News

News

• September 12, 2024 12 Sep'24

  Salesforce reveals more on Agentforce autonomous AI agents

  Salesforce seizes on the concept of agentic AI to automate sales and service processes. The company holds fast to the idea the AI agents will assist humans -- not replace them.

• September 11, 2024 11 Sep'24

  Oracle focuses on CX platform as it exits ad business

  Oracle rolls out generative AI tools for sellers, beefs up CDP to reinforce B2B buying and selling team interactions, and adds industry-specific features.

• September 09, 2024 09 Sep'24

  Salesforce Industries clouds for verticals adds 100 AI features

  A new AI toolkit for Salesforce's industry-specific clouds delivers more than 100 features for companies in 15 industries to automate common tasks, each with their own data model.

• September 06, 2024 06 Sep'24

  Salesforce intros action models to fuel AI agentic workflows

  Salesforce looks to push itself into a leadership position with new large action models. The first mover advantage is good but puts the vendor in a delicate position.

• September 05, 2024 05 Sep'24

  Salesforce Foundations opens up marketing, ecomm features

  Enterprise Salesforce users will get Foundations, a basic set of tools and Data Cloud functionality to complement their Sales and Service modules.

• August 29, 2024 29 Aug'24

  Salesforce and Genesys discuss CX strategy, coopetition

  Competing tech companies are partnering up to give customers what they need faster. Salesforce and Genesys share how they're doing just that in the contact center market.

• August 27, 2024 27 Aug'24

  FTC Click to Cancel, other regs coming to CX tech

  The FTC, FCC and DOT are flexing their muscles to help consumers. Some rules are regulatory law; other proposals await the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.

• August 22, 2024 22 Aug'24

  Salesforce GenAI, data tools likely major Dreamforce themes

  We read the tea leaves of Salesforce's summer product releases, executive interviews and Winter '25 release notes to figure out what's coming at Dreamforce.

• August 07, 2024 07 Aug'24

  Adobe rolls out B2B generative AI app for CRM, marketing

  As enterprises determine where the value is in deploying and paying for generative AI in their marketing and sales operations, Adobe releases its own entrant.

• August 01, 2024 01 Aug'24

  SupportLogic acquires xFind for customer service experience AI

  Startup SupportLogic buys xFind to add generative AI to its service analytics platform, and in the process takes on much larger competition such as Qualtrics, Medallia and Verint.

• July 17, 2024 17 Jul'24

  Salesforce to release autonomous AI customer service agents

  Salesforce's next generation of customer service chatbots will use sharpened AI tools -- and, in theory, wits -- to choose their own adventure among Flows and actions.

• June 28, 2024 28 Jun'24

  AWS' Amazon Q adds Connect contact center integration

  Amazon Connect, AWS' contact center platform, takes aim at solving the customer service agent's biggest problem: app switching during customer calls.

• June 25, 2024 25 Jun'24

  Gong adds GenAI conversational intelligence for sales insights

  Generative AI tools in Gong's Smart Trackers provide deeper analysis into sales reps' communications with customers.

• June 11, 2024 11 Jun'24

  RingCentral pushes AI deeper into sales tech, integrates Teams

  Among other new features, RingCentral pushes its RingSense conversational intelligence deeper into the sales market with new integrations, where it meets a crowd of tech competitors.

• June 10, 2024 10 Jun'24

  Pegasystems' Blueprint enables automation with no code

  Pegasystems uses generative AI to simplify previously difficult development tasks that unite back-office and front-office data, and launches a GenAI-led learning system.

• June 06, 2024 06 Jun'24

  Slack lists drops, edging it ever closer to project management

  Slack isn't a full-fledged project management platform. But new features help users organize, assign and track tasks as they would in more sophisticated clouds.

• June 04, 2024 04 Jun'24

  SAP brings CX apps under one platform, debuts CX AI Toolkit

  SAP releases a CX-specific AI toolkit that enables a digital 'personal shopper' and custom deployments of generative AI throughout the customer experience.

• June 03, 2024 03 Jun'24

  Build or buy fintech AI? To Mastercard, the answer is 'both'

  Mastercard's operations CTO discusses the company's data principles, global contact center outlay, and its rubric for building vs. buying AI -- not just the generative kind.

• May 23, 2024 23 May'24

  Salesforce Service Cloud adds Einstein generative AI tools

  Salesforce Service Cloud will soon get generative AI tools that contact centers could theoretically use to turn CX from a cost center into a profit center.

• May 22, 2024 22 May'24

  Salesforce to roll out marketing, e-commerce Einstein Copilots

  Salesforce drops a number of new features for commerce and marketing users. Chief among them are generative AI copilots for marketing and e-commerce.

• May 17, 2024 17 May'24

  MuleSoft integration tackles EDI supply chain data issues

  Salesforce integrates EDI data into its platform for users who deal with many suppliers -- or distributors -- with MuleSoft in an attempt to solve an age-old integration snafu.

• May 15, 2024 15 May'24

  Avaya looks ahead with acquisition, cloud CX, RingCentral deal

  Rumors of Avaya's demise have been greatly exaggerated, CEO Alan Masarek assures longtime customers while making acquisitions, partnership deals and building a SaaS CX stack.

• May 14, 2024 14 May'24

  Genesys debuts customer service GenAI, journey management

  Customer journey management and a bevy of generative AI tools, including more trademark empathy detection, were added to Genesys Cloud's contact center platform.

• May 14, 2024 14 May'24

  Salesforce adds generative AI tools to Education Cloud

  Customers discuss Salesforce's GenAI push into education with features that target business process automation for K-12 and college students and administrators.

• May 07, 2024 07 May'24

  Sprinklr's AI digital twin for CX emulates whole companies

  Sprinklr CEO Ragy Thomas 'bets the company' on its moonshot digital twin technology that emulates a whole customer's organization, with AI assistance, to complete CX tasks.

• May 02, 2024 02 May'24

  With Tribble, RFP writers get their own shot of generative AI

  Some large enterprises' sales organizations respond to a hundred or more requests for proposals daily. A new GenAI tool from ex-Salesforce execs could ease the workload.

• April 26, 2024 26 Apr'24

  Google delays third-party 'Cookiepocalypse' until 2025

  Google has yet again delayed the deprecation of third-party cookies. Marketers and advertisers now have until 2025 to remediate their ad tech.

• April 25, 2024 25 Apr'24

  Salesforce Financial Services Cloud gets GenAI for banking

  If Salesforce can talk the highly conservative, highly skeptical and highly regulated financial industry into adopting GenAI, the company could win over a lot more customers.

• April 25, 2024 25 Apr'24

  Oracle expands generative AI across its CX applications

  Oracle beefs up its Fusion Cloud Customer Experience applications with GenAI tools for users of its sales, field service, marketing and contact center.

• April 24, 2024 24 Apr'24

  HubSpot embraces GenAI with Service Hub updates and more

  A reimagined, generative AI-infused Content Hub leads the way for a passel of HubSpot updates for users of its sales, service, marketing and digital payment platforms.

• April 22, 2024 22 Apr'24

  SAP Emarsys launches Product Finder AI shopping tool

  SAP Emarsys moves deeper into generative AI with Product Finder, a product recommendation tool that promises to improve e-commerce and marketing message relevancy.

• April 09, 2024 09 Apr'24

  Google releases GenAI Creative Agent for designers, marketers

  Google plants its stake in the marketing and advertising vertical with a bot tuned to help creatives craft campaigns, storyboards, images and text with generative AI.

• April 08, 2024 08 Apr'24

  Sendbird launches in-app business messaging, dashboard

  SMS and email channels are so noisy and subject to so many regulations that in-app messaging has appeal for businesses who want a direct customer communication channel.

• April 05, 2024 05 Apr'24

  Why Alphabet might acquire HubSpot: Data, data and more data

  If Alphabet were to buy HubSpot, it would come with a hefty price when interest rates are high. Experts discuss what HubSpot assets might interest Google's parent company most.

• April 01, 2024 01 Apr'24

  AWS, Google release contact center GenAI tools

  AWS releases contact center workforce management features and post-call summaries powered by GenAI; Google previews its own for Contact Center AI Platform.

• March 26, 2024 26 Mar'24

  Talkdesk releases on-prem AI contact center automation suite

  Contact center as a service users have a leg up on generative AI integrations because of the nature of cloud infrastructure, but on-premises customer service will get theirs.

• March 22, 2024 22 Mar'24

  Salesforce Field Service users get generative AI helpers

  Salesforce launches Einstein 1 Field Service Edition. Field technicians get a generative AI boost to help navigate through scheduling and technical content.

• March 14, 2024 14 Mar'24

  Oracle adds generative AI tools to Fusion CX applications

  The new tools are among 50 generative AI features Oracle released for several Fusion applications, from CX to HR and supply chain.

• March 13, 2024 13 Mar'24

  Zendesk to acquire AI customer service bot startup Ultimate

  Zendesk continues its acquisition spree with plans to buy partner Ultimate, making way for more straightforward integration of virtual agents.

• March 06, 2024 06 Mar'24

  Salesforce users empowered to build no-code Einstein Copilots

  Salesforce admins and developers can build custom generative AI assistants for workflows across the platform for sales, service, marketing and e-commerce.

• March 04, 2024 04 Mar'24

  What's next for Salesforce Einstein AI and Data Cloud

  What's next for Salesforce as it builds Data Cloud and integrates it with Einstein AI? EVP and GM of both, Rahul Auradkar, explains what to expect.

• February 28, 2024 28 Feb'24

  Google unfazed by advertiser criticism of third-party cookie plan

  Google is working with U.K. regulators on its plan to phase out third-party cookies this year, despite pushback from an advertisers group. Meanwhile, bots are affecting ad traffic.

• February 21, 2024 21 Feb'24

  GenAI chatbots for customer care create new level of liability

  Air Canada found liable for promises its chatbot made against the airline's policy; CX leaders discuss best practices for using generative AI in chatbots.

• February 15, 2024 15 Feb'24

  Sitecore to bring more generative AI XM, XP clouds

  Katie Johnson joined Sitecore after leading vertical market pushes at Salesforce and Talkdesk. In this Q&A, we discuss that, future generative AI plans and more.

• February 07, 2024 07 Feb'24

  Email marketers feel Google, Yahoo DMARC policy change

  As marketers face changes to email authentication and third-party cookie deprecation, contact centers are a treasure trove of first-party data to drive multichannel campaigns.

• January 19, 2024 19 Jan'24

  Salesforce unveils retail shopping and marketing AI tools

  The CRM vendor brings generative AI to analytics and management tools for businesses' marketing teams and Copilot for Shoppers for swifter product discovery and purchase.

• January 16, 2024 16 Jan'24

  FCC adopts lead generation rules to protect consumer privacy

  The new rules aim to protect consumers from scam communications perpetuated by robocalls and robotexts and give consumers the ability to choose which companies can contact them.

• January 10, 2024 10 Jan'24

  Zendesk acquires Klaus for AI-backed quality assurance in CX

  The customer service vendor acquires the vendor to build out its workforce management capabilities and bring a more integrated experience for users with both applications.

• January 04, 2024 04 Jan'24

  Google begins phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome

  The search giant starts limiting cross-site tracking to respond to consumer privacy concerns, while aiming to preserve ad revenue and skirt pushback from U.K. regulators.

• December 06, 2023 06 Dec'23

  In 2023, generative AI made inroads in customer service

  This year saw the rise of new intelligent capabilities for contact centers to support human and virtual agents in their abilities to deliver effective answers and services faster.

• November 28, 2023 28 Nov'23

  AWS Amazon Connect adds generative AI for the contact center

  The tech giant unveils generative AI capabilities, reminding CX competitors that it has a long history with conversational AI and can offer many intelligent customer service tools.

• November 21, 2023 21 Nov'23

  SAP's Mirakl integration improves B2B e-commerce experience

  Mirakl's platform lets B2B e-commerce companies create an online shopping experience that is more like B2C -- easier to configure, with a simpler interface for the end user.

• November 15, 2023 15 Nov'23

  Microsoft adds more AI tools to Copilot for Sales, Service

  The new capabilities let sales and service teams access customer information from apps such as a knowledge base or CRM system using natural language prompts in Microsoft platforms.

• November 08, 2023 08 Nov'23

  Zendesk unveils tools for agents to improve customer service

  The customer service and CRM vendor unveiled no-code tools, including a layout builder to let teams customize agent interfaces for specific roles and workflows.

• October 25, 2023 25 Oct'23

  SAP broadens CX offerings with new AI tools for Joule

  The ERP software vendor brings AI-based tools to strengthen identity and data security as well as end-to-end personalization to highlight its customer experience offerings.

• October 25, 2023 25 Oct'23

  SurveyMonkey launches Build with AI to create surveys faster

  The vendor releases generative AI capabilities to let users build custom questionnaires quickly and incorporate prompts that will yield better responses from customers.

• October 24, 2023 24 Oct'23

  Cisco unveils Webex AI tools for hybrid work, contact center

  The vendor's new Webex AI offerings include Real-Time Media Models to track users' voices and movements and Webex AI Assistant tools for making, altering and suggesting messages.

• October 16, 2023 16 Oct'23

  Talkdesk expands its AI offerings for the contact center

  The cloud-based contact center provider adds more tools to monitor large language model-supported capabilities, which are becoming commonplace offerings for CX vendors.

• October 11, 2023 11 Oct'23

  Adobe unveils Firefly AI models to quickly make vivid images

  The CX and multimedia vendor amps up its generative AI image creation offerings with Prompt Guidance, vector graphic production, template generation and photo-style image tweaks.

• October 03, 2023 03 Oct'23

  Zendesk offers more AI tech with AI for Voice, AI bots

  The customer experience vendor released intelligent bots to quickly answer customers' questions and unveiled a tool to summarize transcripts of customer calls with agents.

• September 26, 2023 26 Sep'23

  SurveyMonkey Forms has new templates, pre-built prompts

  The vendor brings new capabilities such as pre-built question fields with Forms, an online form creation tool, to make it easier for businesses to collect data from customers.

• September 25, 2023 25 Sep'23

  Shopify adds Audiences integrations for more segmentation

  The e-commerce vendor builds on its customer segmentation capabilities by adding platform integrations with Snapchat, Criteo and TikTok for creating lists of target contacts.

• September 19, 2023 19 Sep'23

  Oracle's CX GenAI tools consolidate data, manage knowledge

  The cloud platform vendor unveiled GenAI tools to increase productivity for marketers, sales teams and customer service agents by creating content and retrieving information.

• September 18, 2023 18 Sep'23

  Zoom releases work management tools for the contact center

  The video conferencing vendor expands its CCaaS offerings with its Workforce Engagement Management suite, which includes forecasting and scheduling tools for agents and managers.

• September 14, 2023 14 Sep'23

  Social media marketing strategies: Cut cliches, add opinions

  Effective online engagement with customers starts with conversations that use feelings and opinions, rather than cliches and facts, to build lasting relationships.

• September 13, 2023 13 Sep'23

  Pegasystems releases new GenAI tools for Pega Infinity '23

  The vendor is out with new GenAI features for Pega Infinity '23. It also renews its business process management focus and makes other updates generally available.

• September 12, 2023 12 Sep'23

  Salesforce unveils Einstein 1 to embed AI in every app

  The CRM vendor unveils a suite of new capabilities for its revamped AI platform, including a genAI Copilot in every app, and a way to customize the Copilot's functions.

• September 06, 2023 06 Sep'23

  HubSpot unveils AI-based Campaign Assistant, LinkedIn tie-in

  The CRM vendor unveiled a virtual assistant tool, Campaign Assistant, to help marketers build campaigns and an integration between HubSpot and LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

• September 06, 2023 06 Sep'23

  HubSpot unveils AI capabilities, releases Sales Hub tools

  The CRM vendor unveiled virtual assistants to automate customer service and project future sales, and released tools to centralize sales reps' daily tasks and prioritize leads.

• August 24, 2023 24 Aug'23

  Salesforce unveils new tools for field service workers

  The CRM vendor's new tools for service workers include a virtual appointment scheduler and a platform to view details about customers' purchased products and service history.

• August 23, 2023 23 Aug'23

  Twilio's new CDP tool unites data for more personalization

  Twilio's new tool uses its customer data platform, Segment, to connect real-time unified customer profiles with isolated data and boost marketing customization for better CX.

• August 17, 2023 17 Aug'23

  Genesys offers workforce management tool to measure EX

  A contact center management firm uses a Genesys tool that collects information about employees' experience to uncover organizational weaknesses and identify ways to improve.

• August 16, 2023 16 Aug'23

  Online forms tool offers custom designs and user insights

  Digital marketing agency SmartBug Media uses digital customer survey platform Typeform to create custom-designed, brand-appropriate questionnaires and collect user data insights.

• August 14, 2023 14 Aug'23

  Customer communications management key to CX success

  Companies of all sizes are using the latest tech such as generative AI, online store apps, and collaboration tools like video calling to improve CX for B2B and B2C businesses.

• August 02, 2023 02 Aug'23

  Salesforce offers tighter Slack integration with Sales Cloud

  The CRM giant released tools that bring customer data and insights to the collaboration platform, such as instant account updates sent directly to channels for review.

• July 19, 2023 19 Jul'23

  Qualtrics uses AI to analyze customer needs for better CX

  Qualtrics unveils new generative AI tools to minimize time spent searching for and disseminating customer feedback and creating text responses to increase brand loyalty.

• July 18, 2023 18 Jul'23

  Microsoft releases Sales Copilot, teases Insights tools

  The tech giant released generative AI-supported functions for sellers to generate text and summaries, and unveiled new Dynamics 365 Customer Insights tools for marketers.

• July 10, 2023 10 Jul'23

  Genesys Cloud CX gets FedRAMP certified for government use

  The CX vendor obtained Moderate Impact level authorization for its Genesys Cloud CX platform, bolstering security and safeguarding internal operations for U.S. government users.

• July 06, 2023 06 Jul'23

  Event analytics tool answers CX data queries using ChatGPT

  Mixpanel aims to improve users' CX strategy with its new generative AI-supported data query tool, which lets users type CX data-related questions and get answers in chart format.

• June 30, 2023 30 Jun'23

  Salesforce brings more AI tools to Sales GPT and Service GPT

  The CRM giant brings generative AI-supported tools like message creation and call summaries to sales and service workers, and teams with Deloitte Digital for AI safety resources.

• June 13, 2023 13 Jun'23

  Salesforce moves forward with secure, private generative AI

  With its new AI Cloud and built-in Einstein GPT Trust Layer, The CRM and CX vendor is investing in generative AI technology and adding data security and privacy features.

• June 12, 2023 12 Jun'23

  Salesforce unveils AI Cloud with new Einstein GPT Trust Layer

  AI Cloud houses the Einstein GPT Trust Layer with generative AI safety features, including data masking to remove personal information from data sent to large language models.

• June 09, 2023 09 Jun'23

  LinkedIn unveils generative AI-based tools for B2B marketers

  The professional network's new products let marketers create ad copy, message other company Pages, and post different types of ads to attract buyers throughout the buying process.

• June 07, 2023 07 Jun'23

  Salesforce adds GPT to Commerce and Marketing clouds

  The CRM giant adds generative AI capabilities and an expanded Google partnership to help marketers bring personalized content to customers and improve CX.

• May 17, 2023 17 May'23

  Zoom takes on Anthropic's AI assistant for Contact Center

  The video and collaboration platform vendor has allied with OpenAI spinoff Anthropic and is integrating Anthropic's chatbot, Claude, for a decentralized approach to training AI.

• May 16, 2023 16 May'23

  SAP's new CX tools for retailers include generative AI assistant

  The vendor's new tools include Digital Assistant for better personalization, accelerators to use customer data to improve CX, and a platform to sell excess products on the market.

• May 11, 2023 11 May'23

  Google adds Adobe's image generator, Firefly, to Bard

  The AI-backed chatbot will have artmaking abilities with Firefly, an image generator that was trained on hundreds of stock images to avoid copyright infringement.

• May 10, 2023 10 May'23

  Zendesk out with generative AI-supported tools for better CX

  In partnership with ChatGPT creator OpenAI, the customer service vendor introduces smart CX tools such as sentiment analysis for faster workflows and bots for contextual replies.

• May 03, 2023 03 May'23

  Salesforce brings GPT to customer service, sales platforms

  The CRM giant brings generative AI capabilities to its sales and service platforms for fast, relevant email, message and article creation, as well as multilanguage transcription.

• April 28, 2023 28 Apr'23

  How businesses improve customer experience with AI

  AI bolsters the consumer journey by improving personalization for enterprise marketing and unlocking data extraction for customer calls to the contact center.

• April 25, 2023 25 Apr'23

  Salesforce brings Einstein GPT to Field Service Mobile

  The CRM giant harnesses generative AI to let Field Service Mobile users create drafts and discuss customer problems on Slack and help them find self-service tools.

• April 19, 2023 19 Apr'23

  Salesforce integrates Einstein GPT and Data Cloud into Flow

  The CRM giant updated Flow, its automation toolkit, with generative AI and Data Cloud capabilities to trigger automatic responses using natural language prompts and real-time data.

• April 14, 2023 14 Apr'23

  Zendesk teams with OpenAI for new AI-backed CX tools

  The CX giant's partnership with OpenAI brings new tools to help CX personnel summarize content, create knowledge bases and macros, and quickly compose ticket responses.

• April 06, 2023 06 Apr'23

  Overcoming data privacy challenges in digital marketing

  As access to customers' personal data tightens, online marketers must reevaluate their strategies to reach their desired targets in an effective and creative way.

• April 05, 2023 05 Apr'23

  Salesforce forms new Trailblazer community group for sales

  The CRM software giant aims to fill sales personnel gap with new sales-focused learners group named Salesblazer and sales certification for existing courses.

• March 27, 2023 27 Mar'23

  Canva steps up design game with new AI-powered design tools

  The platform provides accessible tools for small businesses that need design help. Canva is also escalating its technology to compete against bigger design platforms such as Adobe.

• March 22, 2023 22 Mar'23

  Adobe unveils new collaboration tool for marketing teams

  The CX giant revealed new technology for faster workflows between marketing, product and data teams to collaborate on marketing campaigns in its new Product Analytics platform.

• March 21, 2023 21 Mar'23

  Adobe Firefly brings generative AI image marketing tool

  The CX giant's Firefly is an image creator trained on millions of visuals from Adobe stock content to understand written commands and make images for better marketing.

• March 21, 2023 21 Mar'23

  Adobe and RainFocus pair for more data insight at events

  The CX software giant pairs with the event marketing services vendor to provide customers with tools for deeper personalized experiences at in-person and online events.

• March 13, 2023 13 Mar'23

  CX personalization drives strategy for customer data mining

  Users are more likely to engage with custom-made, exclusive digital experiences, which ease the flow of zero- and first-party data back to the vendor for improved CX strategies.