DataSpeak: AI Assistants for Customer Interaction 

With "Breaking Barriers," the startup aims to refine its market strategy and triple its customer base. 

Using AI for customer service isn't easy for companies. Customers get frustrated with chatbots that don't work properly, and employees struggle to adopt yet another new system. For the startup DataSpeak , this was reason enough to take a different approach. They’ve developed a platform with AI assistants that interact with customers via chat, phone, avatar, WhatsApp, and email—and that integrates with the systems employees already use. 

We spoke with co-founder Arno van den Berg about AI in customer engagement and DataSpeak’s growth goals within Breaking Barriers. 

Swiss Army knife 

Arno worked for many years in various management roles at tech companies. DataSpeak is his first venture, and for the first time, he’s on the supplier side. He’s noticed that his clients struggle with the practical value of AI. That’s why DataSpeak is starting with a single application and first demonstrating what works before gradually adding more integrations. DataSpeak’s platform is therefore modular. Arno compares it to a Swiss Army knife. There’s a standard set of features, but for clients with “sometimes exotic systems that still need to be integrated,” the team adds specific components. The AI assistant operates within the platform that employees already use. “We’re just the AI layer in between. That, too, makes adoption—actually getting employees to use it—much easier,” Arno explains. 

Launching with Confidence 

Almost anything can be automated, but DataSpeak deliberately builds this up in stages. Employees need to remain in control and, through measurable results, gain confidence in how the platform can help them. Only then is the assistant given more responsibility. “It’s more of a pull than a push,” says Arno. “We implement the first use case, and then they enthusiastically start looking for more applications.” 

To continue growing, this ambitious company has now joined Breaking Barriers. How does Arno envision this journey? “Our biggest barrier is our own time. Technical scalability is well under control, but ultimately we also want to scale up our team and our partners.” To that end, DataSpeak is looking for “new talent”: people with a different set of skills than the team currently possesses. “The most important thing is that we continue to refine our value proposition to enable further growth.” 

We want to optimize our go-to-market strategy to achieve further growth

Arno van den Berg, co-founder of DataSpeaks

A good match 

DataSpeak joined AIC4NL early on and uses the network to make connections that can lead to new customers and to see how the market is evolving. Last year, Arno attended a session on scale-ups. This was followed by the application process, during which the team was “thoroughly questioned and analyzed” to determine whether it met the program’s requirements. That process showed that DataSpeak’s growth barriers align with what Breaking Barriers does best, and that the program has the partners to help. “That’s a good match.” 

One of the main objectives is to triple the number of customers. The Netherlands is the most obvious market, but Arno also sees opportunities abroad. So far, DataSpeak has grown primarily organically, through its own network, and now wants to actively enter the market with specific propositions. Raising capital is not necessarily a goal at this point, although the chosen positioning could lead to that. That is why the company wants to know what investors are looking for. 

The desire to grow 

DataSpeak operates in various sectors, including energy, insurance, government, retail, and telecommunications. Thanks to its experience in these sectors, integrating the AI platform is often a quick process. DataSpeak has been growing rapidly since early 2025. The number of interactions rose by more than 500 percent over the past year. The customer base is growing linearly, but that growth needs to accelerate. “We want to optimize our go-to-market strategy to achieve further growth,” Arno concludes.