It’s been another busy week of CX news, with Salesforce and Zendesk releasing new innovations. Elsewhere, while Pegasystems has agreed to pay out eight figures to resolve a shareholder lawsuit, Verint has snagged an eight-figure contract with a major retailer.
Here are the extracts from some of our most popular news stories over the last seven days.
Salesforce has revealed that Einstein Copilot, the company’s conversational AI assistant for CRM, is now generally available.
Powered by generative AI (GenAI), Einstein Copilot is a conversational assistant integrated into every Salesforce application.
Through these apps, employees can interact with Copilot to execute diverse workflows and pose inquiries using natural language.
Salesforce claims that its solution stands out from other AI assistants and chat tools due to its unified capabilities.
The assistant is built on the Einstein 1 Platform, can access data stored within Salesforce’s Data Cloud, and is compatible with Salesforce metadata.
As such, the Copilot in one CRM system can leverage data within other Salesforce solutions and enable cross-app workflows.
In discussing the release of the company’s latest solution, Adam Evans, SVP of Product for the Salesforce AI Platform, was full of praise for the Einstein Copilot’s ability to accurately interpret complicated data sets:
As we continue the rapid pace of innovation, this is an exciting step forward in conversational AI for enterprises
Let’s take a more detailed look at some of those new and previously announced features that the Einstein Copilot boasts (Read on…).
In March, Zendesk announced a new Workforce Engagement Suite.
The offering comes after Zendesk’s July 2023 acquisition of the workforce management (WFM) provider Tymeshift and its January 2024 roll-up of quality assurance (QA) powerhouse Klaus.
Now, after months of building their solutions into a cohesive suite, Zendesk has presented a deep workforce engagement management (WEM) offering.
While it might not yet cover areas such as learning management and gamification, it encompasses all the fundamentals of WFM and QA.
In addition, it offers several innovative features that most CCaaS vendors – let alone CRM players – do not deliver.
Among these features is the ability for planners to make manual tweaks to the forecasts and schedules based on their experience and know-how. But, ultimately, WFM plans are ready in a fraction of the time they once took.
Moreover, like many others, Zendesk offers real-time and historical WFM reports, which track metrics from schedule adherence to average handling time (AHT) (Read on…).
Pegasystems will pay $35MN to resolve a shareholder lawsuit.
The lawsuit claimed Alan Trefler, CEO of Pegasystems, had assured investors that a separate lawsuit – a trade secrets case against Pega by Appian – was “without merit”.
Ultimately, the jury found in Appian’s favor – to the tune of $2BN+ – and Pega’s share price tanked, dropping 21 percent.
Two weeks later, shareholders brought about this shareholder suit, complaining that Trefler’s assurances broke the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
The suit rumbled on for almost two years until last week – when Ken Stillwell, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Financial Officer at Pegasystems, shared an update.
“We reached an agreement to resolve that shareholder suit for $35 million,” he said during an earnings call.
We look forward to putting that distraction and the associated legal fees behind us.
Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP – the investors’ attorney – revealed that the difficulties of proving its civil securities fraud case to a jury influenced the decision (Read on…).
Verint has been awarded an eight-figure contract to increase CX automation for one of the “world’s largest retailers.”
With a remit to improve several business units within the retailer’s contact center, Verint revealed that its Open Platform and team of AI-powered bots were key to helping secure the deal.
In discussing the news, Verint’s Dan Bodner – Chairman and CEO– outlined how he believes his company was able to win over the retailer:
“Customers today are looking to increase CX automation in the contact center and across the enterprise, to elevate the customer experience, and to reduce labor costs. They require a platform that is completely open, centered on behavioral data, and offers AI-powered bots.
This win is another proof point of our CX automation leadership, and we continue to innovate at a very fast pace.
Listed as a bundled SaaS booking, the 39-month contract includes the implementation of Verint Open Platform as well as the delivery of four AI-powered bots.
So, let’s take a more detailed look at the two major aspects of Verint’s contract win (Read on…).
