No Jitter Roll: Contact Center AI Advances, Funding UpdatesNo Jitter Roll: Contact Center AI Advances, Funding Updates
The latest news from Talkdesk, Voximplant, UJET, Uniphore, Cresta, and ClearOne.
April 2, 2021
This week we share announcements around a CX technology partnership, a human-in-the-loop AI tool for contact centers, an A/V microphone enhancement, a contact center AI partnership, and startup funding.
Talkdesk Elevates AI Approach
Cloud contact center provider Talkdesk this week launched Talkdesk AI Trainer, a human-in-the-loop (HITL) tool, for its contact center platform. This HITL tool allows contact center agents and supervisors, rather than data scientists who have no domain knowledge, to provide information for AI training, the company said. From an AI Trainer dashboard, agents and supervisors can view the performance of each AI model and see which need additional training. They can then feed information to the models via an AI Trainer interface, Talkdesk said. As the models improve, the contact center should be able to resolve more customer service issues via automation, which in turn should lead to improved accuracy, lower costs, and improved satisfaction ratings, the company said.
Voximplant Partners with Google Cloud on CX
CPaaS provider Voximplant this week announced that it has become a Google Cloud partner and now offers an integration to Google Cloud’s Contact Center AI virtual agent platform, Dialogflow CX. With the Dialogflow CX integration, developers will be able to leverage virtual agents that can respond to customer inquiries based on whole-sentence understanding, Voximplant said. In addition, the integration enables developers to add phone numbers from more than 60 countries, interact with speech and keypad input, and handle inbound and outbound calls across web, mobile, and multiple other communication channels that use conversational AI, Voximplant said.
Other capabilities include programmable telephony control, synthesized speech and audio file playback, dual-tone multi-frequency signaling detection, in addition to flexible inbound, outbound, and transfer call handling, Voximplant added.
UJET Adds CX Firm to Partner Ecosystem
Cloud contact center provider UJET this week announced it has added CX Effect as a channel partner. In the announcement, UJET CEO Anand Janefalkar touted its new partner for its technology and consulting expertise in customer experience.
Startups Uniphore, Cresta Move to Latest Round of Funding
Uniphore, a conversational service automation provider, and Cresta, an AI software provider this week each announced additional funding. Details are as follows:
Uniphore announced it has raised $140 million in Series D funding, bringing total to $210 million. This latest round, led by Sorenson Capital Partners, includes Serena Capital and Sanabil Investments — new investors from Europe and the Middle East — in addition to strategic investor Cisco Investments. Previous investors March Capital Partners, National Grid Partners, Chiratae Ventures, Iron Pillar Fund, and Sistema Capital upped their funding in this round, as well, Uniphore said. The company said it will apply the funding to AI, automation, and machine learning technology and marketing development.
Cresta announced it has closed Series B funding round of $50 million led by Sequoia Capital. Additional investors in this round are Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Allen & Company, and Porsche Ventures, Cresta said. This funding comes on the heels of a separate strategic investment from Porsche Ventures, announced in late January. Cresta said it will use these funds to support company growth and continued development of its Expertise AI engine.
ClearOne Gives Voice Boost to BMA 360
Audio-video collaboration solutions provider ClearOne this week announced general availability of its Voice Lift technology, which allows multiple speaker zones within a room. Voice Lift completes the company’s BMA 360 ceiling array microphone, which now includes beamformed audio, echo and noise cancellation, smart beam selection, power amplifiers, camera tracking, and the patented DARE Feedback Eliminator, found on Converge Pro 2 DSP Mixers, ClearOne said. Voice Lift can run on up to three BMA 360s per Converge, and each BMA 360 can have up to four Voice Lift zones, ClearOne added.
