Salesforce dominated the headlines this week, with the official launch of its Agentforce platform.
Elsewhere, there were more CCaaS wins for Microsoft, a HubSpot acquisition, and a GenAI release from Pega.
Here are extracts from some of our most popular news stories over the past seven days.
Salesforce Goes Live with Agentforce, Promises to “Redefine What’s Possible In Business”
Salesforce has announced that its Agentforce platform is now generally available.
The platform allows businesses to scope, test, and deploy out-of-the-box autonomous AI Agents that augment their existing Salesforce workflows.
Moreover, with an embedded low-/no-code Agent Builder, brands can create custom AI Agents to action unique tasks and connect functions across the Salesforce ecosystem.
The CRM leader makes that process seem simple. “If you can describe the job, Agentforce can build the Agent for it,” it noted in a launch video.
Agentforce does so by taking a natural language description of the task, isolating relevant resources within the business’s Customer 360 environment, and – with this business understanding – developing an AI Agent prototype.
The AI Agent then auto-suggests knowledge, actions, and guardrails that will enable it to perform more effectively, allowing the CX team to optimize its performance (Read on…).
Microsoft Shares More CCaaS Wins, Reveals Growth In Copilot for CRM & ERP
Microsoft has secured numerous wins with international brands for its Dynamics 365 Contact Center.
Launched in July, the “copilot-first” CCaaS platform layers voice, unified routing, and workforce engagement management (WEM) over any CRM.
It also boasts several other noteworthy features, including pre-integrated copilots across digital channels to empower agents with generative AI (GenAI).
For Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, that’s critical. When sharing examples of new CCaaS wins – which add to a customer base already including 1-800-Flowers, Mediterranean Shipping, and Synoptek – he stated:
Our Dynamics 365 contact center is also winning customers like Currys, Le Creuset, and RXO as it brings generative AI to every customer engagement channel.
Yet, it’s not only a GenAI story. Microsoft’s vision for pulling CCaaS, CRM, and GenAI together to create a consolidated customer service environment is perhaps most eye-catching.
That environment aids its cradle-to-grave ambitions for copilot, so it assists live agents from gathering pre-call insights to automating post-contact processes (Read on…).
HubSpot Confirms Cacheflow Acquisition, Gains “Expertise” in Billing and CPQ
HubSpot has finalized its acquisition of subscription billing management and configure, price, quote (CPQ) start-up Cacheflow.
With it being reported earlier this month that a deal was imminent, it has now been officially confirmed that Cacheflow is a wholly-owned subsidiary of HubSpot.
The start-up will be integrated as an offering within HubSpot’s Commerce Hub, providing the latter with “domain expertise in billing and CPQ.”
These fresh capabilities and know-how will allow the vendor to address what Yamini Rangan, CEO of HubSpot, outlined as the two biggest challenges currently impacting a company’s buying experience: simplifying quote-to-cash processes and collecting revenue faster.
By acquiring Cacheflow, we’re doubling down to provide subscription billing management and robust configuration, pricing, and quoting (CPQ) tools right in HubSpot.
Founded in early 2021, Cacheflow exited stealth later that year, announcing a $6MN seed round, followed by a $10MN round led by GV in 2022 (Read on…).
Pegasystems Steps Closer to Its Autonomous Enterprise Vision with New GenAI Solutions
Pegasystems has launched a series of generative AI (GenAI) solutions and enhancements.
Part of the company’s Pega Infinity 24.2 release, the new capabilities cross its Pega Platform, Pega Customer Decision Hub, Pega Customer Service, and Pega Sales Automation.
The company details how these GenAI-powered improvements may enable enterprises to increase employee productivity, streamline workflows, and optimize customer experiences.
Indeed, in discussing the company’s latest release, Kerim Akgonul, Chief Product Officer at Pega, commented:
Pega Infinity’s latest enhancements supercharge enterprise efficiency and innovation with deeper generative AI capabilities that accelerate developer and employee productivity while delivering exceptional customer experiences across industries.
These enhancements could also be part of the vendor’s wider “autonomous enterprise” vision (Read on…).
