Google Has Released Two CCaaS Propositions In 12 Months. Here’s Why.

The CCAIP: Intelligent Virtual Agent-Only offers contact centers an alternative route to the cloud

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Google Has Released Two CCaaS Platforms In 12 Months. Here's Why.
Contact CenterNews Analysis

Published: October 17, 2023

Charlie Mitchell

During August’s Google Next event, Google released its second CCaaS platform – CCAIP: Intelligent Virtual Agent-Only.

The announcement came less than a year after its first – The Google Contact Center AI Platform – became generally available.

That solution presents a fully-fledged contact center ecosystem with an embedded voice platform, mobile-first architecture, and much more.

Yet, in the months since its release, Google has recognized a desire from many of its enterprise customers for a slow, cautious transformation process.

To better enable this, it has put forward a hybrid CCaaS solution: The CCAIP: Intelligent Virtual Agent-Only offering.

The new platform enables businesses to keep their current contact center infrastructure (CCI) but leverage elements of its Contact Center AI Platform à la carte.

Such elements include the contact center tools for which Google is well-known – i.e., its DialogFlow conversational AI offering, CCAI Insights conversational intelligence tool, and agent-assist solutions.

Moreover, contact centers can leverage the tech giant’s new generative AI services – including its auto-summarization, knowledge assist, and intent analysis tools.

The following slide from Google Next better showcases the CCAIP: Intelligent Virtual Agent-Only concept.

CCAIP: Intelligent Virtual Agent-Only

In leveraging the solution, Google also hopes to minimize disruptions for contact centers as they take their first steps into a cloud environment.

Finally, as Shantanu Misra, Group Product Manager at Google Cloud, concluded when first unveiling the platform:

We can work with whatever infrastructure you have and give you access to GenAI services as soon as possible.

In releasing such a solution, some may draw parallels with Avaya’s “innovation without disruption” mantra – which promises contact centers “evolution, not revolution” when moving to the cloud.

What’s Next for Google In the Contact Center and Beyond?

Many of the capabilities that Google put forward during Google Next demonstrated the vendor’s deep innovation in the contact center and its adjacent areas.

Indeed, the vendor also released cutting-edge innovations across its Dialogflow, Vertex AI, and Workspace solutions.

But, these didn’t come together as part of one coherent strategy. Instead, Google unveiled them in different presentations across various locations without much of a link between them.

That suggests that while Google is at the forefront of application innovation, the thought leadership leaves something to be desired – a claim some have also leveled at Twilio.

Making this point, Liz Miller, VP & Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, told CX Today:

What Google needs to do next is think about the playbook that makes Google successful as an operation and then let people build towards it. Currently, we don’t have that directional piece.

A fascinating comparison here is AWS. It started – similar to Google – as developer-first before pivoting to offer more turnkey solutions. These bring together disparate, AI-powered tools to unlock new possibilities within its portfolio.

Moreover, when it made that pivot, the vendor released a playbook: “How AWS does AWS” – as per Miller. “It was able to showcase: Here at Amazon, we take a billion calls, a billion tickets, and here’s how we handle it,” she says.

Microsoft recently released something similar, showing how its contact center agents leverage its CCaaS solution and its new Copilot.

Google needs to stick a similar flagpole into the ground and showcase how contact centers can fit these tools together and achieve success.

Currently, it seems to spot a market trend, jump on it, and produce a solution. Yet, it doesn’t share examples of how the portfolio comes together.

Its new CCaaS solution is potentially another example of this, believes Zeus Kerravala, Principal Analyst at ZK Research. He noted:

To me, it’s Google throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping it sticks with a small set of customers.

That said, Google does have potentially significant contact center differentiators and a broad customer experience portfolio. With the right strategy, it could become something special.

Amit Kumar, CCaaS Product Manager at Google, also suggested that the vendor wants to better integrate the Contact Center AI Platform with its broader product suite. 

Hopefully, this will come alongside a statement CX vision and customer stories showcasing how businesses have tied all this together and brought that vision to life.

That is likely critical for Google to force its way onto more enterprise CCaaS shortlists.

 

 

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