Contact Center Solutions Featured Article

AI Coming to a Contact Center Near You

September 28, 2017

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is inching its way into the mainstream. From laboratory fascination to the frontlines of customer service, this burgeoning technology has come a long way in few short years. And, while many fear that innovation will cost jobs, and create cleavage in the regard, some are developing solutions to enhance the human agent with AI serving as the perfect foil.


Recently, Augment unveiled its AI platform, which unlike other solutions available that are aimed at removing the human element the Augment platform empowers the agent to deliver exceptional customer service. Via live chat applications, the “human-in-the-loop” approach takes customer history data in addition to data gathered from millions of customer interactions to deliver agents real time, relevant suggestions to offer the customer.

"We designed Augment with a focus on enhancing rather than replacing the agent workforce," said Matt Swanson, CEO of Augment. "Contrary to most chatbot technologies that result in garbled or confusing responses, our platform offers enterprise executives the ultimate Turing Test -- their customers are unaware that their conversation is powered by AI."

Led by enterprise veterans and data scientists, Augment earned $5 million in the first round of Series A funding from JAZZ Venture Partners due in large part to the company’s unique approach to customer service. Augment leverages unique applications of AI algorithms to examine copious amounts of data, deliver real-time insights from data sets based on customer responses and learn from each customer interaction to create a perpetual cycle of exceptional customer service.

The bottom line results are clear: improved conversions; the reduction in agent training, turnover and employee satisfaction; more accurate and effective customer engagement; and the ability to scale with ease. 

"Enterprises spend over $500B globally on customer support, but their processes are so inefficient with call center agents often 'flying blind' without access to rich customer and product data," said Jim McLean, Founder of Silicon Valley Data Capital. "The call center industry is ripe and overdue for disruption. Augment's automated approach to the customer experience process and their world-class team of AI experts and enterprise veterans is the perfect combination to lead this industry transformation."

The innovation at hand is bringing what were viewed as technologies of tomorrow to fruition today – with a great deal of it aimed at customer service delivery. Data-driven decision making is treating the enterprise well, so machine learning and AI are logical next steps.

Is your company dabbling in AI? 




Edited by Mandi Nowitz



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