Twilio has confirmed it will retain its Segment business after an operational review.
The business houses its namesake customer data platform and Twilio Engage.
Previously, it also featured Flex, Twilio’s CCaaS platform. However, the company moved this across to its primary Communications business shortly before the departure of former CEO Jeff Lawson.
Following these moves, Khozema Shipchandler, CEO of Twilio, admitted that Segment "continues to underperform" – contributing to just seven percent of overall revenues.
Such headlines added fuel to the flames of speculation that Twilio may give in to activist pressure and put its Segment business up for sale.
However, Shipchandler has now released a statement to reaffirm Twilio’s belief that Segment will play a significant role in the vendor’s future.
"Myself, the Twilio management team, and the Board evaluated an extensive range of alternatives for Segment’s path forward," he stated.
We unanimously came to the same conclusion: retaining Segment and taking aggressive action to accelerate the path to profitability is the best opportunity available to enhance value for our customers and shareholders.
"We also believe that Segment will further strengthen our Communications product offerings and allow us to capitalize on expanded opportunities presented by AI."
One of the ways that Segment can add value to its Communications customers is via its CustomerAI product – which leverages large language models (LLMs) and natural language processing (NLP) to pull insights from customer conversations into Golden profiles.
Following the review, doubling down on such innovation is the path forward for Twilio, as the company hopes to encourage existing customers to expand their investments.
Historically, that has proven a problem for Twilio, as CPaaS continues to win new business while its broader portfolio struggles to entice existing customers into buying more.
To overcome this hurdle, Twilio has committed to delivering three products in 2024 that natively embed Segment into Communications.
Meanwhile, the CX stalwart has appointed a new "President of Segment" to oversee the transition.