The AI start-up, only five years old in the space has already reshaped the customer service industry. With its advanced technology, it has given brands the opportunity to create a digital version of their ambassadors or customer service employees to interact with customers more effectively. It is estimated that chatbots will power 85% of all customer service interactions by year end 2020.
Soul Machine recently closed a US$40 Million series B funding round led by Temasek with participation from Lakestar and existing investors such as Horizon ventures, Salesforce ventures and the University of Auckland Investors Fund. The investment is intended to fuel the start-ups geographical expansion with a focus on research and development, as it is currently developing its customer-facing digital avatar and deploying the world’s first digital humans. In addition to this, the fund is also aimed at tapping into the education and healthcare markets.
Some of the company’s customers include big brands such as Google, Sony, the Royal bank of Scotland, Bank ABC, and IBMs Watson just to name a few. Its popularity is attributed to the fact that the start-ups developers have managed to create life-like and perceptive digital avatars that animate autonomously with personality and character that evolve over time and that respond to content and context.
It has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, London, Tokyo, Melbourne, and Auckland. Its team of AI researchers, neuroscientists, psychologists, and artists has allowed the start-up to build emotionally intelligent digital heroes, that can remember faces and accents and determines the best response based on previous interactions.
Rob Keith, Head of Salesforce Ventures described Soul Machine as having “an obsessive focus on improving customer experience by using artificial intelligence technology in new ways.” It truly is the age of AI. The strides the start-ups have made thus far, have revolutionized business approaches to customer service and has improved human-chatbot relationships.
