An interview with the CEO of Linguix, by Cybernews.
For non-native English speakers, superior writing skills and fluency can become a make-or-break factor.
To help those in need, the Cybernews team decided to gather some intel on tools, specifically made to solve tasks via writing – grammar checkers.
For this reason, we got intact with Alex Lashkov, CEO of Linguix – an AI-based writing assistant with numerous grammar-checking tools – to have a brief chat about how and why their product began and in what ways it can be beneficial to each and every one of us.
How did the idea of Linguix originate? What has your journey been like?
It was about scratching my own itch. Being a non-native English speaker, immigrant, and business owner, I wanted to develop my content marketing agency in the US. However, I felt that my poor writing skills led to lost contracts and opportunities.
This is why I’ve started using Grammarly and understood that their approach just does not work for me. I wanted a tool that would focus on solving my tasks, not just eliminating writing mistakes and firing dozens of alerts for every document no matter if there were actual mistakes or not.
So, we’ve started building exactly this – a tool that will help you to solve your tasks via writing. We started by building a grammar checker that was tailored to non-natives. Surprisingly, this minimalistic approach of firing only alerts for 100% grammar mistakes and not for “you could say it better things” resonated with native speakers also.
It turned out that Linguix and its approach are perfect for professionals who write to solve their tasks and earn more money/get new opportunities: marketers, salespeople, customer care reps, managers, business owners, HRs, etc. This is why we’ve started iterating around this: making the best-in-class writing assistant for professionals with a focus on productivity and ROI.
Can you introduce us to your writing assistant? What are its key features?
Key features are:
Our grammar checker that spots writing mistakes
Rewriting/rephrasing engine that allows you to instantly improve the whole sentence and grammar is fixed by default (no need to click and accept corrections)
Shortcuts for faster typing: you can automate repetitive typing (for emails, LinkedIn intros, etc.) and create shortcuts that then instantly expand on any website you need. This saves up to 90% time on typing – folks in sales and customer service adore this feature!
Why do you think companies sometimes hesitate to try out new and innovative solutions that would enhance their operations?
Every change causes friction as people need to switch from something they are used to or just learn how to work with new software. For companies, there are also regulatory issues, security questions, etc.
We are eliminating this friction by offering a seamless experience: you just install our browser extension and it helps you everywhere or you can use our web editor to prepare your content and paste it elsewhere. We use top-notch and cutting-edge security approaches and technology, rewarding whitehat independent security researchers who test our website and disclose vulnerabilities.
How did the recent global events affect your field of work? Were there any new challenges you had to adapt to?
Covid actually demonstrated that remote work is our future and that text-based communication is here to state as it is more convenient than video conferencing. We’ve got lots of new users who’ve switched to remote work and had to adapt their workflows.
Many of these people were not producing as much text and engaging work communications before. So, they needed help.
Besides grammar-checking solutions, what other technologies do you think would greatly enhance business operations?
Analytics and everything that adds value with an ROI can be calculated.
Recently, maintaining creativity has been a serious struggle for some organizations. How can companies foster creativity and innovation when the majority of employees are working remotely?
A good idea here is to provide employees with useful resources like articles, expert talks, and presentations on these topics. Also, the thing that allows looking at any business problem from another angle is to go and talk to customers.
Many companies have lots of people who never interact with those who use their services and products. I think it is a great technique to offer such folks an opportunity to communicate with customers directly from time to time.
From my experience, this has a huge impact on creativity as employees see whom they work for, and adding this personal touch is great when we talk about fostering creativity.
In this age of ever-evolving technology, what do you think are the key security practices both businesses and individuals should adopt?
Two-factor authentication, frequent password change, regular backups, and testing of these backups.
Where do you expect to see AI-powered solutions be used more often in the near future?
In terms of communication and text, I am a huge believer that in recent years we will see the boost of AI tools that are enhancing humans, not replacing them. The best ideas are stillborn in our heads, not within the computer.
So, any field where AI can expand human capabilities by making them more productive or fast will be booming. Content creation and communication are the most obvious ones.
Tell us, what’s next for Linguix?
We are releasing our biggest grammar-checking engine update soon.
