At a Glance

Client: GradNext, a premier coaching institute for aspiring management consultants.

Challenge: The founder, an ex-BCG consultant, couldn't personally deliver the high volume of one-on-one mock interviews required for students to succeed, creating a scalability problem.

Solution: A custom-built, voice-first AI platform, "CaseBuddy," that simulates realistic, MBB-style case interviews, available to students 24/7.

Results:

1. Hundreds of AI-powered interviews conducted within days of launch.

2. Overwhelmingly positive user feedback citing a "10x more productive" experience.

3. Successful launch of a new, innovative product that enhances GradNext's market position.

   
   

The Challenge: The Manual Bottleneck in a High-Stakes World

For aspiring management consultants, the case interview is the final boss. Success hinges on rigorous practice. GradNext, founded by ex-BCG consultant Kashish, provided top-tier coaching but faced a critical operational bottleneck.

Their students needed consistent, high-quality mock interview practice. While Kashish conducted these sessions himself, the 30-minute one-on-one format was impossible to scale. There simply wasn't enough time in the day to give every student the personalized practice they needed to compete for roles at top firms like McKinsey, Bain, and BCG.

GradNext had a non-technical team. They needed a strategic partner who could not only build a complex EdTech AI solution from the ground up but also guide them through the entire scoping and development process. Their vision was clear: create a digital, AI interview tool that was just as challenging and dynamic as a human expert.

The Solution: Building a Custom Voice AI Agent for Real-World Prep

GradNext partnered with Neurix AI to bring their vision to life. The goal was to build "CaseBuddy," an interactive, voice AI platform that could engage students in unscripted, realistic case study conversations.

Our team worked in close collaboration with GradNext, providing end-to-end development. We focused on creating a seamless user experience powered by sophisticated conversational AI. This was not a simple chatbot; we engineered a custom voicebot capable of:

• Presenting complex case prompts dynamically.

• Understanding and responding to nuanced verbal answers.

• Pushing students to think deeper and structure their thoughts, mimicking the pressure of a real interview.

• Providing instant, actionable feedback to accelerate learning.

The result was a robust and intuitive platform that GradNext could proudly launch to their student base as a core part of their curriculum.

The Results: "Impressive Product!" and Unprecedented User Adoption

CaseBuddy was an instant success. Within just two days of launching, the response from GradNext students was, in their words, "blown away."

Immediate, measurable impact:

1. Hundreds of interviews were conducted on the platform almost immediately, proving the demand and the platform's stability.

2. The project was delivered on time, allowing GradNext to get the product into the hands of users without delay.

The qualitative feedback validated the entire project, with the founder of GradNext, Kashish, stating:

"Neurix AI delivered exactly what we needed - an AI-based case interviewer that worked smoothly from day one. The team was responsive, open to feedback, and genuinely committed to our project. We appreciated their straightforward approach and quick turnaround."

- Kashish, Founder, GradNext

The product's realism and effectiveness were echoed in the flood of positive user testimonials:

"Felt just like a real interviewer pushing me to think deeper. Honestly, this is 10x more productive than most case partners I've worked with."

"The instant feedback and structure suggestions are game-changing. I didn't know AI could challenge me like this."

A key stakeholder at GradNext personally tested the platform and sent a simple, powerful message: "Impressive product!!"

By partnering with Neurix AI, GradNext successfully transformed a manual coaching process into a scalable, high-tech, and highly effective digital product, solidifying their reputation as an innovator in the consulting prep space.

Technical Deep Dive: The Engine Behind CaseBuddy

Building an AI that could genuinely simulate a high-stakes case interview required a robust and intelligent technical architecture. Our goal was to create a seamless, voice-first experience that was both powerful and scalable.

At its core, CaseBuddy is a web application designed for intuitive user interaction. The frontend was developed using Next.js, providing a fast, responsive, and modern user interface. This allowed students to easily navigate the platform and engage with the AI.

On the backend, we leveraged Python with the FastAPI framework. This choice enabled us to build a high-performance, asynchronous API that could efficiently handle the complex conversational flows and data processing. All critical student data and interview progress are securely stored in a PostgreSQL database, ensuring data integrity and reliability.

The intelligence driving CaseBuddy's realistic conversations comes from OpenAI's advanced AI models, accessed via their API. These models are crucial for understanding nuanced verbal inputs, generating dynamic responses, and pushing students to think critically, mimicking a human interviewer's adaptability.

The Custom Voice AI and Orchestration Layer

The most innovative aspect of CaseBuddy lies in its custom-built voice AI and orchestration layer. To achieve a truly live and interactive voice experience, we worked extensively with the open-source LiveKit framework. This wasn't a simple out-of-the-box implementation; we significantly extended and customized LiveKit to meet the unique requirements of real-time, unscripted case interview conversations. This bespoke development allowed us to:

• Ensure low-latency, high-fidelity audio transmission: Crucial for a natural conversational flow.

• Develop sophisticated orchestration logic: Guiding the AI's prompts, responses, and feedback mechanisms in real-time, based on the student's performance.

• Gain granular control over the voice interaction: Enabling the AI to interrupt, prompt, and challenge students effectively, mirroring a human interviewer's dynamic approach.

To optimize for cost-efficiency, enhance control, and maximize stability, we opted to host our own instance of LiveKit. This strategic decision provided us with complete oversight and customization capabilities, ensuring CaseBuddy's voice interactions were consistently smooth and reliable.

Deployment and Infrastructure

CaseBuddy's infrastructure is designed for scalability and performance. The backend services (FastAPI) are hosted on Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), providing a highly scalable and resilient environment for our core application logic. The Next.js frontend is deployed on Amazon Amplify, which offers a fast, secure, and fully managed hosting solution, ensuring quick content delivery to users worldwide.

This carefully selected technology stack and custom development approach allowed us to deliver a highly effective, stable, and scalable AI platform that genuinely transforms how aspiring consultants prepare for their most critical interviews.

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