Workforce burnout is real, and expensive. Erudit AI can help

Levels of burnout are at an all-time high. Online job board Indeed polled a diverse range of 1,500 US workers and found that more than half currently feel burned out. More than two thirds believe that their burnout has worsened during the pandemic. 

For workers, this burnout can have devastating effects, from excessive stress and fatigue to heart disease and high blood pressure. Employers are also affected: workplaces with high rates of burnout are also likely to have high turnover.

A Miami-based company with roots in Madrid is working to help companies assess and improve issues related to employee burnout. Erudit AI has developed an AI-powered platform that constantly assesses workplace wellbeing and provides leaders with data-driven recommendations to improve their work environment in real time.

Co-founders Ricardo Michel Reyes and Alejandro Martinez Agenjo (pictured above) bonded over a mutual interest in data science. CTO Michel Reyes, who originally hails from Mexico, is an entrepreneur who has advised public sector and international organizations around Europe and the Americas. This is the second venture for CEO Martinez Agenjo, a Spaniard with Cuban roots, who is a psychologist and engineer by trade. He also co-founded and headed an edtech startup in Spain.

Erudit Ai CTO Ricardo Michel Reyes. At top of post is CEO Alejandro Martinez Agenjo.

The two teamed up to give companies AI tools to explain to chief operations officers and human resource managers how their workforce is feeling. “We show them the predicted economic impact that the mood of the company will have,” Martinez Agenjo told Refresh Miami.

Erudit AI works in the background, collecting data from platforms like Slack, GSuite, and Microsoft 365. “We don’t save or read anything,” Martinez Agenjo noted, underscoring the company’s priority to keep users’ data safe. The startup’s proprietary algorithms then analyze these messages and assess worker burnout on a scale of zero to five.

Martinez Agenjo highlighted the crucial need for organizations to understand the economic impact of their employees’ wellbeing. “Mental health is super important, and we want to push companies to improve mental health worldwide,” he said. “But you need to speak their language: the language of business. ‘How much does this cost, and how does it affect our profit?’”

The startup assesses this economic impact cross-referencing the language data its algorithm collects and analyzes with financial data from platforms like Workday, SAP, and even Stripe (useful for assessing how mood affects sales teams). “Then I can show the economic impact” of high turnover rates, a byproduct of burnout, explained Martinez Agenjo.

Miami made sense for Martinez Agenjo, who has family in the area. In late 2019, the team landed $100,000 of funding from Miami accelerator TheVentureCity. Erudit has received a total of $1.5M of pre-seed funding. This fall, they hope to close a $2.5M seed round. 

While the team started developing Erudit AI in Fall 2019, they launched the first version of their platform in March 2021. “It has been a surprising summer for us,” Martinez Agenjo said of the company’s 200% growth over the last two months: “The product is useful and people really want it.” 

Top priority for Erudit AI is sales. Martinez Agenjo and Michel Reyes are currently spearheading most of Erudit’s sales efforts themselves. However, they have recently on-boarded the newest member of their now 18-person team, a sales lead based in New Hampshire. “We’ve built great tech and product teams, and now we’re excited to build our sales team,” said Martinez Agenjo.

The company is recruiting for a handful of roles, including a Chief Marketing Officer, four SDRs, and a software quality assurance engineer.

Learn more about Erudit AI on their website.

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Riley Kaminer