Chatbots.org Business News

VirtuOz, the leading provider of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) for online customer service, appointed Laurent David as Head of Sales, France to support VirtuOz’ European growth and response to increased demand for intelligent virtual agents. With 22 years of successful sales experience in promoting the adoption of disruptive technologies, Laurent David is responsible for managing VirtuOz’s continued growth in France as well as expanding VirtuOz’ European presence.

The intelligent virtual agent (IVA) value proposition is so compelling for both the online consumer and the business provider that leading analyst firm Gartner Research predicts that virtual agents will be the standard technology for customer interactions in two to four years.  The aggressive adoption of IVAs is a consumer led revolution in which an increasingly large generation of users, including but not limited to digital natives, are living in an online world where blogging, texting, tweeting, eCommerce, and social networks are the way of life.  This Web savvy consumer prefers both their personal and business engagements to be conducted online.  The IVA offers a compelling customer experience that aligns with the consumer’s expectations.

VirtuOz, Inc., the leading provider of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) for online customer service, today announced that it has raised $7 million in additional funding from existing investors Mohr Davidow, Inventures Group and Galileo Partners to finance growth in the U.S. and E.U.

Evidence continues to mount that supports Gartner’s prediction that intelligent virtual agents will be a new standard for customer interaction in the next 2-4 years.

VirtuOz, Inc., the leading provider of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) for online customer service, today announced it was named a finalist in the Best New Software as a Service of the Year category in The 2011 American Business Awards. The American Business Awards are the nation’s premier business awards program. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. More than 2,800 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted this year for consideration across 40 categories.

Virtual agents are an innovative response to growing consumer demand for personalized self-service options accessible via today’s preferred online channels – the web, mobile devices and Facebook. VirtuOz intelligent virtual agent solutions use patented natural language processing and predictive intent analysis to realistically emulate a conversation with a human being online and provide timely and effective resolution to consumer issues. Gartner research predicts that intelligent virtual agents will be a new standard for customer interaction in the next 2-4 years.

By integrating VirtuOz Virtual Agent with their call center, Discountéo, the French equivalent of Best Buy, is able to deliver a compelling digital customer relationship with 100 percent customer resolution.

VirtuOz announced that the company processed a record 144 million conversations in 2010 on behalf of its customers, indicating increased adoption of virtual agent solutions by both companies and their users. In addition, the company announced 150 percent growth in the number of global companies headquartered in the US using its virtual agent solutions, complementing its historically strong performance in the EU.

VirtuOz, the provider of virtual agent solutions, announced today that the company grew rapidly in 2009, posting record sales as a result of accelerated new customer adoption and expanded use of VirtuOz at existing customers in both North America and Europe.

Recent research on context-aware computing, such as avatars, has shown many benefits for businesses. According to Virtuoz vice president Mark Gaydos there are 4 ways how avatar virtual agents can help companies (from allbusiness.com)

With James Cameron’s highly anticipated sci-fi movie Avatar opening this weekend, we had to find out if avatars can help businesses in the real world as much as they help humans in fictitious alien worlds.

Unlike the 10-foot tall blue avatars in Cameron’s movie, Web site avatars aren’t science fiction; they’re “real” virtual agents that provide customer service worldwide. These self-service software applications (which can appear as an animation or a picture of a real person) are intelligent, engaging personalities that help Internet customers find solutions faster and more efficiently.

The Michelin Man avatar, for example, not only answers questions about Michelin tires, but can also engage in conversations about how old he is and whether he has a girlfriend.

VirtuOz, the provider of intelligent, multilingual virtual support and sales agent solutions, today announced the completion of its Series B round of investment. MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures led the $11.4 million financing. Galileo Partners, which has funded the company since the beginning of its operations, participated in this round, as did Eric Hahn with Inventures Group. The new funds will be used to scale operations and advance product development.

VirtuOz solutions transform the customer support and sales experience online by providing intelligent virtual agents that interact with customers via chat and instant messaging. The agents enable ubiquitous, personal and natural interactions between humans and Internet-based services on a 24/7 basis. The combination of artificial intelligence and natural language processing technologies make the agents capable of understanding a complete range of user requests and comments. The agents welcome, guide, assist, and inform customers and are able to reach specific sales objectives by proposing a personalized and direct link when appropriate.