In 2013, Opus Research led off our first report on the “Conversational Cloud” with the following introduction:

“Blame Salesforce.com and Amazon Web Services for giving enterprises confidence in running mission-critical business processes and data in remote data centers. The ripple effect from the early migrations are permeating customer care and self-service strategies where solutions leverage Big Data, Predictive Analytics, Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing to foster simple, speedy task completion and customer empowerment.”

Monitoring and evaluating the adoption and evolution of the Conversational Cloud for the past nine years has been revelatory but not revolutionary. Microsoft and Google joined Salesforce and AWS in efforts to build confidence in cloud-based resources that apply elements of artificial intelligence to support self-service, improve customer experience and spur agent productivity. Facebook and IBM have made their own formidable investments in AI-infused “cognitive” technologies that rapidly recognize a customer’s intent in order to match that knowledge with the “next best action” by a customer service representative (either live or virtual).

Right on cue, in the past few years, these giants have been joined by the titans of process and workflow automation. Think of long-time leader in IT Service Management (ITSM) ServiceNow. Thus, it came as no surprise when the lead investors in a $500+ million investment in Genesys was led by the venture wings of Salesforce and ServiceNow. They were joined by Zoom Video Communications (now a household word and a verb) as well as a group of funds managers that includes BlackRock and D1 Capital Partners.

So the fund managers and venture wings at Salesforce and ServiceNow appear to be gung-ho on the future of cloud-based contact centers and related resources. Putting over half-a-billion dollars into Genesys represents a hedge against multiple uncertainties associated with supporting self-service, customer care and agent productivity configured as a cloud-based contact center. An alternative view is that they have enjoyed a profitable relationship with Genesys over the years and endorse the company’s strategy and tactics for supporting abstract objectives like “CX as a Service” and “Experience Orchestration.” In short, they endorse a Conversational AI ecosystem and regard Genesys, with its cadre of partners and technology providers, as a proxy for the Conversational Cloud.

Now, if they could only transform it to an NFT!

Categories: Intelligent Assistants