dreams, it was debt within debt,” said Bavor.
“The 2008 financial crisis was a lot like the movie Inception, except instead of dreams within dreams, it was debt within debt.”
—Clay Bavor, co-founder, Sierra
That spark led to the creation of Sierra, with a focus on bringing that intelligence to life in enterprise workflows.
Beyond chatbots: what agentic AI really means
Unlike traditional bots, Sierra’s agentic AI can reason, decide, and act on a user’s behalf.
“Think less chatbot, more of autonomous co-pilot,” said Bavor. He emphasized that Sierra isn’t just interested in replicating human conversation, but elevating the entire customer experience. The aim isn’t novelty; it’s utility.
This distinction was central to the conversation. “We think that there is an opportunity to help the great companies of the world, the great businesses of the world build better—and it sounds funny to say—but even more human experiences using AI across all parts of the customer journey,” said Bavor.
“We think that there is an opportunity to help the great companies of the world, the great businesses of the world build better—and it sounds funny to say—but even more human experiences using AI across all parts of the customer journey.”
—Clay Bavor, co-founder, Sierra
“What we’re trying to resolve is this age-old tension between wanting to provide great customer service and more broadly a great customer experience and the cost of doing that.”
“What we’re trying to resolve is this age-old tension between wanting to provide great customer service and more broadly a great customer experience and the cost of doing that.”
—Clay Bavor, co-founder, Sierra
Too often, Bavor noted, companies force customers through impersonal and inefficient systems. “Many companies, you’ll hide away your 800 number, like please do anything but call us, right? There are in fact websites devoted to helping consumers find 800 numbers to get a hold of a company. And by the way, if you do, you’re being told to get off the phone as quickly as you can.”
Bavor illustrated the frustration with a real-world anecdote: “I remember I was walking behind a gentleman and he was clearly on a phone call on his AirPods and holding his phone and he starts shaking. And I hear him say, representative, representative, representative, representative, representative. I was like, I’m trying to help with that.”
That human tension—between needing help and fighting to get it—is what Sierra aims to resolve. Agentic AI allows companies to shift from a model of call deflection to true customer enablement. The goal? A digital concierge that operates across the entire journey, not just in the support queue.
“Yes, service and support, but also right in this context,” said Bavor. “If I’m a potential renter and there are three or four different floor plans and I have a family, which one would work best for me given these circumstances?”
Agentic AI could answer these questions, and more. Agentic AI doesn’t replace the connection teams and companies build with their renters and residents—it protects it. By freeing people from the tasks that get in their way, teams are now able to focus on providing genuine in-person customer service.
“Making a human connection, a person making a connection with another person, or taking time to lead a guided tour and share their own anecdotes and love of the property and maybe make connections with other families or renters there, that’s useful.”
Agentic AI in the wild
Bavor shared examples from across industries. With SiriusXM and WeightWatchers SierraAI agents are helping reduce churn by making personalized, context-aware recommendations. For irreverent fashion brand Chubbies, Sierra helped create an AI persona—Duncan Smothers—to stay on-brand while resolving inquiries.
“One of the reasons I am so grateful for our partnership, Tyler, is this is an industry that is very complex, very deep, as you all know,” Bavor said. “And that we think Sierra and AI could make a huge difference in. But we also have the humility to know that we don’t know enough to do it well.”
He continued, “That’s why this partnership makes so much sense. Funnel brings incredible SaaS and workflow applications, and we bring conversational AI. When you put those two things together, it’s one plus one equals three—or more.”
“This partnership makes so much sense. Funnel brings incredible SaaS and workflow applications, and we bring conversational AI. When you put those two things together, it’s one plus one equals three—or more.”
—Clay Bavor, co-founder, Sierra
Reducing headcount or reimagining it?
AI isn’t just handling the rote tasks—it’s transforming how companies staff and scale.
“Typically our agents in their steady state after, you know, some amount of coaching and teaching, if you will, are able to resolve somewhere between 50 and 90% of all incoming questions,” Bavor said.
“At about the 70% level [of resolving incoming questions], we’ve seen companies be able to bring down contact center hours or headcount by about 50%.”
But it’s not just about cutting. It’s about shifting. Someone who would have been doing the scheduling is instead making an outbound call. They’re able to make high value customer interactions to talk with incoming or current residents about rentable items—wine coolers, parking spaces—driving a better customer experience and bottom-line impact.
He also emphasized how agentic AI delivers operational resilience—something especially valuable to multifamily operators navigating seasonality and staffing volatility.
“From Black Friday surges in retail to natural disasters that impact business continuity, agentic AI is able to step in and keep operations running smoothly,” Bavor said. “One of our clients, Restoration Hardware, had their entire scheduling team based in Florida—and when a hurricane hit, the whole team had to go offline. Our AI picked up the work and without missing a beat, continued scheduling deliveries.”
For multifamily, the implication is clear: when peak leasing season hits or unexpected disruptions occur, AI can help fill gaps, reduce service interruptions, and keep teams focused on the highest-value renter interactions.
A model aligned with outcomes
What might be just as revolutionary as the tech? The resolution-based pricing model.
“Our view is you should think of AI and AI agents as software you are hiring to do a job and do a job well to get something done for you,” Bavor said. “Only when it does that should you pay.”
“You see huge savings and we win when you win.”
Trust, authentication, and the renter experience
To make experiences feel truly human, agents need context. That’s where authentication comes in.
“Just as the best salespeople or support people are able to remember what you ordered and pull up information and have context on you, we think great AI agents do that as well,” Bavor said.
Whether through token-based logins or intelligent, privacy-aware verification, Sierra agents can quickly identify who they’re interacting with—and personalize the experience accordingly. That’s not just a CX best practice—it’s critical in multifamily, where renters expect seamless transitions across properties and platforms.
Bavor shared, “The Fenix agent recently scheduled an appointment in Mandarin, which is pretty cool. My guess is most of you don’t staff Mandarin contact center agents around the clock.”
From Mandarin to Spanish to French, Sierra agents can operate across more than 20 languages, helping communities meet renters where they are, on their terms.
“We think there’s huge power in that,” Bavor said. “In the context of supporting renters, it’s like creating this concierge-like experience. You feel known, understood, and helped—without friction.”
Overhyped, underhyped, and utterly transformative
In a closing question, Christiansen asked Bavor to weigh in on the tech landscape.
“There’s this saying that with new technologies people generally overestimate its impact in the short run and underestimate its impact in the long run. And I think AI is no different,” Bavor said. “What’s overhyped? I think it’s AI. What’s underhyped? I think it’s also AI.”
He added, “What you should imagine is that over the last year in each one of your offices, all of a sudden, a PhD in every field of human knowledge has just shown up and is just waiting in the corner ready to do research for you.”
And with partners like Sierra helping reimagine what that future of AI in multifamily looks like the future is not just bright—it’s intelligent.