The Latest BIG News from Cisco, Salesforce, NICE & Genesys

Catch up on some of the most popular stories from the last week that you may have missed

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Published: October 25, 2024

Rhys Fisher

A busy week in the CX space has seen new solutions from Cisco and NICE, more Benioff barbs thrown at Microsoft Copilot, and confirmation that Genesys is going public.

Here are extracts from some of our most popular news stories over the past seven days.

WebexOne 2024: Cisco Announces Slew of AI Agent Innovations for Webex Contact Center

Cisco has unveiled several fresh AI-powered innovations aimed at building on the momentum of Webex’s CCaaS offering.

Announced today at the WebexOne event in Florida, the new solutions include Webex AI Agent and AI Agent Studio

The former uses conversational intelligence to automate contact center inquiries, enabling fast and efficient issue resolution; while the latter allows contact centers to swiftly launch a voice or digital AI agent in minutes and select the AI models to assist with customer inquiries.

In addition, Webex Contact Center will also benefit from the Cisco AI Assistant, which will provide agents with context and dropped call summaries, as well as suggested responses.

In discussing the news, Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer of Cisco, commented:

At Cisco, we’re building AI solutions natively. We start product design with the assumption that AI is going to be in the core fabric of the product and an essential ingredient in how we reimagine customer experiences.

Patel’s comments follow news from earlier this month that Cisco had reported a 75% increase in Webex Contact Center seats in FY24, with significant growth in financial services, healthcare, and retail (Read on…).

Salesforce CEO Keeps Taking Potshots at Microsoft Copilot: Why?

Marc Benioff has once again criticized Microsoft’s Copilot.

In a post on X, the Salesforce CEO took Microsoft Copilot to task fhttps://www.cxtoday.com/crm/salesforce-ceo-keeps-taking-potshots-at-microsoft-copilot-why/or being inaccurate, “spilling data everywhere”, and requiring users to build their own custom LLMs.

In arguably the most stinging barb of all, Benioff signed off his post by claiming that “Copilot is more like Clippy 2.0,” a reference to Clippit, Microsoft’s Word and Office conversational assistant from the 1990s and early 2000s that was viewed as more of a distraction than a help.

The latest dig follows similar remarks made during a Salesforce earnings call back in August, where Benioff said that “so many customers” were “disappointed” in Microsoft Copilot.

While there has been no official response from Microsoft to Benioff’s latest low blow, after the earnings call remarks, Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s Corporate VP for AI at Work, rubbished the comments.

So, what exactly is it about the Microsoft Copilot that seems to boil Benioff’s blood? (Read on…).

NICE Revamps CXone Mpower, Delivers Automation Across the Entire CX Journey

NICE has announced additional features for its CXone Mpower platform.

The revamped AI solution promises to do something that has “never been done before,” by implementing automation across the entirety of the customer service journey.

The vendor explained that the changes will allow enterprises to design, build, and manage all aspects at every customer service touchpoint – enabling a fully automated, end-to-end CX offering.

Users will also benefit from new architectural services, which help to streamline workflow integration across front, mid, and back office operations; coordinate AI and human agents; and unify customer service knowledge, AI models, and system integrations.

NICE believes that the latest enhancements take CXone Mpower “beyond traditional automation,” allowing the tool to deliver fully automated customer interactions that are “predictive” and “proactive.”

In discussing the news, Barry Cooper, President of the CX Division at NICE, explained how the changes to his company’s platform would help transform contact centers into “profit centers” (Read on…).

Genesys Is Going Public, Is AI the Key?

Genesys has confirmed that the company has confidentially filed to become an initial public offering (IPO).

With rumors swirling since September, the CCaaS vendor has now officially made the jump from private to public.

While Genesys has not released any further details about the IPO or set a timeframe, the move means that investors will now be able to purchase shares via a stock exchange.

But why would Genesys decide to do this?

The most obvious reason for taking a company public is to raise capital, which would allow Genesys to invest more in daily operations, research, and growth initiatives; reduce corporate debt; and provide employee stock options.

Indeed, when the rumored IPO was first covered by Bloomberg, the publisher’s sources suggested that Genesys could raise up to $2 billion by going public.

This figure followed a round of funding in December 2021 led by Salesforce Ventures that saw Genesys raise $580 million and receive a valuation of $21 billion – 14 times what the company was purchased for by private equity firm Permira Holdings in 2012 (Read on…).

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