Uniphore today introduced akeira 2.0, the latest version of its intelligent conversational digital assistant.
Key features include the following:
- Visual modeler, to create and edit conversational flows on the fly. Users can create intent flows, design responses, train user input variations for intent identification, and simulate intent behavior from a single interface. The Visual modeler is scalable and can be trained once and deployed across multiple channels.
- Training for the intents in a language for a channel;
- Virtual agent health tracking for intent served and call handling capacity;
- Sand box for testing an intent before moving to production;
- Assisted intent training, a semi-autonomous machine learning capability where users can continuously train akeira based on historical conversations and even allow users to identify patterns for new intents.
- Live agent transfer with intent-based routing or hot transfer of calls to a live agent based on contextual scenarios, such as multiple failures or escalating customer sentiments or irritation;
- Secure connectivity to business applications and traditional interactive voice response systems; and
- Granular control of intents, with flexibility to leverage intent-based features at will or to disengage in live environments.
Akeira conversational digital agents work alongside call center humans. They intervene and handle simple transactional conversations. They make suggestions during a call, proactively look up information, take actions, and create post-call summaries. Uniphore's automated digital agents can seamlessly hand back to a human at any time.
Akeira allows users to build out a digital virtual assistant on existing interactive voice response channels, web chat, and mobile app channels. Secure enterprise connectors to standard CRM, ticketing, and other back-end applications further widen the type of requests and queries that can be handled. Akeira is multilingual, supporting global languages and flexible deployment options whether it is on cloud or on premises.
"As virtual assistants and various bots came on the scene a few years ago, many organizations rushed in, believing it would solve their problems of scale and reduce costs. But that proved false," said Zeus Kerravala, founder and principal at ZK Research, in a statement. "For these bots to be successful, there need to be capabilities which help not only set up but maintain and monitor the outcomes as well as help make recommendations for improvement. Uniphore's latest akeira offering is a solid step forward in this direction."
"Customers have high expectations for any interactions with customer service agents, both real and virtual," said Samith Ramachandran, senior vice president of product engineering at Uniphore, in a statement. "Our latest akeira offering steps up the features and functionality of intelligent virtual assistants and makes them easier to set up, more cost-effective to manage, and, ultimately, smarter in the way they respond."
Additional support for more languages and more automated machine learning capabilities are in the works.