Inference Solutions, a global provider of Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs), today announced the latest version of Inference Studio, which includes new features for rapidly scaling virtual agent applications across voice and digital touchpoints. With Studio 6.5, businesses can use a single code-free platform to develop and deploy IVA applications for voice, SMS, WhatsApp and, now, web-based chatbots, reducing the cost and complexity of launching omni-channel solutions.

Using Studio to build and manage IVAs can help businesses bring omni-channel customer engagement applications to market faster. The platform includes a Task Library of templates that businesses and service providers can use to develop IVA applications, such as order lookups, credit card payments or frequently asked questions. Applications can also be built from scratch using drag and drop tools, and service providers can publish their own templates to the Task Library. With Studio, users can create one IVA application for all their chosen channels, allowing them to “build once, deploy everywhere.”

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All applications built in Studio can access the same shared resources, including Dialogflow agents, data stores, business process automation, payment gateways and reporting functionality. This helps ensure that IVAs maintain the context of each interaction as it progresses to the next touchpoint or escalates to a live agent. Inference omni-channel IVAs can help businesses increase service availability, automate more service requests and expand their business in markets where mobile messaging is the preferred (and, in some cases, the only) means of connecting.

“Recent events have demonstrated the importance of being responsive – to your customers and to sudden changes that impact your business,” said Callan Schebella, Inference Solutions CEO. “Studio 6.5 will allow any business to ramp up their self-service capabilities, increase efficiency and readiness with automation, and assist customers whenever and wherever they need it. It will also allow our telco, UC and contact center partners to expand their offerings by supporting more of their customers’ preferred channels.”

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Becky Carr, Chief Marketing Officer at Masergy adds, “Our partnership with Inference Solutions enables enterprises using Masergy Cloud Collaboration and Cloud Contact Center to bring premium self-service to market quickly and cost-effectively. With Studio’s new capabilities, Masergy Intelligent Virtual Agents will be even more powerful in helping businesses provide immediate, always-on customer service.”

Inference Studio 6.5 also includes a new Verbatim Audio feature. With this feature, raw call utterances can be used to tune speech recognition accuracy and automate more service tasks. All virtual agent tasks developed in Studio can use a variety of conversational AI engines such as Google DialogFlow, IBM Watson and, now, Amazon Lex. Users also have access to more than 180 voices across 30 languages via the Google Text-to-Speech service, the ability to identify a voice print via ArmorVox voice biometrics and can achieve real-time sentiment analysis using the Watson Tone Analyzer service.

Watch this video to see how Inference IVAs can assist customers across voice and digital touchpoints. Or register for the Inference Solutions Intelligent Response Series. This free series of virtual events, taking place April 21-23, will showcase how Inference IVAs can help businesses quickly ramp up automation and self-service.

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