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hoi polloi are broadly skeptical of client religious service chatbots , and many outright despise them . In a recent Gartnersurvey , 64 % of consumer say that they ’d prefer companies did n’t use AI of any sort — including chatbots — in their customer service . Fifty - three per centum went so far as to say they ’d weigh switching to a challenger if a company considered interchange its human agents with AI .
Alex Levin , a former product manager at Thomson Reuters and the ex - SVP of growth at Handy , believes most people detest chatbots because they ’ve had bad experience in the past .
“ Contact heart squad are often given only cost - reducing goals , forcing them to move to low - quality deflection or terrible deterministic bots , ” he told TechCrunch . ” At Handy , I was continuously frustrated by legacy contact center software , most of which was created before the cloud even existed and required an US Army of developer and IT admins to maintain . ”
Levin feel chatbots could deliver compelling experiences , however , when power by the right mix of technologies . So he team up up with Rebecca Greene , who he met at Handy , where she was chief product officer , to startRegal , which builds AI - powered touch center result .
“ As hustler , we wanted to move tight , make nimble changes , do A / B tests , and operate the contact center the way we saw our fellow worker doing in marketing and merchandise , ” Levin said .
Regal offer phone- and text - base chatbots that can field common customer service petition . The chatbots can cover things like interruptions without breaking the stream of a conversation , and adjust their choice of words bet on a customer ’s sentiment ( e.g. , rationalize if a customer is upset ) .
brand can customize the linguistic process Regal ’s chatbots employ , set guardrail , and have the chatbots rend in data like a customer ’s natal day , name , and conversation account to make confab more engaging .
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Regal ’s chatbots can also take certain actions — act as “ AI agents , ” if you will . For example , the chatbots can ship out textual matter or netmail follow - ups , schedule next - step outcry , and remove to a human broker if the conversation needs to be step up .
With the marketplace for call center AI bot expected to beworthover $ 10 billion by 2032 , it ’s not totally surprising that Regal has plenty of competition . Got It AI isdevelopinga “ fully self-directed ” striking center;Cognigyprovides a platform to build call center workflow mechanization ; and OpenAI president Bret Taylor’sSierrais focusing on chatbots for customer service functions .
Levin says he ’s pleased with Regal ’s growth so far , though .
“ Millions of people worldwide engage with their favorite brands — like Google , Kin , Toyota , AAA , and Ro — monthly through Regal , ” he said . “ We believe that 10 years from now , most contact centre interaction will be autonomous . So we ’re all in . ”
purple claim to have hundreds of customers , and this month it closed a $ 40 million investment round from Emergence Capital , Founder Collective , and Homebrew . The round of drinks brings Regal ’s totality recruit to $ 83 million and will be used for ware development and growing Regal ’s 100 - person , New York - establish squad .
