While artificial intelligence is beginning to power some rudimentary customer support roles — such as the chatbots emerging on Facebook — some firms are taking an alternative approach: using AI to improve how humans provide service.
One company providing technology for these firms is Boston-based Cogito, which is finding increasing traction and validation for its real-time emotional intelligence software that helps call center professionals provide better service and make better sales calls. Listening to the conversations during their calls, Cogito's desktop software alerts these professionals if they're speaking too much or if the customer is getting frustrated, among other things — and tells them how to improve.
To help the company expand, Cogito has raised a $15 million Series B round led by Boston venture capital firm OpenView, it announced on Friday. Existing investors Romulus Capital and Salesforce Ventures also participated in the round. In addition, OpenView founder and Managing Partner Scott Maxwell joined the company's board.
Joshua Feast, CEO and co-founder of Cogito, told me the funds will be used to support and expand its client base — which currently includes organizations with large call center workforces like Humana, Zurich and Blue Cross Blue Shield. The funds will also help Cogito accelerate the development of Cogito's deep learning and other capabilities. Feast said he expects the company will roughly double its 40-person workforce within the next 12 to 18 months.
One milestone that helped Cogito with this fundraise, Feast said, is the way it's been able to improve how its clients provide service. Humana, for instance, participated in a case study, showing that Cogito improved customer satisfaction by 28 percent, improved employee engagement by 63 percent and increased the resolution of first-time callers by 6 percent.
Because of Cogito's success so far with Fortune 500 companies in the healthcare, insurance and financial industries, the company will continue to focus there. Cogito's software is provided as a service, and the companies using it have deployed the software across workforces ranging from the several hundred to several thousand, Feast said.
While advances are being made in conversational AI with companies like Semantic Machines, Feast said he's confident there are many cases in which humans will continue to play an important role for customers, especially for its industries.
"We work in areas where there’s a tremendous amount of complexity and very high stakes for the customer," Feast said. "(It's important) you can have someone you can trust."
