Peiru Teo, CEO of KeyReply, is staying at the forefront of AI innovation, contributing to the development of technology that improves lives and increases accessibility to healthcare.
As being a highly optimistic and resilient leader, the ability to persist through challenges and continuously adapt has been crucial to her success.
“At KeyReply, our vision is to create a world where healthcare is delivered efficiently and compassionately,” says Peiru.
Peiru’scareer choice: how did she arrive at it?
Peiru’s educational journey started at NTU, where she graduated as valedictorian with a BEng with business programs. This strong foundation in engineering set the stage for her career. Early on, she worked as a management associate with Citi, and later Peiru managed billion-dollar financial assets in private equity. These roles provided her with robust financial and strategic skills, and combined with her engineering background, they gave Peiru a unique perspective on problem-solving and strategic planning. These experiences have shaped her approach to entrepreneurship and leadership in the tech and healthcare sectors.
Steps towards the professional journey of leadership
“My journey into technology and healthcare innovation began with an unexpected challenge. I led a company on the brink of bankruptcy, grappling with $1 million in debt. It was a daunting situation, but it taught me the value of resilience and creative problem-solving. By embracing innovation and process automation, we not only averted disaster but also transformed the company into an industry leader, eventually leading to its successful acquisition. This experience deeply instilled in me a belief in the transformative power of technology, a belief that has guided my career ever since,” says Peiru.
What inspired her to come up with the idea?
Having experienced a challenging entrepreneurial turnaround, Peiru always knew and wanted to use technology to amplify and scale the impact of people’s work. However, her true inspiration for KeyReply came from a deeply personal place.
“My mother has suffered from a chronic autoimmune illness since she was young. As her daughter, I often struggled to understand her condition, whether she was adhering to her medication regimen and the implications of her symptoms. We frequently felt helpless, lacking visibility into her medical records and overwhelmed by the numerous medications piling up on her table after each visit. There were no clear guides or instructions, which added to our confusion and stress,” expresses Peiru.
“This personal experience highlighted the inefficiencies and gaps in healthcare communication and management. It inspired me to focus on the healthcare industry, aiming to create solutions that make a meaningful impact on people’s lives. I wanted to build technology that doesn’t just automate tasks but truly enhances patient care and empowers families to support their loved ones effectively,” she added.
The Power of Influence in Peiru’s Life: High-Impact Change
“My biggest influence in business has always been my dad. Since the 1980s, he has been building his enterprise software company from the ground up. Watching him work tirelessly, with an unwavering commitment to excellence and a genuine desire to understand his clients’ needs, left a lasting impression on me. He truly enjoys and takes pride in his work, and that passion is contagious,” says Peiru.
“One piece of advice he always gave us was that if you do a good job, by the end of the delivery, you should understand the client’s business better than they do. This principle has guided my journey in business, emphasizing the importance of empathy and deep understanding in providing valuable solutions,” she continues.
Pursuit of a dream with a pivotal moment
The pivotal moment in Peiru’s entrepreneurial journey was securing national-level accreditation for KeyReply, making it one of the recommended platforms for all public healthcare institutions. This achievement led to them working with two-thirds of the country’s public hospitals. This milestone not only validated its technology but also established KeyReply as a major player in the healthcare sector.
KeyReply: Generative Al-Powered virtual assistants unite patients and clinicians
Singapore-based KeyReply is a leading AI platform designed to enhance patient engagement and streamline healthcare workflows. Since its inception in 2014, it has been pivotal in addressing critical challenges such as staff shortages, patient no-shows, and non-adherence to treatment protocols.
In the past, AI models could address efficiency, but with the advent of generative AI, KeyReply also addresses compassion and empathy. This advancement allows them to significantly impact critical healthcare challenges such as staff shortages and administrative inefficiencies.
“Our mission is to enhance patient experience and health outcomes through innovative AI solutions that combine efficiency with empathy,” assures Peiru.
Innovative solutions make KeyReply stand out and differentiate itself
KeyReply stands out due to its deep focus on healthcare and comprehensive AI capabilities that span both operational needs and clinical areas. Their platform features low/no-code tools, enabling users to quickly develop and deploy AI solutions, reducing development time by 90%.
“Our solutions have proven to be transformative, drastically reducing turnaround and waiting times, and improving patient satisfaction and staff productivity by fourfold. By tackling these issues, we help create a more responsive and human-centered healthcare system, benefiting both patients and healthcare providers,” asserts Peiru.
KeyReply also prioritizes safety, including a robust testing framework to ensure responsible AI usage within organizations. Moreover, its extensive dataset, meticulously labeled by healthcare professionals over the past six years, has proven invaluable in training and evaluating the performance of their AI models. This unique combination of specialized focus, user-friendly tools, and high-quality data sets makes them apart from their competitors.
Focusing on work culture and transformation
KeyReply’s values and work culture are driven by resourcefulness, knowledge, customer success, and an action-oriented mindset.
Resourceful: They believe that any problem can be solved with creativity and perseverance.
Knowledgeable: Being at the cutting edge of technology, they prioritize continuous learning and curiosity to stay ahead.
Customer Success: The company’s commitment to their customers’ success is at the heart of everything they do, ensuring solutions deliver real value.
Action-Oriented: They believe talk is cheap; action and results are what truly matter.
How is KeyReply leveraging AI to create new opportunities?
KeyReply leverages AI both internally and for their clients to create new opportunities. Internally, they have streamlined the development process for client projects, reducing effort and time by over 80%.
For their clients, KeyReply harnesses AI to automate routine tasks, enhance patient engagement, and improve health outcomes. This not only boosts operational efficiency but also frees up healthcare providers to focus on delivering quality care. Additionally, their AI solutions assist healthcare organizations in managing health programs more effectively, leading to better patient outcomes and long-term savings at a population level.
Peiru’s views on whether is AI human-centric and whether will it replace jobs
“At KeyReply, our AI is designed to complement the human workforce, not replace it. Our solutions take over routine and mundane tasks, freeing healthcare professionals to focus on more critical and compassionate aspects of patient care. While AI can automate certain functions, the human touch remains irreplaceable in healthcare. We advocate for a symbiotic relationship between AI and humans, where technology enhances human capabilities and overall job satisfaction,” asserts Peiru.
AI’s Future: Peiru’s opinions
“In the future, I envision teams comprising a mix of autonomous agents and people working together seamlessly. Each person will have a co-pilot, an AI assistant, helping them execute tasks and guide them in making informed decisions. This collaboration between humans and AI will enhance efficiency, creativity, and decision-making across various industries,” asserts Peiru.
Keep up with AI developments with Peiru’s advice
Peiru says “Staying updated with AI developments involves continuous learning and active engagement with the AI community. Reading leading AI research publications and following various open-source communities across different geographical locations are effective ways to stay abreast of the latest trends and best practices.”
Peiru’s visions and commitments for the future of KeyReply
In the long run, Peiru sees KeyReply as a global leader in healthcare AI, recognized for its innovative solutions and positive impact on patient care.
“My future goals for the company include expanding our presence in international markets and impacting the lives of 100 million patients on a daily basis,” asserts Peiru.
