The Five9 AI portfolio will accelerate with the company’s acquisition of Inference Solutions, an intelligent virtual agent (IVA) platform.

Five9 said adding Inference to its portfolio accelerates its leadership position in AI. Furthermore, it provides customers with a market-leading IVA at a time when they need efficient real-time assistance.

Five9’s Rowan Trollope

“Customer engagement is now more paramount than ever,” said Rowan Trollope, Five9’s CEO. “Inference is a proven leader with a best-in-class IVA solution. We are excited to build upon our successful partnership with this acquisition.”

The transaction will close in early January.

IVAs in High Demand

IVAs use AI to communicate like humans, recognizing speech and text, understanding intent and deciphering different languages. And they respond in a way that mimics human conversations.

IVAs are rapidly becoming a requirement of the modern contact center, according to Five9. They represent a major evolution from touch-tone or voice activated IVRs. Those depend on structured, fixed-grammar interactions.

By contrast, IVAs are conversational, more accurate and user-friendly. IVAs are being viewed as digital workers for businesses, resulting in significant savings through increased call deflection rates, better-informed agents, or both.

The acquisition adds to Five9’s global footprint with operations in Australia. It also expands marquee global service provider relationships, such as Evolve IT in Europe, Telstra in APAC, and AT&T in North America.

Better Self-Service Experience

The Inference platform allows organizations of any size to benefit from the advances in speech-enabled IVA technology. Previously, such technologies were only available to large organizations with significant budgets and highly skilled in-house development teams. Inference expands the addressable market.

“Intelligent virtual agents enable a quicker, more efficient, self-service experience,” said Callan Schebella, Inference’s CEO and founder. “To meet today’s heightened customer expectations, we need to continue to innovate with disruptive technology. Our team at Inference is proud to join Five9, a recognized industry leader, and we look forward to shaping the future of customer service.”