Uniphore Acquires AI-Based Knowledge Automation Provider Colabo
Call center intelligence firm Uniphore Technologies Inc. wasted no time in implementing its recent $400 million funding round, announcing today that it has acquired a startup called Colabo Inc. .
In doing so, he gets his hands on an artificial intelligence-based knowledge automation tool that can extract and use insights from structured and unstructured data in real time.
Such capability should come in handy for Uniphore, which sells call center technology such as virtual agents and virtual assistants that can either fully handle customer calls or help human operators do so.
Uniphore’s products include U-Self Serve, an intelligent virtual assistant that can engage callers in multiple languages, handle basic requests, gauge their intent and sentiment, and then transfer callers it cannot handle to a human agent. U-Assist, meanwhile, listens to and transcribes phone interactions, storing them in a searchable database. It also applies natural language processing to determine what callers are saying or asking to give human agents suggestions on how to respond.
Colabo’s AI knowledge automation tool will enhance Uniphore’s offerings, enabling its agents to extract more knowledge from a company’s records that include structured and unstructured data, so its virtual assistants and its human agents will be better prepared to handle the caller’s requests. The technology will be able to surface the most relevant information they need, Uniphore said.
Uniphore co-founder and chief executive Umesh Sachdev (pictured) said consumers expect companies to have access to the latest information to solve their problems. “This acquisition brings together unique capabilities to equip businesses with new tools that provide rapid resolution to consumer queries and empower agents with actionable insights in real time,” he said.
Colabo co-founder and CEO Yoav Dembak said when he started the company, his vision was to help personalize the customer experience from the first contact with a business. “Today, I am proud to say that we have achieved this goal and that we will take our vision even further by integrating it with Uniphore’s automation and conversational artificial intelligence platform, bringing rigor and ultimate agility and accuracy with every contact center request,” he said. .
Liz Miller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that the acquisition is a great move by Uniphore, which can expand its knowledge base and improve its ability to personalize and contextualize conversations for agents and virtual assistants.
“Conversations don’t just happen in digital spaces, and Colabo’s ability to extract actionable insights from structured and unstructured datasets and digital and physical sources removes boundaries about where knowledge comes from. “said Miller. “Who knows, maybe even the words ‘legacy systems’ may stop being a dirty word with this new ability to reach into those systems to extract knowledge.”
Miller said Uniphore appears to be off to a good start with today’s acquisition which adds to its strong set of partners, which includes cloud communications companies such as Cisco Systems Inc., Five9 Inc. and Avaya Inc.
“Uniphore’s announcement in March of its app partner program clearly shows that it understands the need for closer alignment with other tools across the CX and communications stack,” it said. she declared. “The real question is when will Uniphore start marketing and positioning its platform for use cases in human capital management and employee experience?”
The acquisition will in any case help give Uniphore an edge in what is becoming an incredibly competitive smart contact center market. Uniphore’s rivals include Google LLC, which recently revamped its own contact center AI platform. There’s also Observe.ai, which snagged $125 million in funding earlier this month, and Zoom Video Communications Inc., which launched its own contact center solution in February after failing to land a deal. way to market with Five9 Inc.
