Conversational AI continued its meteoric rise last month with major players releasing new innovations that promise to transform user experiences. As intelligent assistants become integral to interfaces and workflows, September saw expanded enterprise adoption, enhanced natural language capabilities, and tighter platform integrations.
In this issue of our monthly newsletter, we dive into the notable developments from September 2023 driving more seamless, contextual interactions through voice and text. From startups raising funds to tech giants making strategic moves, conversational AI is entering a new era of possibilities. Read on for the top stories demonstrating the widening reach and growing sophistication of intelligent virtual assistants.
Investment/Partnership Deals
European conversational AI startup Druid has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round to accelerate its growth in the U.S. market. The round was led by New York-based TQ Ventures, with participation from Smedvig Capital, GapMinder, Hoxton Ventures, and Karma Ventures. Founded in 2018 in Romania, Druid offers a conversational AI platform that integrates with ChatGPT to power virtual assistants and chatbots for enterprises. The funding will help Druid expand its go-to-market capabilities in the U.S., which now represents the majority of the company’s revenue. The new capital will support Druid’s rapid expansion in the U.S., now its primary revenue driver. Druid combines traditional conversational AI with generative models like ChatGPT to automate customer service, sales, HR and more for 24/7 availability.
PandasAI, a German startup building a conversational AI assistant for data analysis, has raised $1.1 million in pre-seed funding. The company integrates generative AI into the popular Python data analysis library pandas to enable natural language data querying. The round was led by Runa Capital, Episode1 and Exor Ventures’ Vento arm. The company will use the capital to scale hire and expand the open source PandasAI project, which has already attracted Fortune 500 interest. By combining pandas’ capabilities with conversational AI, PandasAI allows users to analyze data through intuitive natural language interactions. This makes complex data analysis and visualizations more accessible to non-technical users. The funding will help PandasAI build out integrations and enterprise features as it positions itself at the intersection of two red-hot sectors — conversational AI and data analytics.
New product features, highlights & use cases
Belong.Life has launched Tara, a SaaS conversational AI solution for clinical trial recruitment. Tara engages patients through natural conversation to collect diagnosis, treatment and other information to identify eligible trials. The platform can be embedded in apps, websites or messaging to scale patient matching. Belong leverages its dataset of 7 years of patient journey data and proven success matching patients to trials to create an empathetic, effective solution. Tara follows Belong’s first conversational AI, the oncology mentor Dave. The new product enables hospitals, health systems and CROs to boost recruitment for cancer trials at lower costs. Belong continues to demonstrate how conversational AI can humanize healthcare interactions while improving outcomes. The launch of Tara highlights the potential of the technology to increase clinical trial access for patients in need.
Conversational AI company Uniphore has launched U-Capture, an AI-powered metadata solution for enterprise data. Developed after Uniphore’s acquisition of voice recording firm Red Box, U-Capture analyzes audio, video and text conversations in real time to enable automation and insights. U-Capture is integrated into Uniphore’s X platform and can understand unstructured call center and meeting data. It applies emotion AI to gauge sentiment and tailor coaching. The tool reformatts content for easy analysis and integration with other systems. Uniphore aims to make AI-native data capture more secure and actionable. U-Capture highlights the potential for conversational AI to quickly understand enterprise conversations and unlock their value. With its acquisition of Red Box, Uniphore continues to enhance its conversational automation offerings for the enterprise.
Convenience store chain Casey’s General Stores is implementing conversational AI technology from SYNQ3 across its 2,500+ locations to boost voice ordering capabilities. The AI automates call-in orders, reduces labor needs, enables upselling and integrates with Casey’s rewards program. This move highlights how convenience stores are leveraging innovations like voice AI to compete with quick-service restaurants. By streamlining the ordering process and linking orders to customer profiles, Casey’s aims to make its call-in experience more personalized and frictionless. The rollout reflects the ongoing convergence of convenience stores and QSRs, as c-stores embrace technologies to enhance foodservice offerings. With many consumers now expecting voice-enabled, AI-powered ordering, Casey’s is future-proofing its business. The voice AI solution positions Casey’s at the forefront of convenience stores upping their innovation game against restaurants.
Microsoft has introduced AutoGen, a framework to simplify orchestrating multi-agent conversational systems using large language models (LLMs). AutoGen streamlines building workflows that blend customizable agents based on LLMs, humans or tools. Developers can define specialized agents and their interaction behaviors to automate complex conversations for use cases like supply chain optimization. AutoGen reduced manual interactions and coding effort significantly in trials. The framework allows tapping advanced LLMs like GPT-4 while integrating human and tool agents to address LLM limitations. This enables intricate conversational systems with reusable, composable agents. AutoGen highlights Microsoft’s continued innovation in leveraging LLMs for conversational AI. By simplifying multi-agent coordination, AutoGen can accelerate development of enterprise applications involving complex optimization through natural conversations. The framework demonstrates the potential of blending LLMs, humans and tools for advanced conversational systems.
Google has added new features to its Vertex AI platform to advance enterprise conversational AI applications. Vertex AI Search now enables developers to build semantic search across documents, databases and websites to power intelligent customer chatbots. Vector search support allows finding similar results to fuel personalized recommendations and multi-modal search. Upcoming access controls will ensure secure, relevant search results. Enhanced Vertex AI Conversation capabilities help create more natural chatbot interactions. The expansions allow building sophisticated workflows that take actions on behalf of users, beyond just information retrieval. The updates make Vertex AI’s pre-trained models and tools more accessible to developers lacking deep machine learning expertise. By expanding search and conversation features, Google aims to empower more impactful enterprise AI applications through its end-to-end Vertex platform.
Conversational AI company Amelia announced its digital airline agent will power customer service chatbot Aerobot for Aeromexico. Hosted on AWS and integrated with booking, baggage, surveys and other systems, Amelia is expected to handle 56,000 traveler requests monthly. Use cases include flight bookings, check-ins, baggage tracking, flight status and FAQs. Amelia will also “whisper” suggestions to human agents for select issues. The rollout aims to transform Aeromexico’s customer experience as a digital-first airline. With customizable conversations and broad back-end integrations, Amelia can automate routine requests and enable personalization. Aeromexico joins other global travel brands adopting Amelia’s conversational AI, reflecting the industry’s embrace of automation to improve customer satisfaction. As an airline digital agent, Amelia exemplifies how virtual assistants can streamline operations and strengthen customer relationships.