Vonage has launched AI Virtual Assistant for its unified communications solution, Vonage Business Communications (VBC).

Vonage AI Virtual Assistant creates artificially intelligent conversational experiences using natural language understanding and machine learning that's supported by applications using voice and text to engage every caller in natural language.

According to Vonage, AI Virtual Assistant modernises customer engagement by providing conversational AI to address simple tasks and facilitate voice-enabled self-service for customers.

This enables organisations without a contact centre to free up employees from answering high volumes of inbound calls. This also helps to improve the customer experience by providing faster responses to questions, requests and other customer needs.

Built on the Vonage Communications Platform (VCP), AI Virtual Assistant also includes the new Vonage AI Studio capabilities, providing a no-code user interface to enable implementation and development of advanced conversational experiences and engagement, such as self-service options and workflows, and the ability to simplify complex interactions.

The addition of Vonage AI Studio customisable building blocks to AI Virtual Assistant provides businesses with tools for service automation, also taking into account the end-user experience.

Additional benefits to enterprise implementation of AI Virtual Assistant include:

• Ensuring business continuity for organisations that experience high call volumes during peak business hours or seasonal periods.
• Reducing wait times for frequently asked, straightforward queries that can be immediately resolved, increasing customer satisfaction without the need for live interaction.
• Creating meaningful customer engagements by capturing insights through verbal cues given by customers for their interest, questions or issues about products and services, then taking appropriate actions to maintain customer lifetime value.

AI Virtual Assistant also provides organisations, partners and developers with an omnichannel bot platform to create multi-purpose AI-conversational solutions to meet customer needs.

Vonage EVP of product and engineering Savinay Berry says,  "In addition to reducing and optimising IT costs and resources, enterprises are enhancing the customer experience with the use of AI as a part of their communications strategy.

"In today's modern workplace, consumers expect to get the information they want, when they want it and they expect it to be easy to do business with a brand.

"As one of the first providers to offer this kind of solution for unified communications, Vonage is enabling businesses to leverage AI to improve their business processes.

"By automating responses and addressing simple tasks through AI, we are transforming the way businesses across all industries connect with their customers."

Aragon Research CEO and lead analyst, Jim Lundy, commented on the broader trends and the announcement of Vonage's new service.

He says, "In an increasingly digital world, more and more businesses are leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance customer and employee experiences, as well as drive cost savings and overall quality of service.

"With one of the first Virtual Assistant products of its kind in the marketplace, Vonage is augmenting its already robust unified communication offering with intelligent conversational experiences to make better connections with customers at every touchpoint."