The Home Service Expert Podcast AI Will Run Your Business Sooner Than You Think (Boris Valkov)
8 snips
May 1, 2026 
Boris Valkov, software engineer and entrepreneur who built scalable AI systems at Meta and Slack and now leads Lace.ai. He discusses applying AI to home services call centers. Topics include AI-driven coaching and after-hours automation, outbound and speed-to-lead, product-first wins like the Wrench partnership, hybrid-to-autonomous workflows, and hiring and scaling engineering for reliable AI operations.
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From Bulgarian Grocery To AI Founder
- Boris started helping in his parents' Bulgarian grocery at age 10 and found solving customer problems created purpose.
- That early drive led him to study CS, work at VMware and Meta, then cofound Lace to scale impact.
Call Center Is The Primary Revenue Lever
- The biggest revenue leverage in home services is fixing call center performance rather than broad headcount cuts.
- Lace.ai focused on coaching CSRs, after-hours handling, speed-to-lead and rehash to address the 90% of revenue handled by call centers.
Use A Hybrid AI Human Team
- Do deploy a hybrid super team combining AI with humans instead of only AI or only people.
- Use AI for scale (after-hours, volume) while routing complex cases to trained CSRs to preserve conversion and experience.
