Freshworks has announced a new AI agent that can be “deployed in minutes.”
The Freddy AI Agent can be set up without coding or model training, offering customer service and IT departments quick and easy-to-use automation capabilities.
It achieves this impressive time to value through autonomous learning, where the solution trains itself on existing documents and learning materials.
These autonomous features are also vital in the solution’s customer experience offering. Freshworks details how Freddy is able to provide continuous, “human-like” conversational support across various channels.
In doing so, the tool can lessen the burden on human agents, freeing them up to focus on more fulfilling work – resulting in enhanced employee experiences.
In discussing the news, Dennis Woodside, CEO and President at Freshworks, emphasized the fast and “uncomplicated” nature of Freddy:
“Over the last six years, we’ve seen a rise in demand for our uncomplicated, AI-powered service solutions that make the lives of customer service and IT service managers easier and more efficient.
Freddy AI Agent is a game-changer for organizations looking to accelerate customer service and employee service, fast.
“Most other software requires multiple weeks and implementation fees to deploy an AI agent, but we’ve designed Freddy to be deployed without code or consultants in minutes.”
With the tool already available in beta to a selection of companies, let’s take a closer look at how Freddy has fared so far.
Freddy AI Agent
Freshworks has reported that a number of companies selected for the beta release of Freddy – including the likes of Bchex, Porsche eBike, Hobbycraft, and Live Oak Bank – have already experienced “significant productivity and efficiency gains.”
Indeed, across the entire beta group, the solution has helped autonomously resolve an average of 45% of customer support requests and 40% of IT service requests.
The vendor explains how the solution has achieved this early success by helping to enhance both the customer experience and the employee experience.
Regarding the former, Freddy is able to deliver personalized, contextual conversations in multiple languages across various channels. This allows customer support teams to deliver 24/7, conversational responses to common queries like order updates, return policies, and troubleshooting.
The company claims that this leads to improved CX, higher CSAT scores, and faster response times.
For the latter, Freddy’s ability to enable IT teams to provide personalized, near-real-time support allows internal service teams in IT, HR, and other departments to focus on more meaningful work.
In addition, the tool’s integration with platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack helps employees resolve issues such as application access, hardware replacements, and benefits inquiries without long wait times or tickets.
According to Freshworks, these features lead to more efficient IT operations, higher team productivity, and improved employee satisfaction and experience.
Speaking about her company’s experience of using Freddy, Amanda Pope, Customer Success Product Manager at US-based background check company, Bchex, commented:
The best part is how quickly it can be deployed. If you have your FAQ and data ready, you can upload it to the platform and have a new AI agent ready in 20 minutes.
“Our AI agent takes the load off our customer support team, and the team can now spend their time and resources to address tougher issues to give our customers the care they deserve.”
Will Freddy get Freshworks Back on Track?
Despite the promising early results of the company’s latest innovation, 2024 has been a tough year for Freshworks so far.
Following the vendor’s Q1 2024 earnings call in May, Freshworks shares dropped by 27%.
The decline was triggered by major announcements, including a CEO transition, the acquisition of Device42, and reduced revenue guidance for the year.
The sharp market reaction was somewhat unexpected, as Freshworks actually exceeded earnings estimates for the quarter, reporting $165.1 million in revenue, a 20% year-over-year increase.
Despite this, investors still left in droves, with Bloomberg Television stating at the time that it was Freshworks’ “worst day since it went public about three years ago.”
Unfortunately for the Ai software provider, its share price hasn’t rebounded. In fact, it is currently sitting at 11.11, almost three points down from where it was following the plunge back in May.
With the release of Freddy still fresh, it will be interesting to see whether it can give Freshworks a much-needed stock market boost moving forward.
