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Tag: Raj Koneru

  • Kore.ai plugs into Inception to power AI surge across UAE and the global south

    Kore.ai plugs into Inception to power AI surge across UAE and the global south

    MUMBAI: When the AI gold rush kicks off in the Gulf, you don’t show up with a shovel. You show up with a full-blown intelligent automation arsenal—which is exactly what Kore.ai just did.

    The Hyderabad-headquartered enterprise AI giant has inked a partnership with Inception, a G42 company based in Abu Dhabi, to co-develop and deploy a suite of AI-native applications for enterprise customers across the UAE and beyond. The deal is as strategic as it gets—aligning Kore.ai’s conversational AI clout and global distribution muscle with Inception’s model-building firepower and deep regional ties.

    “Our collaboration with Inception represents a significant opportunity to accelerate AI adoption across global markets in alignment with our vision to help businesses drive tangible value through AI,” said Kore.ai CEO & founder Raj Koneru. “By combining our industry-leading AI platforms/solutions and broad market reach with Inception’s deep expertise in AI models and product development and domain-specific solutions, we deliver AI-powered solutions that will transform business operations.”

    The UAE has gone all in on AI, with a national plan to become a top-tier global AI player by 2031. Abu Dhabi alone is dropping $13 billion on digital transformation—and the big names are circling.

    Microsoft.

    NVIDIA.

    Now Kore.ai.

    Under the new partnership, the companies will co-develop apps on Inception’s AI platform using Kore.ai’s technology, targeting sectors like government, finance, energy, healthcare, retail, and telecom. Kore.ai will also open the global floodgates, pushing these apps through its sprawling partner ecosystem and customer base.

    Inception will take the reins on go-to-market execution in the UAE, while also deploying these AI solutions across G42’s enterprise portfolio. Think of it as AI with GPS coordinates: precise, strategic, and hardwired into local infrastructure.

    “Partnering with Kore.ai aligns perfectly with our mission to develop AI-powered solutions that drive real business value to the customers in UAE and rest of the world,” said Inception CEO Andrew Jackson. “Our joint expertise will allow us to accelerate the AI adoption, deployment of AI-powered solutions and address critical business challenges, enhance decision-making, and drive real business outcomes for the companies in the region.”

    The endgame?

    Serious ROI for clients via cost savings, sharper decision-making, and customer experiences that actually feel intelligent. Whether it’s streamlining procurement, automating processes, or making chatbots sound like they’ve read a book, this collab is setting a new bar for enterprise AI in emerging markets.

  • Kore.ai named a leader in conversational AI for customer service, Q2 2024 analyst evaluation

    Kore.ai named a leader in conversational AI for customer service, Q2 2024 analyst evaluation

    Mumbai: Kore.ai, a leader in enterprise conversational and generative AI platform technology, has announced it has been named a “Leader” in The Forrester Wave™: Conversational AI for Customer Service, Q2 2024. Kore.ai was evaluated alongside 13 other conversational AI providers, and ranked as a Leader with the highest score in the  “Current Offering” category.

    Providers were evaluated against 23 criteria. Kore.ai received the top-scores possible in the Vision, Roadmap and Partner Ecosystem criteria (in the “Strategy” category) as well as in the Language Models and Generative AI support, Orchestration of AI Assets, Omnichannel, Digital User Experience, Voice Support, Answer Management, Business Insights and Trust, Security and Privacy criteria (in the “Current Offering” category).

    “AI is a deeply transformative technology that can profoundly impact the enterprise in many ways. We have demonstrated the positive impact of AI through our ability to anticipate market needs and consistently deliver at scale. The recognition from Forrester validates for us our robust platform strengths, vision and commitment to innovation,” said Kore.ai CEO & founder Raj Koneru.  

    The Forrester Wave on Conversational AI for Customer Service evaluated 14 top vendors. Vendors in this market achieve differentiation through mastering the art of orchestrating multiple AI assets to deliver smarter, more useful chatbots and intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs). (Access a complimentary copy of the report for more information.)

    “Kore.ai’s offering moves from strength to strength, with leading omnichannel features, modern security and trust capabilities, and an excellent digital user experience. …Reference customers praised the company’s development tools and prebuilt applications. Kore.ai injects modern AI into many customer service use cases, making it a good fit for companies wanting AI capabilities across the contact center,” the Forrester report stated.

  • Kore.ai dominates contact center preferences

    Kore.ai dominates contact center preferences

    Mumbai: Kore.ai, a leader in enterprise conversational and generative AI platform technology, has unveiled its annual 2024 Agent Experience (AX) and Customer Experience (CX) Benchmark Reports, featuring historic findings that indicate the increased global acceptance of automation and self-service solutions.

    Kore.ai commissioned the research to shed light on the impact of intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) and contact center AI solutions on customer interactions and agent job satisfaction. The reports show that, for the first time, customer service agents are prioritizing advanced AI technology and automated tools over competitive salaries and a fair work environment. Similarly, consumers are increasingly embracing AI, valuing its precision and reliability. A key factor in this shift is the IVAs’ ability to offer around-the-clock assistance and smoothly transition between tasks without requiring repetitive information, significantly enhancing consumer satisfaction and comfort levels.

    Kore.ai and research partner Farrell Insights surveyed 1,200 customers and 600 agents across multiple regions including the Americas, UK, Germany, India, Japan, Philippines, and Australia, and in major industries like banking, retail, healthcare, travel, telecom, and others. The key findings are collated in the Kore.ai Agent Experience (AX) and Customer Experience (CX) Benchmark Reports 2024.  

    Key AX Findings Include:

    ●    An Industry First: Tech Trumps Pay- Agents ranked three automated assistant functionalities– tools that help them better understand customer needs, reduce time spent on searches and minimize typing during call wrap-ups– higher than competitive salary and fair working conditions in terms of importance.

    ●    Contact Centers are Lagging- 72% of agents express a strong desire for IVAs, but contact centers are lagging in implementation, with 62% of agents reporting a lack of AI use cases. Outdated systems also hinder productivity, with 91% of agents reporting technology-related frustrations.

    ●    AI Education Boosts Satisfaction- Agents trained in AI report 92% job satisfaction and engagement levels compared to their non-trained counterparts (73%).

    ●    Win-Win with IVAs- 71% of customer service agents view increased automated assistant usage for assessing and routing customer needs as mutually beneficial for both consumers and agents.

    Key CX Findings Include:

    ●    Customers Prioritize Accuracy and Efficiency Over Live Agent Access- For the first time, effectiveness and accuracy ranked more important than the ability to access a live agent. Additionally, 68% of customers believe that AI assistants’ ability to seamlessly carry and continue conversations across channels is important when it comes to great customer service interactions.

    ●    Closing Gap between Automated and Live Agent Performance- In the US, there is only a 4% gap between the rating of IVA performance vs. expectations for live agents (72% vs 76%, respectively). In the APAC region, there is no difference in performance ratings.

    ●    The Rise of IVAs Across Industries- Comfort with IVAs is growing across most sectors (travel, banking, retail, cable/telco/ISP) while healthcare sees direct human contact as crucial. Retail emerges as a standout sector with universal approval for AI-assisted customer service, especially in areas like product search (75% respondents reported interest) and purchasing (74%), highlighting broad trust in AI for both advisory and transactional roles.

    ●    24/7 Access Appeals to All- The allure of around-the-clock access to customer service is significant among consumers, with 77% noting this is a draw for automation and IVAs. Even Boomers are on board, with 68% recognizing the benefits of self-service’s constant access. Other key elements playing crucial roles in enhancing consumer acceptance include conversational voice and the assurance of secure communication for personal information, which enterprise-grade IVAs provide.

    “Having monitored this sector for over a decade, this is the first time I’ve observed such a dramatic shift in agent preferences for automation over compensation,” said Farrell Insight president & chief strategist Michael Farrell. “As effectiveness, accuracy, security, ease of use, and trust increasingly become the top priorities for both agents and consumers, the method of achieving these results becomes secondary. Our research with Kore.ai indicates a watershed trend: people are leaning towards outcome-focused interactions in customer service, driven by their positive experiences with IVAs and contact center AI solutions.”

    To improve customer experience, increase agent satisfaction, and optimize contact center performance, leveraging AI-powered solutions is essential for businesses to stay ahead of the curve.

    “Our latest research shows increased engagement and satisfaction with AI solutions among agents and consumers,” said Kore.ai CEO Raj Koneru. “Adopting AI technologies in call centers not only enhances service quality for customers but also transforms agent roles by streamlining routine tasks and improving work conditions. We aim for this research to guide organizations looking to elevate their service interactions with AI-powered automation.”

  • Kore.ai secures $150 million investment to drive AI-powered for global brands

    Kore.ai secures $150 million investment to drive AI-powered for global brands

    Mumbai: Kore.ai, one of the leaders of enterprise conversational and generative AI platform technology announced $ 150 million in funding. The strategic growth investment was led by FTV Capital, a sector-focused growth equity investor with a successful more than 25 year track record investing across enterprise technology, along with participation from NVIDIA and existing investors such as Vistara Growth, Sweetwater PE, NextEquity, Nicola and Beedie. The new funding will accelerate Kore.ai’s market expansion and continuous innovation in AI to deliver tangible business and human value at scale.

    Poised to seize market momentum around putting AI to work

    The AI market has seen rapid growth and disruption driven by advancements in technology and shifting user expectations. Gartner estimates the conversational AI market to reach $ 377 billion in revenue by 2032, up from $66 billion in 2023. This reflects an exponential demand for enhanced customer experiences, streamlined business operations and innovative GenAI applications addressing specific business tasks.

    Kore.ai provides an enterprise grade no-code platform to help companies of all sizes power business interactions with AI safely and responsibly while driving significant revenue and cost savings. From conversational virtual assistants to generative AI (Gen AI) applications, Kore.ai’s differentiated platform offers purpose-built workflows, highly configurable tools and a flexible, open architecture that are recognized as the leading approach by customers and analysts. This gives teams the ability to craft custom solutions or deploy pre-built, domain-trained virtual assistants across multiple industries such as banking, healthcare and retail and across a variety of functional roles such as IT, HR and others, to accelerate time-to-value.

    Kore.ai founder and CEO Raj Koneru said, “We have been working with advanced AI for a decade now – our deep technology expertise and market understanding put us in a prime position to take advantage of the momentum and to do AI right in order to meet growing customer needs. Sitting above the infrastructure layer and LLM chaos, our open approach grants businesses freedom of choice with built-in guardrails for effective AI implementation. As we look to enhance our Gen AI-powered innovations and drive wider adoption across a variety of market segments, we are pleased to have the backing of FTV Capital, a firm that has significant experience in our space and invaluable connections across the enterprise to augment our exciting growth trajectory.”

    FTV Capital partner Kapil Venkatachalam said, “We’ve spent significant time examining the landscape and evaluating advanced-AI platforms, and Kore.ai clearly stood out with its proven enterprise-grade platform capabilities, visionary leadership, strong R&D focus, established global customer base and clear path to profitability. We’re excited to partner with such an experienced and high-calibre team that consistently delivers world-class innovations, and we look forward to leveraging our deep knowledge and network to catalyse Kore.ai’s success.”

    Market understanding and expertise across diverse use cases

    Today, several Fortune 2000 companies across a variety of industry verticals leverage Kore.ai to enhance their customer, employee and contact centre agent experiences and drive measurable ROI. Customers include leading financial institutions, such as PNC Bank and large global banks, as well as major brands such as AT&T, Cigna, Coca-Cola, Airbus and Roche.

    Over the past several years Kore.ai has consistently demonstrated triple-digit year-over-year growth in revenues. The company automates 450 million interactions a day for about 200 million consumers and two million enterprise users worldwide. In addition to domestic growth, Kore.ai’s growth has been fuelled by rising demand from emerging markets in Asia Pacific, Europe, LatAm and the Middle East. As a result, Kore.ai has added new global 2000 enterprise customers across major verticals.