• Improves CX, reduces costs by resolving calls in the communications cloud–without needing a live agent
  
  
• First integrations include conversational AI leaders Cognigy and Google Cloud's Dialogflow, speeding enterprise IT development time from months to hours
  
  
• Newest capability of Bandwidth Maestro, the open, vendor-agnostic platform that enables enterprise IT teams to easily integrate best-in-class, real-time voice apps across their unified communications, cloud contact center, AI and machine learning platforms

RALEIGH, N.C., Sept. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Bandwidth Inc. (NASDAQ: BAND), a leading global enterprise cloud communications company, today announced it is partnering with Google and Cognigy to launch AIBridge, which enables enterprises to easily deploy voice-based artificial intelligence (AI) tools in front of their contact centers–resolving calls faster and more efficiently in the communications cloud. AIBridge is the newest in a series of pre-built integrations available with Bandwidth Maestro^TM, the company's award-winning, next-generation enterprise cloud communications platform, which is now available.

Bandwidth AIBridge enables enterprises to resolve customer issues faster, which improves the overall customer experience (CX) and agent satisfaction while reducing contact center operating costs. With AIBridge, incoming calls to an enterprise contact center can first be routed directly to an AI-driven virtual agent, utilizing a pre-built integration with Bandwidth's Maestro platform. If the caller has an issue that can be resolved through conversational AI, such as replacing a lost credit card or rebooking a flight, the call can be completed in the communications cloud–without ever being connected to the contact center or a live agent. As a result, enterprises can keep their customer service lines open continuously with virtual agents and self-service using AIBridge, even when live agents are not available.

Potential cost savings are significant. According to Gartner^Ⓡ, "conversational AI will reduce contact center agent labor costs by $80 billion in 2026, increasing to $240 billion by 2031. In 2031, conversational AI chatbots and virtual assistants will handle 30 percent of interactions that would have otherwise been handled by a human agent, up from just two percent in 2022."⁽¹⁾

The first integrations for AIBridge include Cognigy and Google Cloud's Dialogflow, both recognized leaders in conversational AI, with more to be added soon.

• Cognigy.AI is Cognigy's enterprise conversational AI platform that brings best-of-breed conversational and generative AI solutions to contact centers to automate customer journeys, elevate customer and agent engagement and increase first-call resolution.
  
  
• Dialogflow, which is part of the Contact Center AI solution within Google Cloud, allows enterprise customers to create advanced virtual agents in minutes that seamlessly switch between topics, handle supplemental questions and operate across multiple channels 24/7 to minimize live agent interventions.

Because these integrations are already pre-built on the Bandwidth Maestro platform, they can speed enterprise IT development time from months to hours. In addition, enterprises can easily orchestrate complex call flows using Bandwidth Visual Builder, a software-based, low code/no code drag-and-drop call flow designer.

"Bandwidth Maestro is truly an innovative enterprise-class voice platform that, when paired with Cognigy.AI, will make conversational and generative AI more accessible and manageable enabling accelerated customer service transformation," said Hardy Myers, SVP of Business Development & Strategy at Cognigy.

"AI is transforming the customer service experience, and we're excited to partner with Bandwidth to bring its customers rich, intuitive customer conversations with the help of Google Cloud's conversational AI technology," said Yariv Adan, Sr. AI Director, Product Management, Google Cloud AI.

"Bandwidth AIBridge enables enterprises to make the transition from traditional IVR technologies to full-service conversational AI bot platforms, and move them in front of the contact center to operate 24/7/365," said John Bell, Bandwidth's Chief Product Officer. "It gets even better: using Bandwidth Visual Builder, there's no software coding necessary to compose and connect complex call flows for any contact center use case."

First announced in March, Bandwidth Maestro is a first-of-its-kind, next-generation enterprise cloud communications platform that enables IT teams to solve the key challenge of integrating best-in-class, real-time voice apps across their unified communications, cloud contact center, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning platforms. Unlike other vendors' walled gardens, Maestro's open, platform-agnostic approach is unique in the Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) space. It provides the crucial technology bridge enterprises need to create a modern customer experience (CX) stack without months of costly integration work––resulting in faster time to value and enhanced customer and employee experiences and loyalty. Maestro runs on the Bandwidth Communications Cloud, which reaches more than 65 countries and over 90 percent of global GDP.

Learn more about Bandwidth AIBridge and connect to talk with an expert here.

(1) Gartner, "Market Trend: Conversational AI for Agent Automation Delivers an Efficient Customer Contact Center Experience," Daniel O'Connell, Megan Fernandez, 14 June 2022.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

About Bandwidth Inc.
Bandwidth (NASDAQ: BAND) is a global cloud communications software company that helps enterprises deliver exceptional experiences through voice calling, text messaging and emergency services. Our solutions and our Communications Cloud, covering 65+ countries and over 90 percent of global GDP, are trusted by all the leaders in unified communications and cloud contact centers–including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, Google, Microsoft, RingCentral, Zoom, Genesys and Five9–as well as Global 2000 enterprises and SaaS builders like Docusign, Uber and Yosi Health. As a founder of the cloud communications revolution, we are the first and only global Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) to offer a unique combination of composable APIs, owner-operated network and broad regulatory experience. Our award-winning support teams help businesses around the world solve complex communications challenges to reach anyone, anywhere. For more information, visit bandwidth.com.

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SOURCE Bandwidth Inc.

Media Contact, David Doolittle, Bandwidth, ddoolittle@bandwidth.com