The hassle of scheduling meetings through back-and-forth communication is nothing new - has existed since the start of knowledge work, even before digital calendars became a thing. digital calendars.
In recent years, there's been a significant shift towards tele- or homeworking (even "workations" are a thing now), where people are no longer tied to their office. Alongside this, a second shift has blurred the boundaries between work time and personal time; more than ever, people are working flexible hours and scheduling personal appointments (like a dentist visit) during the workday.
These changes have compounded into an increasingly complex puzzle when it comes to scheduling meetings. This challenge is particularly pronounced in knowledge-intensive sectors like professional services (consultants, investors, auditors, etc.), where travel time often adds an extra layer of complexity.
Given these dynamics, it's no surprise that the professional services sector is one of the highest adopters of AI and future tech solutions like Trickle. The current market size stands at 18 billion USD, with an expected growth rate of 30% over the next 5 years (source).
With adoption rates set to skyrocket in the coming years, it's clear that AI is not just a passing trend in this sector.
Target Audience
It should come as no surprise that Trickle is primarily a network product. This means that its greatest value is realized when used collaboratively with others. As a result, Trickle's primary focus is on project teams in a professional context, targeting both the SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) and Corporate segments.
Trickle's initial beachhead niche is in the Professional Services market, specifically targeting the (management) consulting sector. The company has already established a foothold in both the SME and Corporate segments, with initial customers in the SME segment and our first customer in the Corporate segment.
The initial focus on management consultants is driven by two key reasons:
A significant portion of their work involves coordinating meetings with clients, subcontractors, and colleagues - often multiple times a week and across various calendar platforms. They experience the challenges of scheduling daily.
Management consultants typically introduce new ways of working, often supported by tools, to the clients they serve. By adopting Trickle, they are likely to introduce it to new prospects, thereby immediately strengthening Trickle's network effect.
Competitors
Trickle is unique. There is no direct competitor anywhere in the world offering an intelligent scheduling solution that accounts for user preferences across multiple calendars and platforms. Trickle evaluates all timeslots in a calendar—not just the empty ones—and suggests the optimal meeting times, even automatically adjusting other events if necessary.
However, Trickle operates within a growing competitive landscape that includes several indirect competitors in the AI personal assistant and scheduling software market, as detailed below.
Trickle's Competitive Advantage
Full Timeslot Consideration
Trickle is developing a proprietary GAN AI architecture that enables preference scoring across all timeslots in a calendar. In simple terms, it understands a user's preferences for a given meeting and can suggest the best timeslot, even moving other events if necessary, aligning with the user's own thinking.
Scheduling and Booking Automation
Trickle differentiates itself with its ability to fully automate the booking process, manage back-and-forth email communications, and notify attendees of arrival times, significantly reducing the need for user intervention.
Integration and Synchronization
Trickle offers robust integration across multiple calendar platforms, including Google, Microsoft, and Apple, with automatic cross-calendar synchronization. This ensures seamless management of both personal and professional schedules.
Privacy and Security
With enhanced privacy controls, Trickle safeguards user data, ensuring it is secure and not shared without explicit consent. All data is stored within the EU, an important compliance feature for larger organizations and governments.
Comparative table of features (darker checks indicate features currently in development)
Market Potential
Aside from AI in the Professional Services market, the larger AI personal assistant market is experiencing robust growth, driven by the increasing integration of AI technologies in various devices and applications. This market is expanding rapidly due to advancements in natural language processing, machine learning, and contextual understanding.
As of 2023, the AI-powered personal assistants market was valued at approximately USD 108.60 billion and is projected to reach USD 242.30 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.3%. Meanwhile, the intelligent virtual assistant (IVA) market, a segment of this broader market, is expected to grow from USD 14.77 billion in 2024 to USD 60.83 billion by 2029, achieving a CAGR of 32.72% during this period.
The enterprise adoption rate of AI personal assistants has been growing significantly. As of early 2024, approximately 42% of large enterprises (with over 1,000 employees) have actively deployed AI in their operations, with an additional 40% currently exploring or experimenting with AI technologies. This trend is driven by the increasing need to automate business processes, boost productivity, and reduce operational costs.
In a survey, 64% of business owners expect AI to positively impact productivity, with 61% of employees noting that AI makes their workdays more efficient and productive. Notably, AI tools are helping workers make decisions faster and enhance creativity and collaboration within teams.
Growth projections for the AI personal assistant market and enterprise adoption rates
Market size
Trickle is targeting its initial beachhead market within the AI segment of the Management Consulting industry. The company aims to capture 1% of this market within the next 5 years.
The AI segment within the Professional Services market is currently valued at $18 billion USD, with the (management) consulting sector accounting for 32% of that market, or approximately 6 billion USD. Given Trickle's international scope, the company aspires to capture 1% of this global market over the next five years, which equates to a serviceable obtainable market (SOM) of around 60 million USD. Focusing on Europe as the initial strategy, this translates to a serviceable market of approximately 28 million USD.
However, considering that roughly 80% of AI applications in the Professional Services market are related to data analysis and decision-making processes, a more precise estimate would adjust the serviceable obtainable market to approximately 40 million USD, reflecting a more targeted 1% capture.
What about Microsoft Co-pilot or anything Google might create?
It's realistic to acknowledge that direct competition with a tech giant would not likely favor Trickle. However, several factors make such a scenario unlikely:
Architectural Limitations The IT architectures of major tech giants are not designed to handle multiple calendar accounts seamlessly. This is why users still need to switch profiles to access information from secondary accounts. Changing these architectures would entail immense costs, as they form the backbone of numerous IT tools, including their own.
Interoperability Issues Tech giants are unlikely to allow full integration of their systems with a competitor's ecosystem. This is why, for instance, you still cannot fully integrate a Google Calendar within Outlook. Their business models prioritize basic tooling that can be extended by an army of trained and certified consultants, rather than catering to specific niches.
Focus on Different AI Disciplines While Microsoft Co-pilot is a powerful tool, its primary focus is on generative prediction (e.g., suggesting text), which is a vastly different AI discipline from the GAN optimization problems Trickle is solving. Co-pilot simply isn’t designed to do what Trickle does.
Trickle was built from the ground up without any of the above constraints, allowing it to connect to multiple platforms, including Microsoft, Google, and Apple, to provide a comprehensive view of a user's availability. It is specifically tailored for the professional services niche.
Moreover, there is no risk that a tech giant would shut the service down for Trickle. Trickle's market share is too small to pose a threat, and it uses the same standard services as any other calendar or mail client. Shutting down Trickle would mean shutting down those tools as well.
A far more likely scenario is that Trickle's technology could attract the interest of a tech giant, potentially leading to a lucrative exit strategy.
