Zendesk boosts AI agent with Ultimate purchase
CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES — Software-as-a-service (SaaS) company Zendesk is set to acquire German artificial intelligence (AI) firm Ultimate.
The two firms are looking to boost customer experience by complementing human agent performance with an AI agent.
According to Zendesk Chief Executive Officer Tom Eggemeier, this arrangement allows the human agent to solve complex problems and foster relationships while the AI agent attends to simple queries.
“We believe that somewhere between 70% and 90% of interactions are going to be through AI agents in the future. And Ultimate has done a really nice job solving up to 80% of interactions via their AI agents,” Eggemeier told TechCrunch.
The deal also allows the two firms to meet the growing demand for AI-laced CX platforms.
Ultimate claims its platform can be integrated with any backend system. According to its Crunchbase profile, the firm was founded in 2017 and has raised $27.4 million.
Once the acquisition is complete, Ultimate’s 140 employees will join Zendesk, but the company will continue to operate from its Berlin headquarters.
Meanwhile, Zendesk has raised $85.5 million through eight funding rounds. In January, it signed a definitive agreement to acquire artificial intelligence-powered quality management platform Klaus.
