;SoundHound AI has swooped for Interactions, a rival developing conversational AI solutions for customer support.
The $60MN deal follows its $80MN acquisition of Amelia last year, as SoundHound grows its footprint across the contact center space.
Like Amelia, Interactions has a long history in the market, developing two decades’ worth of innovation and IP. It also offers a deep portfolio of enterprise integrations and large amounts of production data.
Additionally, given Interactions’ heritage, the acquisition offers an opportunity to expand SoundHound AI’s channel strategy, geographic presence, and support services.
Celebrating the roll up, Keyvan Mohajer, CEO & Co-Founder of SoundHound AI, said: “We’re rapidly moving towards a future of AI agents, where voice and conversational AI are absolutely integral to high-quality customer service. This has always been SoundHound’s vision, and we’re committed to working with the very best to get there.
Interactions is unquestionably a pioneer in the field, with a client roster with incredible breadth and depth. Bringing them on board makes SoundHound even stronger as we establish the company as a true leader for the new AI era.
As the AI era looms, Gartner has predicted that by year-end 2027, conversational AI applications will automate approximately 70 percent of customer support interactions.
That statistic underlines conversational AI as a growth market. Yet, it’s crowded. The likes of Microsoft, Google, AWS, Salesforce, and ServiceNow are all active in the space. Meanwhile, NiCE wrapped up a big acquisition of AI high-flyer Cognigy earlier this week.
SoundHound AI can compete, however, as evidenced by its Visionary placement in the latest Magic Quadrant report dissecting the conversational AI market.
The report underscores how it has leveraged its Amelia acquisition to develop a robust presence and expertise in the financial service contact center. Its broader portfolio of edge solutions can also enable differentiated AI experiences, like those that start on smart devices. That’s another key differentiator.
Its multimodal capabilities are also notable, with its recently launched Vision AI, enabling the development of AI that both sees and talks simultaneously. With this technology, SoundHound could help to set a new direction for the space.
However, SoundHound needed to expand its support capabilities and customer-service-specific knowledge to move from a visionary to a market leader. The Interactions roll-up will help the business do precisely that.
Excited to join the SoundHound adventure, Mike Iacobucci, CEO of Interactions, stated: “SoundHound has consistently set itself apart from the pack, with exceptional technology, a history of unparalleled innovation, and a deep understanding of what businesses need to uplevel their customer experience.
The union of our two companies will give the businesses we serve unrivalled choice, flexibility, and scale. And as the market shifts towards more agentic interactions, SoundHound can rise to meet that need.
As that market shifts, SoundHound’s moves to consolidate it are welcome, given the hundreds, if not thousands, of vendors selling AI to contact centers.
Those that stand out offer flexibility in how businesses build virtual agents, ensuring advanced and less-advanced functionality for various user types.
Additionally, they’ll go deep on trust and safety, sharing tools for simulation testing, inbound protection features (i.e., prompt injection detection), outbound monitoring, and more.
Leaders may also close the gap with broader contact center conversational intelligence tools and confidently communicate why their pricing model aligns with the individual customer’s needs.
Of course, a streak for innovation is important, and SoundHound will be thinking about how it can advance its AI agents to become self-reflective and change resolution flows based on brand goals. After all, as an Opus Research study recently isolated, that’s the future.
Nevertheless, the fundamentals are important, and, with this acquisition, SoundHound scoops up a vendor that does the fundamentals well.
