ServiceNow acquires AI startup Passage AI

ServiceNow has acquired Passage AI, a startup that helps customers build chatbots in multiple languages, something that should come in handy as ServiceNow continues to modernize its digital platform.

With Passage AI, ServiceNow gets a bushel of AI talent, which in itself has value, but it also gets AI technology, which should fit in nicely with ServiceNow’s mission. For starters, the company’s chatbot solutions give ServiceNow an automated way to respond to customer/user inquiries.

Even more interesting for ServiceNow, Passage includes an IT automation component that uses ” a conversational interface to submit tickets, handle queries and take direct action through APIs. It also gets an HR automation piece, giving the company an intelligent tool it could incorporate across its Now Platform in tools like ServiceNow Virtual Agent and Service Portal, as well as Workspaces in multiple languages.

Companies are increasingly looking for ways to solve common customer problems using chatbots, while only bringing humans into the loop when the bot can’t answer the query. Passage AI gives ServiceNow much deeper knowledge in this growing area. The company website lists a variety of large customers, including Mastercard, Shell, Mercedes-Benz and SoftBank.

Microsoft to acquire XOXCO

Microsoft announced its intent to acquire Xoxco, an Austin-based software developer with a focus on bot design, making it the fourth AI-related company Microsoft has purchased this year.

Xoxco, which was founded in 2009 — long before most of us were thinking about conversational bots — has raised $1.5 million. It began working on bots in 2013, and is credited with developing the first bot for Slack to help schedule meetings. The companies did not reveal the price, but it fits nicely with Microsoft’s overall acquisition strategy this year, and an announcement today involving a new bot building tool to help companies build conversational bots more easily.

When you call into a call center these days, or even interact on chat, chances are your initial interaction is with a conversational bot, rather than a human. Microsoft is trying to make it easier for developers without AI experience to tap into Microsoft’s expertise on the Azure platform (or by downloading the bot framework from its newly acquired GitHub).

Microsoft also released guidelines for companies that are building chatbots, encouraging them to make sure they are “responsible and trustworthy,” a nod to past problems involving the technology reacting in unexpected ways. Microsoft, for instance, received criticism for its Tay chat bot that fielded offensive comments from online trolls and then repeated them.

American Express buys Mezi

American Express Co., the New York based credit card issuer, has acquired chatbots firm Mezi, which enables travel related booking over text messages. Mezi will become a subsidiary of American Express after the transaction is completed.

Mezi was started by entrepreneurs Swapnil Shinde and Snehal Shinde, who had earlier founded music streaming app Dhingana and sold it off to Rdio in March 2014. Nexus Ventures Partners is an early investor in Mezi. It put $2.5 million in December 2015 and a part of the company’s $9-million fund-raise in July 2016, which also saw participation from Saama Capital and American Express Ventures, the strategic investment arm of American Express.

After its investment, American Express tested out Mezi’s chat platform for servicing its card customers through an app called AskAmex, which managed customer loyalty programmes and bookings for hotels and restaurants. By November that year, Mezi has pivoted to focus exclusively on travel.

Mezi app allows travellers to message their requests for flights, hotel and restaurant reservations, and also provides recommendations based on user preferences and past interactions on the platform. Mezi will focus on developing its core technologies and enhance its capabilities in digital travel concierge services.

Facebook acquires Ozlo

After shutting down one of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems as chatbots defied the human generated algorithms and started communicating in their own language, Facebook has acquired an AI startup Ozlo to enhance its Messenger’s Personal assistant.

The four-year-old California-based startup that specializes in understanding text-based conversations claims that its virtual assistants can understand and provide answers to questions which do not have simple “yes” or “no”. Ozlo has raised $14 million from a number of investors. The startup has 30 employees, majority of whom would be joining Messenger in Facebook’s offices in either Menlo Park (California) or Seattle (Washington).

The social media giant on Sunday pulled the plug on its AI system because things got out of hand. The AI did not start shutting down computers worldwide or something of the sort, but it stopped using English and started using a language that it created. Initially, the AI agents used English to converse with each other but later, they created a new language that only AI systems could understand, thus, defying the purpose of the researchers. Earlier this year, Messenger’s product head Stan Chudnovsky said Facebook was focused on text-based AI because voice conversations like that of Apple or Google required an extra step.

Freshdesk buys Chatimity

Customer support software maker Freshdesk Inc. one of India’s most well-funded product start-ups had acquired Bengaluru based chat-bot firm Chatimity to augment its product offerings. Chatimity is the sixth in a series of small companies Freshdesk has acquired and the second in the chat space. In December last year, Freshdesk acquired Konotor, which helped businesses chat with their customers within apps.

Freshdesk acquired Airwoot, a social customer support platform in April, Framebench, a file collaboration platform in February, Frilp, a social recommendation app in October, and 1Click, a video chat platform in August. Chat will play an important role in the future of communication for customer service but scaling that infrastructure continues to be a challenge.

Scaling quality customer support along with a rapidly expanding user base is a challenge that most internet-based firms face. With Chatimity’s bot, MITI, this can be used to converse with thousands of users in real time, Freshdesk hopes to help companies solve this problem. Although bots have been around for a while in one form or the other, advances in artificial intelligence and natural language processing have made chat-bots - bots that can emulate human conversations more accessible and popular than ever, with several companies such as Facebook and Slack opening up their platforms for chat-bots builders.

Freshdesk, which has so far raised $95 million from venture capital firms Accel Partners, Google Capital and Tiger Global Management LLC, has 50,000 customers globally, and competes with Helpshift, and global heavyweights ZenDesk and Salesforce.com. The company is based in San Bruno, California, with offices in London, Sydney and Chennai.

Microsoft buys AI Startup Genee

Microsoft Corp. is betting big on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make the software and services smarter. The company has announced the acquisition of AI powered scheduling tool Genee, and will be integrating these capabilities in future versions of the Office 365 cloud based productivity suite.

Before Microsoft swooped in, Genee offered virtual personal assistant services in two ways, first through email and second as messaging chatbots on SMS, Facebook, Twitter and Skype. For example, if you may want to meet a friend for lunch sometime in the next few days, all you need to do is mark Genee in “cc” in the mail you send to the friend. Genee will detect that you need to find the time for the meeting, will scan your calendar, and directly mail your friend with multiple time options. If there are any updates to the calendar leading up to meeting time, Genee will update all parties involved, automatically.

Genee uses natural language processing algorithms to understand the contents of a conversation. And this could come in very handy for Microsoft as it looks to enhance its virtual assistant Cortana, which rivals Google’s Now and Apple’s Siri. Also, Microsoft would do well to add the AI capabilities on to the Office 365 suite and make the Outlook mail service smarter.

This ties in well with Microsoft’s recent acquisition of the Sunrise Calendar app, a more powerful and feature rich calendar app, with automatic scheduling features, which gives Office 365 a big advantage. Enterprise and productivity apps as well as services are critical for Microsoft as the company wants to create a niche for itself in a smartphone market which is now undoubtedly dominated by Google Android and Apple iOS platform.