The founding story: automating conversations before it was cool
Ada was founded in 2016 by Mike Murchison and David Hariri in Toronto. The idea came from a simple but painful reality: customer support was broken. Long wait times, repetitive questions, and overwhelmed support agents made for a frustrating experience on both sides.
The founders believed AI could handle the repetitive, high-volume questions, freeing human agents to focus on more complex issues. That vision became Ada, an AI-powered platform that helps companies automate customer conversations across chat, messaging, and social channels.
At the time, conversational AI wasn’t the buzzword it is today. Ada was early, and being early gave them a head start.
What does Ada do?
Ada is an AI-powered customer support automation platform. In plain language, it helps businesses scale their customer service without sacrificing quality.
Instead of waiting on hold or bouncing between support reps, Ada lets companies create automated chat experiences that actually feel human. Their platform uses natural language processing to understand questions, provide instant answers, and escalate to a human agent only when needed.
Some of the ways Ada is used:
Customer self-service: answering routine questions instantly, like order status, billing, or account updates.
Personalized support: using data to tailor responses based on who the customer is and what they’ve done before.
Efficiency for teams: freeing up human agents to handle more complex or higher-value conversations.
Ada powers support for major brands across industries like fintech, e-commerce, and telecom. By reducing wait times and improving the customer experience, they help companies strengthen relationships and scale without exploding their support costs. You’ve probably run into an Ada agent when trying to chat at support at some of your favourite online stores or merchants.
What’s new in Ada’s world
Ada has scaled fast, now supporting some of the world’s biggest brands. In the last couple of years, they’ve:
Raised a $130M USD Series C led by Spark Capital, bringing their valuation to $1.2B and making Ada a unicorn
Expanded their enterprise reach with clients in industries like retail, fintech, and travel
Continued investing in their AI engine to keep up with advances in LLMs and natural language understanding
Rolled out features that allow deeper integrations with CRMs, helpdesks, and ticketing platforms so automation is truly end-to-end
What I find cool is that Ada didn’t wait for ChatGPT hype to validate them. They were solving real customer service challenges years before the generative AI wave, and they’ve doubled down as the category exploded.
Funding and team at a glance
💰 As mentioned earlier, recently raised $130M Series C at unicorn status
👥 500+ employees globally, with HQ in Toronto
🌎 Clients in over 50 countries, serving hundreds of millions of automated conversations
🖥️ Website: ada.cx
Who is Ada’s competition?
Ada isn’t the only company chasing the AI support automation space. Global players like Intercom, Zendesk, and Drift have all rolled out their own AI chat and customer experience tools.
In my view, Ada’s biggest competitor is Intercom. Intercom has the brand recognition, a massive existing customer base, and deep resources to invest in AI. It’s also aggressively marketing its new AI bot as a core product. That said, Ada differentiates by going deeper into automation-first design, rather than bolting AI onto an existing customer support suite.
What makes things even more interesting is that the big players are circling. Salesforce, for example, is building Agentforce, its own AI-powered support assistant within the Salesforce ecosystem. For companies already embedded in Salesforce, that will be appealing. But the flip side is that those enterprise solutions can be slow-moving and less customizable, which is where Ada still has an edge.
The race comes down to whether companies want a nimble, AI-native solution like Ada, or whether they’ll stick with legacy platforms layering AI onto decades-old systems. For now, Ada’s speed, focus, and Canadian roots give it a unique place in the market.
Ada Interact: bringing the industry together
Ada doesn’t just build software, they’ve also built a community around the future of customer support. Their annual event, Ada Interact, is where leaders in CX, AI, and automation come together to share ideas, product updates, and real-world case studies.
The event has become Ada’s platform to showcase what’s next. From unveiling new features to highlighting how top brands are using Ada in production, it’s a mix of thought leadership and hands-on learning. It also gives customers and prospects a space to network with peers who are navigating the same challenges.
What stands out is that Interact isn’t just a marketing show; it reflects Ada’s ambition to position itself as a true leader in the AI support space. By hosting conversations about where the industry is headed, they’re not only showing off their own innovations but also shaping the broader conversation on how automation and AI are transforming customer experience.
My take
I had the chance to interview at Ada, and it was one of the more thoughtful and stimulating processes I’ve been through. The conversations weren’t just about checking boxes, they were about digging into how I think, how I solve problems, and how I could add value to the team.
That experience gave me a real sense of the kind of culture they’re building. It’s fast-paced, but also intentional. Ada is the kind of place that sets a high bar while making you feel like you’re part of something important.
If you’re someone who thrives in an environment where AI and customer experience meet, and where growth is happening at scale, Ada is a company worth keeping on your radar.
🧭 Ada Roles — Now Hiring
These are the open roles at Ada now, but leaning more towards the technical side of tech rather than the business side. However I encourage you to keep in tune with future LaunchPad job posts to see any new exciting roles that pop up at Ada and many other cool firms!
That’s a wrap on Spotlight #14
If you made it this far, thank you for reading! I hope these spotlights help you discover companies worth your time, and make the job hunt feel just a little bit less overwhelming. Keep an eye out for next Tuesday’s LaunchPad job drop, and if you know someone looking to break into tech or level up, feel free to share this with them too.
Here’s to building something cool, or better yet, joining something cool. 🚀
