From a massive CCaaS deal to a cutting-edge GenAI virtual agent use case, here are some extracts from our most popular news stories over the last seven days.
RingCentral Secures 1,000+ Seat Contact Center Megadeal for Its RingCX Platform
RingCentral has won a 1,000+ seat contact center megadeal with a Fortune 500 company.
The deal will see the business migrate to the RingCX CCaaS platform, which couples with RingCentral’s MVP UCaaS suite.
That tight integration is crucial to the deal, which also includes 25,000 MVP licenses.
Sharing more details, Tarek Robbiati, CEO of RingCentral, said during an earnings call:
Using a combination of RingCentral MVP and RingCX, we’re able to help them reliably connect drivers to dispatchers while integrating seamlessly into their other technology workflows.
Such large-scale deployments of RingCX are an impressive feat, with the platform still in controlled availability.
Nonetheless, Vlad Shmunis, Founder & Executive Chairman at RingCentral, revealed that approximately 50 companies have already selected RingCX, and many more are in the pipeline.
“We’ve seen a robust demand for contact centers and especially for a contact center that’s closely integrated with [our] UCaaS solution,” he concluded. (Read on…).
Twilio Lands Lots of New Customers But Struggles to Expand on Them
Twilio has amassed $1.03BN in Q3 earnings, with year-over-year (YoY) revenues up five percent.
Those earnings exceeded analyst estimates, but Twilio’s continued ability to win new customer accounts en masse is the most impressive.
Indeed, as of Q3’s end, the vendor has 306,000 active customer accounts. This time last year, it had 280,000, highlighting significant sales growth.
However, many would expect even higher revenue growth with such strong sales.
So, why is that not the case? Well, it seems Twilio is struggling to expand on its existing business despite its broad portfolio.
Twilio’s dollar-based net expansion rate of 101 percent (YoY) reflects this.
That percentage highlights how – if Twilio had not added any net new customers in the last year – its revenue would have only grown by one perfect.
As such, Twilio seems to have an issue in engaging its core communications install base with its other customer experience solutions. (Read on…).
OpenAI Allows Businesses to Customize ChatGPT for Specific Use Cases
OpenAI has released a new version of ChatGPT, which lets businesses customize the LLM to serve their own needs.
These custom versions of ChatGPT, known as ‘GPTs’, do not require any coding to transform into dedicated business tools.
Indeed, “anyone” can build them, whether they are an individual or a company, and doing so is “as easy as starting a conversation”, according to OpenAI.
It involves providing the GPT with knowledge and instructions and choosing its functions like creating images, analyzing data, or searching the internet.
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, revealed the custom GPT offering along with other updates at its developer conference in San Francisco on November 6th. He observed:
Eventually, you’ll just ask the computer for what you need, and it’ll do all of these tasks for you.
“We really believe that gradual iterative deployment is the best way to address the safety challenges of AI.
“We think it’s especially important to move carefully towards this future of agents.”
Since the initial release of ChatGPT, users have requested the capability to fine-tune it to specific use cases, OpenAI explained in a blog post introducing GPTs. (Read on…).
NatWest Augments Its Virtual Agent with Generative AI
NatWest has augmented its virtual agent – “Cora” – with generative AI (GenAI) to increase the scope of the conversations it has with customers.
Working with IBM, NatWest plugged Cora into numerous information sources – including product manuals, web links, and secure knowledge bases.
The GenAI then scours these, retrieves the answer to the customer’s question, and sends a response in a “natural, conversational style”.
In doing so, the virtual agent – now known as “Cora+” – answers queries without prior training.
Moreover, Cora cites and links to the source material in its response, which the customer can click through or bookmark for further information.
Meanwhile, users may also use the virtual agent to compare products and services.
Wendy Redshaw, Chief Digital Information Officer of the NatWest Group’s Retail Bank, added: “We are a relationship bank in a digital world, building trusted, long-term relationships with our customers through meaningful and personalized engagement.
Building on Cora’s success over the last five years, we’re working with companies like IBM to leverage the latest generative AI innovations that will help make Cora feel even more ‘human’ and, most importantly, a trusted, safe, and reliable digital partner for our customers.
More pointedly, NatWest leveraged IBM watsonx – its AI and data platform – to co-create Cora+ and drive more “interactive and conversational experiences”.
To achieve this, GenAI reflects on the customer’s prompt, enabling a more personalized conversation. (Read on…).
