Conversational artificial intelligence company Uniphore has raised $51 million in its most recent funding round, the latest step in the firm's plans to incorporate its tech throughout the customer service sector.
"Bringing AI into the call centers is one of the biggest disruptions that we're going to see in the next three to five years in the tech space," CEO Umesh Sachdev told Cheddar.
Sachdev claimed Uniphore's AI isn't intended to target call center jobs. A short question or after-hours call could be handled by a bot, he said, while a human call could handle more complex programs.
"This is an industry which has traditionally employed millions of people. Businesses look at this as a tremendous amount of cost in servicing customers, but also a way of differentiating customer experience," said Sachdev.
"The big point I'm making is that the consumer demands and expectations are shifting to be able to reach these brands either through bots or human beings," he said. "The choice shouldn't be with the enterprise. The choice should be with the consumer."
Sachev's company is one of a growing number of tech companies selling AI systems built for customer service, which include IBM and Google.
But there's growing concern that call center jobs could be outsourced to automation and artificial intelligence. For instance, the BBC reported last year that the British retail chain Marks & Spencer had transferred customer service calls for all 640 of its stores to an artificial intelligence-based system, moving its call center staff to other roles.
Sachdev asserted that "This is one where AI will have a major impact, but not one where it's going to have an impact on people losing their jobs."
He claimed that artificial intelligence can handle repetitive tasks, but that call center workers will transition to become "knowledge workers."
"We will quickly move to a point where the human beings who work in call centers — because of their native knowledge, because of their training or time — they will become knowledge workers," he said, saying that those individuals will take on roles that train and analyze the artificial intelligence systems that call centers might use.
Nvidia reported a 56% increase in second-quarter revenue and a 59% rise in net income compared to a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos claims audiences don't want to watch Netflix movies in theaters, but that seems not to be the case recently.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
