Meet Jason Luo, the Growth Operator Scaling Newo’s AI Voice Ambition
Fresh off a $25 million Series A, Newo.ai has appointed seasoned growth operator Jason Luo as Chief Executive Officer to accelerate its expansion. Newo is a San Francisco–based AI voice infrastructure platform that enables small and medium-sized businesses to capture revenue from inbound demand through human-like AI receptionists and communication agents operating 24/7 across phone, SMS, and messaging channels.
As AI voice moves from experimentation into core business operations, Luo steps in to scale execution, deepen the company’s partner ecosystem, and solidify its position in a rapidly expanding market. We sat down with him to discuss the opportunity ahead.
What attracted you to the CEO role at Newo.ai at this stage of the company’s journey?
I’ve always been drawn to value creation. Early in my career in finance, I realized that the biggest driver of value wasn’t modeling, it was growth. That insight led me to leave investment banking and build my career in software, working across customer success, operations, and executive leadership roles focused on scaling durable growth.
Over time, I learned that while sales and marketing can be optimized, building a truly differentiated product is much harder. Product is hard. It requires vision and architectural discipline.
What attracted me to Newo is the strength of the product foundation. David Yang and Alex Noveski have built a resilient platform that stands out in a competitive market. You can deploy an AI agent in minutes, but what impressed me most is its reliability in live environments. The technology is strong. At this stage, the opportunity is to scale growth and translate that advantage into category leadership. That’s where I can add value.
Why is now the right time for Newo to appoint a CEO with your background?
We’ve all witnessed the introduction of ChatGPT and the rapid acceleration of AI over the past few years. What once felt theoretical is now practical and commercially viable. Every day, AI becomes more embedded in how businesses operate.
Newo has already unlocked how to deliver tangible value to small businesses without requiring an army of engineers or complex implementation. The foundation is there. My role is to scale that impact, translate technical capability into measurable business outcomes, and ensure the market fully understands the value being created.
How would you describe Newo’s opportunity in the AI communication automation market today?
The opportunity is enormous because the everyday experience is still frustrating. I was picking up a prescription for my son recently and had to call the pharmacy to check if it was ready. I spent five minutes navigating automated prompts, then another twenty on hold, only to get disconnected. That experience is far too common.
I see the same thing in small moments. I get a haircut at the same place every three weeks, yet when I call, the receptionist doesn’t know me, and it often feels like I’m a new customer. There’s no memory, no context, and sometimes even missed bookings. And whenever I find time to schedule doctor or dentist appointments, it’s usually at night or on the weekend when the office is closed.
People want to be known, and they want efficiency. AI makes that possible. It’s available 24/7, it remembers context, and it responds immediately. Over the next 18 months, 90% of these routine interactions will shift to AI and not the robotic systems we’re used to, but intelligent agents that make businesses more responsive and allow teams to focus on the human moments that truly matter.
What excites you the most about the company’s platform and its impact on SMBs?
What excites me most is the speed-to-value. You can deploy a Newo agent in three to five minutes, and it begins driving measurable revenue impact almost immediately. That clarity of purpose, increasing revenue, is our north star.
We have built a powerful horizontal platform with capabilities that translate across industries, and our strength lies in seamless integrations and the reliability of our zero-hallucination architecture. The next chapter focuses on delving deeper into specific verticals and developing resilient, repeatable use cases tailored to those markets.
Where do you see the biggest opportunity for AI communication automation in the SMB segment over the next 3-5 years?
Over the next 18 months, SMBs will be able to automate most of their go-to-market motion using AI. That includes lead generation, inbound lead capture through the receptionist, and lead nurturing throughout the funnel. As these workflows become automated, business owners and their teams can focus more fully on delivering their core services.
Our vision at Newo is to provide every small business with an out-of-the-box, AI-powered revenue engine that functions like a deployable CRO, helping them capture and convert demand more consistently.
AI voice technology is reaching an inflection point. How do you see the category evolving?
Voice technology is far more nuanced than most people realize. For years, consumers have been familiar with assistants like Alexa, and more recently, we have seen highly realistic voices that are immediately impressive. But commercial quality is a different standard. The real questions are whether the system responds with an appropriate tone, avoids hallucination, accurately identifies intent, and follows through to action.
In SMB environments, the complexity increases. The system must distinguish between speakers and background noise, understand multiple languages, adapt when a caller switches languages, and retain context even when interrupted. Those details determine whether AI works reliably in real-world conditions.
Large language models will continue to become more sophisticated and efficient. Platforms like Newo play a critical role in translating technological advancements into dependable, production-ready systems that meet businesses’ practical needs.
Any final thoughts?
Our focus is simple: deliver measurable revenue growth for the businesses we serve, and do it quickly. We are proud of the AI platform we’ve built, but ultimately, what matters is the impact it creates.
When our customers grow their revenue, our partners grow, and our employees grow with them. That alignment is central to how I think about success at Newo.
