Avaya Expands AI Strategy to UC

Avaya is expanding its A.I.Connect network with new partners and partner offers, and putting its focus on incorporating AI capabilities into its unified-communications (UC) offerings.

Knowmail and over.ai are the newly designated A.I.Connect partners which have services aligned with Avaya’s overall UC and collaboration strategies. They join the broader group of companies collaborating with Avaya on the use of AI and machine-learning technologies for UC and contact center, including Verint, with whom Avaya recently expanded its partnership inclusive of additional AI-powered and cloud solutions.

Eric Rossman, Avaya’s vice president of partners and alliances, tells Channel Partners the expansion of his company’s AI strategy to UC will create new opportunities for customers to make their employees more effective, both in individual and work group-based communications.

Avaya’s Eric Rossman

“Knowmail, in particular, has demonstrated integration with the Avaya Vantage device, extending Avaya’s existing voice and text messaging capabilities with prioritization of corporate email through the user interface offered by the Avaya Vantage Basic client,” he said. “This allows our channel partners to open dialogue with existing and potential customers regarding an evolution in strategy for desktop devices, moving from very traditional keypad-and-handset desk phones to a modern, Android-based touchscreen device that allows the user access to … a richer communications experience, as well as a wealth of productivity and corporate applications available for Android, rather than relying solely on desktop PCs.”

Over.ai is an AI-enabled voice platform that tackles complex tasks by embracing natural language processing technology and allowing end users to engage naturally, to create a fundamental shift in human-computer interactions.

“Enabling organizations to enhance their user experience across every channel will have an enormous impact on productivity and communication,” said Noam Fine, over.ai’s CEO. “We’re excited to be able to link over.ai’s Voice AI cognitive services with Avaya solutions and make this a reality.”

Avaya partners will be able to use the capabilities offered by Knowmail and other A.I.Connect partners to redefine how both communications and IT applications co-exist at the desktop level, Rossman said.

“We believe that our integration, and leveraging of AI and machine learning capabilities – in both the contact center and UC spaces – is a strategic advantage for Avaya,” he said. “Not only does the broad scope of AI – from speech recognition and analytics, to robotic process automation, to visual-and biometric-based capabilities – afford us and our customers new user and customer-experience options, it extends the significant value derived from the massive amount of customer and user data that is inherent in the overall product portfolios offered by Avaya.”

AI and machine learning allow Avaya to data-mine call records and interpersonal interactions, providing enterprise customers with new insights into their customers and …