What a journey! When we first started out on the concept of Crankshaft.ai, we weren't really sure whether the AI technology would be powerful enough and accurate enough to deliver on our vision to generate live, real-time Quality & Intent verified leads. This is because this is a herculean proposition given that nobody else is doing this in the marketplace (it's hard) and because everyone is still stuck in a world where the old way of doing things is the norm. Luckily for us, we were born out of the challenger mentality and a deep expertise in AI. We built the product from the ground up to be AI first with the very specific target task not to replace people, but instead to facilitate real people talking to each other.
The Question That Started It All
The live transfer industry has been operating on the same broken model for decades: blast volume, hope for quality, and deal with complaints later. We asked a different question:
The Crankshaft Hypothesis
What if AI could listen to every call in real-time and verify both quality AND intent before the transfer happens?
Not after. Not based on post-call analysis. The time to do anything is NOW, so we want to do it in Real-Time.
That question led us down a path that required us to prove something that had never been proven before: that AI could accurately assess caller intent, compliance, and quality during a live conversation with enough accuracy to bet our business model on it.
The Validation Journey: Four Critical Phases
We didn't just build a product and launch it. We couldn't afford to. The stakes were too high, and the promise too important. So we structured our journey into four rigorous validation phases:
Technical Validation
Could our AI actually do what we claimed? We tested core capabilities: real-time audio analysis, intent detection accuracy, compliance verification, and processing speed under load. The answer: Yes, but we needed refinement.
Quality Assurance
Working with select pilot customers, we ran deep analysis on thousands of real calls. We measured false positives, false negatives, edge cases, and real-world accuracy. We iterated, improved, and validated again.
Scale Testing
Accuracy at low volume means nothing if it breaks under production load. We pushed the system hard: thousands of simultaneous calls, diverse verticals, different accents and speech patterns. The infrastructure held strong.
Go Live
With all validation complete, we opened the platform to buyer applications. The bidding process is active, and our first customer cohort is onboarding now.
What We Learned: Real Metrics from Real Calls
The data from our validation phases told a clear story. Our AI doesn't just work in theory—it works in practice, at scale, under real-world conditions.
Intent Detection Accuracy
94%
False Positive Rate
<2%
Average Processing Time
<3s
These aren't vanity metrics. They represent thousands of real calls, analyzed in real-time, with accuracy that meets production-grade requirements. Our false positive rate under 2% means buyers aren't paying for bad leads. Our sub-3-second processing time (which happens in parallel), means that we can analyse the call in a way that is unnoticeable to either party.
Why This Matters: The Old Model Is Broken
The traditional live transfer model operates on a simple (and problematic) formula:
High Volume + Low Quality = Lots of Refunds and Broken Trust
Publishers push as many transfers as possible, hoping some will convert. Buyers accept low conversion rates as "just how it is." Everyone wastes time, money, and credibility.
Crankshaft flips this model:
The Crankshaft Advantage
Intent-Verified Leads
AI confirms genuine buyer interest before the transfer happens
Real-Time Compliance
Every call is automatically checked for DNC, TCPA, and quality violations
Transparent Pricing
Buyers only pay for leads that meet quality thresholds
Publisher Confidence
Know your leads will be accepted before you transfer them
What Makes Our AI Different
There's a lot of hype around "AI-powered" sales tools. Most of them are post-call analytics dressed up with buzzwords. What makes Crankshaft fundamentally different is real-time decision-making during the call.
Our AI isn't sitting in a back office analyzing transcripts hours later. It's listening live, processing natural language, detecting intent signals, checking compliance databases, and making accept/reject decisions—all while the caller is still on the line.
This required breakthroughs in several areas:
- Low-latency audio streaming to process speech without noticeable delays
- Contextual intent modeling to understand what people mean, not just what they say
- Multi-factor quality scoring that combines intent, compliance, coherence, and viability
- Scalable infrastructure that handles thousands of concurrent calls without degradation
We didn't achieve this overnight. It took months of engineering, testing, failing, and iterating. But the result is a system that actually delivers on the promise of AI-verified live transfers.
What's Next: Join the First Wave
We're live, but we're being selective. We're not opening the floodgates to unlimited volume. Instead, we're onboarding our initial buyer cohort carefully, ensuring the experience is exceptional for everyone.
Current Status
Bidding process is active. We have opened the bidding process for publishers to submit their bids. If you are a call centre and want to submit a bid: https://crankshaft.ai/forms/bid-submission
Agent onboarding is live. If you are able to close live deals, Apply Now.
If you're a buyer tired of wasting money on junk leads, or a publisher frustrated with high refund rates, now is the time to get involved.
The Bottom Line
We set out to answer a simple question: Can AI verify lead quality and intent in real-time?
After thousands of test calls, four validation phases, and months of rigorous testing, the answer is a resounding yes.
But more importantly, we proved something bigger: the live transfer industry doesn't have to operate on broken trust and wasted spend. There's a better way. And it's live right now.
The old model is dying. The future is intent-verified, compliance-first, and AI-powered.
High-intent buyers are calling. Are you ready to answer?
Join the Live Transfer Revolution
Be part of the first wave of buyers and publishers using AI-verified live transfers. Priority access available for early applicants.
Mykhaylo (Myk) Shaforostov
Chief Revenue Officer at Crankshaft
With over a decade of experience in technical sales and go-to-market leadership, Myk helps organizations unlock value through AI and emerging technologies. He's passionate about translating innovation into tangible business value and meaningful outcomes. In his spare time, he loves skiing, snowboarding, and kitesurfing.
#livetransfers #AI #leadgeneration #salestech #intentverification #qualityleads #TCPA #compliance #crankshaft #b2bsales
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Tue Oct 14 2025