International Business Machines (IBM) has launched new AI and automation capabilities in its intelligent virtual agent IBM Watson Assistant that are designed to make it easier for businesses to create enhanced customer service experiences across any channel. Headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States, the company collaborated with Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) provider IntelePeer to set up and test a voice agent and a new agent app designed to enable a seamless hand-off to a live agent while maintaining the conversation’s context.

Virtual assistants are gaining popularity due to ongoing improvements in natural language processing (NLP) and automation. According to IBM’s 2021 Global AI Adoption Index Morning Consult on behalf of IBM, 52 percent of global information technology (IT) professionals surveyed report that their company is using or considering NLP solutions to improve customer experiences.

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IBM Watson Assistant seamlessly hands off to a live agent when additional support is needed. Here are the new features:

1. The IntelePeer Atmosphere CPaaS is now available as an add-on in Watson Assistant so that users with a Plus and Enterprise plan can set up voice capabilities and a new phone number for a virtual agent quickly. If businesses already have an existing contact center phone system, IntelePeer can also provide the connection between Watson Assistant and the existing phone system using industry standards. Using IntelePeer, Watson Assistant is now designed to connect to nearly every major contact center platform that uses the SIP protocol in as little as half an hour with no coding.
2. Customers can resolve issues on first contact with Watson Assistant Search Skill, which includes short-answer retrieval, which is based on an innovative question-answering (QA) system from IBM Research. This enables the virtual agent to return an answer in a few words from longer sentences or passages and provide the context on where the answer came from. FAQ extraction is also now generally available in Search Skill. FAQ extraction is designed to help administrators keep the virtual agent up to date with broader sources of information, without having to constantly make manual updates.
3. Watson Assistant’s new agent app feature is designed to help customer service agents pick up with a customer right where the virtual agent left off. When a customer calls in, IBM’s speech detection models, which are designed to provide more accurate transcriptions out-of-the-box, deliver a near real-time transcription of the conversation. When the hand-off occurs, the new agent app provides the customer service agent with the latest transcript right on their screen. This means customers don’t have to repeat their questions and agents are empowered to resolve issues even more quickly.

With these new IBM Watson Assistant features, businesses can leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and NLP to address customer issues on first contact. The virtual agent is designed to more quickly provide customers with relevant answers over the phone, web, short message service (SMS) and any messaging platform.

“One critical challenge facing nearly every business today is the need to better communicate with their customers and employees across all channels,” IBM data and AI general manager Daniel Hernandez stated. “We’re continuously delivering new innovations in natural language processing, automation and advancing responsible AI, and building a strong, open ecosystem with partners like IntelePeer to help businesses transform customer care with Watson Assistant.”