Video customer communications specialist Bakstage.AI has announced the integration of an IBM AI solution that will help “inject even more personalization” into companies’ digital CX offerings.
The watsonx.AI will be embedded within Bakstage’s existing platform – providing sales specialists and customer service professionals with real-time and post-conversation insights.
In addition, AI Sales Assist – Bakstage’s AI-powered 1:1 video concierge service – will now enable companies to tailor each individual customer interaction.
Enhanced by watsonx.ai, the tool promises detailed customer journey insights, AI-generated call summaries, agent feedback, and sentiment analysis – helping to “shift interactions from static, one-size-fits-all customer experiences to modern, dynamic and hyper-personalized engagements.”
In discussing the partnership, Preet Raj – CTO and Co-Founder of Bakstage.AI – detailed the sectors in which he believes the solution will be most effective:
These features can be especially valuable to companies within the B2B SaaS, retail, financial services and insurance industries that manage complex customer inquiries in multiple languages and industry use cases.
Let’s take a closer look at Bakstage’s solution and unpack how it plans on delivering on its “hyper-personalized” promise.
The Power of Personalization
The AI Sales Assist enables online customers to engage in 1:1 live video calls with either a sales representative or an in-store specialist directly on the website.
Moreover, the solution can handle intricate queries and requests instantly by utilizing AI to search through product catalogs and locate precisely what the customer needs.
So, where does the personalization come in?
First and foremost, Bakstage was keen to highlight the importance of leveraging AI in a responsible manner, with IBM’s “strong AI guardrails” and “governance framework” outlined as major benefits of the partnership.
The sentiment analysis feature is also essential to the personalization process, as it offers specific insights into how to respond to each customer – helping to enhance the overall CX.
Furthermore, Bakstage integrates and trains Mixtral-8x7B to gather predefined customer data and offer guided feedback to clients on conversation outcomes using watsonx text generation.
Raj explained why IBM was the best option to take Bakstage’s solution to the next level:
Watsonx was a natural fit for our team—the technology best fit our unique needs and we have been working with IBM for several years.
“They’ve helped us by sharing insights into the booming AI industry [and] advising on our GTM strategy as we scale our business.”
IBM: The Ultimate Team Player
Bakstage may be the latest tech firm to pull IBM to enhance its virtual agents, but it is far from the first.
For instance, IBM also partnered with Natwest in November 2023 to improve the bank’s virtual agent, “Cora,” by integrating GenAI to broaden its conversational capabilities with customers.
With the help of IBM, NatWest connected Cora to various information sources, such as product manuals, web links, and secure knowledge bases.
Utilizing GenAI, Cora+ sifts through this information to provide customers with answers in a natural conversational style without requiring prior training.
Additionally, Cora+ includes citations and links to the source material in its responses, enabling customers to access further information if needed.
Elsewhere, in October of last year, IBM announced that it had strengthened its collaboration with AWS to assist shared clients in implementing generative AI (GenAI) effectively.