Conversational artificial intelligence company Uniphore has raised $51 million in its most recent funding round, the latest step in the firm's plans to incorporate its tech throughout the customer service sector.
"Bringing AI into the call centers is one of the biggest disruptions that we're going to see in the next three to five years in the tech space," CEO Umesh Sachdev told Cheddar.
Sachdev claimed Uniphore's AI isn't intended to target call center jobs. A short question or after-hours call could be handled by a bot, he said, while a human call could handle more complex programs.
"This is an industry which has traditionally employed millions of people. Businesses look at this as a tremendous amount of cost in servicing customers, but also a way of differentiating customer experience," said Sachdev.
"The big point I'm making is that the consumer demands and expectations are shifting to be able to reach these brands either through bots or human beings," he said. "The choice shouldn't be with the enterprise. The choice should be with the consumer."
Sachev's company is one of a growing number of tech companies selling AI systems built for customer service, which include IBM and Google.
But there's growing concern that call center jobs could be outsourced to automation and artificial intelligence. For instance, the BBC reported last year that the British retail chain Marks & Spencer had transferred customer service calls for all 640 of its stores to an artificial intelligence-based system, moving its call center staff to other roles.
Sachdev asserted that "This is one where AI will have a major impact, but not one where it's going to have an impact on people losing their jobs."
He claimed that artificial intelligence can handle repetitive tasks, but that call center workers will transition to become "knowledge workers."
"We will quickly move to a point where the human beings who work in call centers — because of their native knowledge, because of their training or time — they will become knowledge workers," he said, saying that those individuals will take on roles that train and analyze the artificial intelligence systems that call centers might use.
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
The stunning indictment that led to the arrest of more than 30 people — including Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and other NBA figures — has drawn new scrutiny of the booming business of sports betting in the U.S. The multibillion-dollar industry has made it easy for sports fans — and even some players — to wager on everything from the outcome of games to that of a single play with just a few taps of a cellphone. But regulating the rapidly-growing industry has proven to be a challenge. Professional sports leagues’ own role in promoting gambling has also raised eyebrows.
At the core of the ongoing government shutdown is a fight over the decision to end subsidies that let some 12 million Americans get health coverage.
Tesla, the car company run by Elon Musk, reported Wednesday that it sold more vehicles in the past three months after boycotts hit hard earlier this year, but profits still fell sharply. Third-quarter earnings fell to $1.4 billion, from $2.2 billion a year earlier. Excluding charges, per share profit of 50 cents came in below analysts' estimate. Tesla shares fell 3.5% in after-hours trading. Musk said the company's robotaxi service, which is available in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, will roll out to as many as 10 other metro areas by the end of the year.
