Tonight, at the NZ Compare Awards, New Zealand’s best products and services in power, broadband and mobile will be recognised. These Awards, now in their sixth year, are judged by industry professionals and consumers. They recognise both the individual performance of retailers but also the growing sophistication of customer service among essential services providers.
When you invite 110+ retailers with host Juanita Neville Te-Rito, CEO of the RX Group, it’s always going to be a super-charged experience. We met to explore the changing face of retail and CX - the headline considerations, the sector decelerators and other reflections on the industry. From the keynotes, it is clear that the world's current climate particularly the Covid pandemic, geo-economic political factors and growing environmental concerns are having a big impact on the way people live and shop.
By integrating Zapier and Make with your Digital Employee, you'll be able to automate and customise manual business tasks, lead generation workflows, notifications, and more.
NZ Post has deployed its first digital employee, a smart chatbot named Koa, using Ambit’s conversational AI platform. The chatbot allows small or home-based business customers in the My NZ Post Business portal to receive an immediate response, at any time of day, to commonly asked questions, freeing up the Customer Care team to solve more complex queries.
Ambit is very proud to be Gold Sponsor of the NZCompare Awards taking place on 1 December at Aotea Centre, Auckland.
The NZ Compare Awards provide an annual opportunity to recognise excellence and achievement across the broadband, energy and mobile sectors in New Zealand.
We've sponsored the Best Customer Support - Power award and look forward to finding out who the winner is.
Richard Pratley has joined Ambit, the conversational artificial intelligence platform, as General Manager of Sales. Pratley is an experienced leader of high-tech software, product and services businesses across New Zealand and Europe.
"How can we do business if our stores are closed?" This was a question Dylan Weymouth, GM of Group Business Operations at The Warehouse Group asked Ambit CEO Tim Warren back in early March 2020, days before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Little did we know how true Dylan's words would be when COVID-19 arrived in New Zealand and stores nationwide were forced to shut down. With customer service centres fast being inundated with thousands of enquiries, businesses had to figure out a solution fast.
Ambit, the conversational artificial intelligence platform, has raised NZ$1M to accelerate expansion into Australia where it is targeting new clients in the retail, utilities and financial services sectors.
"You don't know AI." That's the provocative and fascinating statement Tim Warren, Ambit CEO, recently presented at the Research Association Conference and the iMedia Brand Summit. He goes on to discuss how artificial intelligence isn't something that's far away in the future, and how more and more marketing content is now being generated by AI with the oversight of humans.
GoSee, the global travel eCommerce business and a Webjet company, is relying more and more on their intelligent digital agent, powered by conversational AI from Ambit, to engage with international customers as it rebuilds from the pandemic. GoSee’s digital employee, Scout, enables customers to self-serve more of their booking journey for rental cars and motorhomes, allowing contact centre agents to focus on more complex queries.
Bright and early on May 17, we decked the halls of the Grid Auckland in orange and had our first in-person event of 2022 as part of Techweek NZ: a panel discussion with customer experience leaders Sarah Gunn from TheMarket, Mandy Tomlinson (formerly of Laybuy,) and Richard Fuli from GoSee, facilitated by Ambit’s CEO, Tim Warren.
Each of them shared their thoughts and experiences on digital employees and how they contribute and make a difference to their customer experience and their overall business.
Here are a few key takeaways from the event.
New Zealand’s leading Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) provider Laybuy has successfully launched Ambit’s conversational AI platform as its newest digital employee ‘Hugo’, a move that will significantly improve customer experience and help support Laybuy’s continued international growth.
Auckland, 13th April 2022 - Ambit, the conversational AI platform, has joined the Amazon Web Services independent software vendor (ISV) Accelerate Program, a move designed to further boost international sales.
The beginning of April marks Ambit's 5th birthday!
We sat down with CEO Tim Warren to talk about the company's journey over the years, what some of the key highlights have been, and what's in store for the future of Ambit and conversational AI.
Virtual Vet Nurse, the New Zealand-based veterinary practice technology company, today launched ‘Sophie’, a digital human, allowing pet owners to access credible health and nutrition advice directly from clinics’ websites. Available from today, selected practises across New Zealand and Australia will be the first in the world to employ a digital human to efficiently meet the information needs of pet owners, including new pet-owning millennials.
Senior cloud executive Dave Howden has been appointed an Independent Director of Ambit, the conversational AI platform.
Today, personalised automation and customised online shopping experiences are vital to the success of any business' customer experience – and it's a necessity in today's increasingly competitive landscape.
Take a look under the hood of most businesses that use chatbots and AI-driven interactions, and you'll see that many of them are not utilising the full capabilities of deep-level personalisation that most customers now expect.
In this blog, you'll learn why personalised automation is crucial in this highly competitive world, why you need to personalise and customise a digital employee for optimal customer experience, and learn what the difference between the two is.
If you want to cut to the chase and see what an Ambit Digital Employee can do for your business, have a chat to sales here.
As businesses shift their products and services online, your company needs to meet the demands of your customers and provide excellent customer service to them at any time of day.
In this blog, you'll learn how powerful digital employees (or virtual assistants) serve and manage customers with ease, maintain positive relationships with your current existing customers and foster strong bonds with new ones.
If you want to learn more about digital employees and what they can do for your business, have a chat to sales here!
The holiday season is here and as a retailer, you need to have the right tactics in place to boost your sales.
In this blog, we reveal 5 omni-channel strategies that do exactly that and make it easy for your team to manage the busy season. If you want to learn how a digital employee can make this even easier, have a chat to sales here!
When people think of Artificial Intelligence, the image most likely to come to mind might be computers playing chess, or a time-travelling robots.
Auckland, 12th November 2021 - Pulse Energy has added a conversational AI chatbot from Ambit to its customer service team, part of a strategy to provide exceptional customer service through innovation.
And how virtual assistants set your business up for success
Historically, companies have always asked customers to do business their way. Nowadays, the boot is on the other foot and customers are the ones demanding that businesses make their journey a more pleasant experience.
We've seen the shift in recognition of the value of customer experience and the return on investment that it's brought to companies who've taken notice.
Virtual agents, AI-powered virtual assistants, intelligent chatbots, digital sales and support bots... explained
Intelligent virtual agents (or digital employees as we refer to them at Ambit,) are computer programs that leverage a mix of programmed rules and conversational artificial intelligence in order to offer a simple service or provide basic help.
Digital Employees make the customer support experience seamless
With the holidays just around the corner, retail businesses are bracing themselves for a surge in online orders. With this surge in sales, companies expect a flood of unmanageable customer support enquiries.
There are three major reasons why AI-powered agents (or digital employees as we like to call them at Ambit) are crucial to customer support over the Christmas season. Let's dive into that now.
This October, Ambit hosted the online 10/10/10 Q&A event.
During this event our Sales Lead, Melisa Shore, and Business Development Manager, Dion Edmonds, answered your burning questions that you wanted to know about digital employees. Here is a complete guide to all the questions and answers from the day.
Southern Cross Travel Insurance (Southern Cross or SCTI) has launched a conversational AI chatbot in preparation for a post-COVID-19 rebound in tourism and subsequent increase in travel bookings.
Everything you need to know about Conversational AI
In this blog we will unpack what conversational artificial intelligence (AI) is, how it works, and how your business can implement it.
If your business is ready to take conversational AI to the next level or you want to learn more about what it can bring to your company, this blog will guide you through everything from the basics of what an ai-powered chatbot is, drill down to benefits that both you and your customers can enjoy, and where this technology can deliver the most value to your business.
Some of the common questions we'll address are:
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- What is conversational AI and how does it work?
- What is meant by conversational AI?
- Why is conversational AI important?
- How do you implement conversational AI?
We’ve all heard the age-old saying, ‘it’s cheaper to retain a customer than it is to acquire a new one.’
This has never been truer than today where it’s easier than ever for customers to switch KiwiSaver providers. With so many providers available - once a customer is gone, they’re almost impossible to claw back.
Ambit Launches Conversational AI Platform in AWS Marketplace, Enabling More Businesses to Deploy an AI Chatbot.
Conversational AI platform Ambit is preparing a Series A raise to support international market validation, expansion, and hiring new team members.
Enterprise grade chatbot platform helps businesses deploy a digital assistant to their website.
Auckland, New Zealand - 30 June, 2020 - Vodafone New Zealand today announced an exclusive partnership with Ambit to bring their enterprise grade chatbot platform underpinned by AI and natural language processing, designed to deliver 24/7 personalised customer service, to its contact centre customers across Aotearoa.
As more and more consumers shop online, businesses must find new and innovative ways to improve the buying experience for end customers. One way to do this is with AI chatbots.
Incorporating AI-powered chatbots into online experiences gives marketers a greater range of options for serving customers – from fast, accurate, and consistent, to more nuanced and empathetic, depending on their need.
This week's article is a guest blog written by Maja Talevska of ReviewMoose.
The millennial generation (those born between 1981 and 1996) are, in size, larger than any other adult cohort.
In 2020 approximately 1.8 billion, or 23% of the global population belonged to the millennial generation.
As consumers seek out more personalised experiences online, retailers must find strategies for technology to take the volume while people take care of the value.
Forrester predicts more than 25% of all US retail sales to occur online by 2024, a figure which poses a real challenge to retailers to change their business model to deliver world-class customer experiences at that scale.
Chatbots are the talk of the town. They’re one of the hottest topics in the technology world today.
Like any new technology, much of the fact and fiction gets jumbled up. This leads to a number of myths and misconceptions that sway popular opinion, particularly among decision makers.
Release date: 11 March, 2021
Bot name: Lee
Auckland, New Zealand - 12 March, 2020 - Over 160,000 families around the world rely on Little Ones’ expertly crafted programmes to achieve better sleep and nutrition for their children. Parents access their program information, and a pay-walled community called, “The Village” where they chat with other parents and a fully remote, trained team of sleep consultants.
Businesses are now expected to respond to and solve customer queries instantly to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Customers no longer wait for businesses to respond. They need their answers, and they need them now.
Businesses need to evolve to meet changing customer demands. They also need to scale their operations to cope with the increasing volume of customer engagement through digital channels.
The ways customers interact with businesses have drastically changed in previous years.
From the early days of face-to-face interactions, phone calls and contact centres, the customer service experience has evolved exponentially.
Shifts in consumer behaviour and advancements in technology are both catalysts for change.
Experts predict that 85% of customer interactions will be handled without human agents in 2021, the vast majority of those handled by chatbots and virtual assistants.
Why? The traditional means of servicing customers struggle to provide the type of experience that modern consumers demand. Customers now expect a faster, more engaging, and personalised level of service than ever before.
Chatbots, or Digital Employee's as they’re also called, is capable of having thousands of simultaneous conversations with a variety of different users.
That’s a lot of information gathered about your customers’ needs and wants.
In a world that’s ruled by data, that information is a golden opportunity to improve the way you interact and engage with both potential and existing customers.
As consumer behaviours change and become more digitally orientated, retailers must evolve the way they interact with and support their customers, or risk being left behind.
Leading retailers are turning to artificial intelligence and automation to streamline customer service processes amidst a growing increase in digital-based customer enquiries.
With the complete absence of face-to-face customer interaction that has occurred as a result of COVID-19, many companies have been forced to rethink their strategy and many are making a complete shift to servicing customers digitally.
Auckland, New Zealand - 12 MAY, 2020 - New Zealand veterinary clinics coping with Covid-19 conditions now have access to a Digital Employee – one that’s willing to work 24/7 without a break.
The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly thrust digital transformation to the forefront of business needs.
Ambit has made available a COVID-19 advice chatbot at cost. This will be centrally maintained and updated as required. Various options are available. Please contact us if you would like to know more.
Ambit recently featured in NZ Business Magazine where Tim Dacombe-Bird, NZ Country Manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS), was interviewed. He calls out Ambit as an example of a Kiwi tech startup achieving rapid growth and success leveraging AWS services in the build of our leading Conversational AI platform.
AUCKLAND, New Zealand - December 10, 2019 - Parents will soon get easier access to advice provided by clinical psychologists Nigel Latta and Natalie Flynn thanks to a new partnership with New Zealand tech company Ambit. The relationship will see Ambit’s conversation platform used in the new Parentland app to be launched early next year.
Ambit Co-founder, Josh Comrie, recently sat down with AI Time Journal to share his insights on how enterprises can start their Conversational AI strategies by identifying the pain points in their business processes and interact with their customers using virtual agents and chatbots.
Auckland, 1 November 2019 – Technology Investment Network (TIN) has named Ambit one of the top ten most promising NZX Early Stage Companies featured in this year’s TIN Report, launched at a gala awards event in Auckland.
Despite acknowledging the value that AI technology has to offer, stats suggest many enterprise organisations are still lagging behind in its adoption.
Auckland, New Zealand - 11 September, 2019 - Conversational artificial intelligence (CAI) company, Ambit, is partnering with Reobot Limited, who have created a conversational chat experience to help kiwis improve and practise te reo Māori.
The early emergence of Artificial Intelligence is largely credited to computer scientist Alan Turing, who, in 1950, developed the not-so-creatively coined Turing Test. This ‘human evaluator’ was designed to test a machine’s ability to demonstrate intelligent behaviour to the point that it was indistinguishable from that of a human.
A chatbot’s personality forms the basis for the “human” user experience. From start to finish, the way a bot says hello and the way it responds to our frustrations can be phrased in many different ways.
Millennials — yeah, those young, entitled and easily offended people you see on their phones 24/7 who use different acronyms every quarter (I think this one is GOAT; “Greatest Of All Time”) and still live with their parents.
There’s two strongly recurring themes in the myriad of conversations I’m having with people about artificial intelligence. The first is pervasive interest. I’ve worked in technology for almost 20 years, and nothing until now has generated both the level of interest – and debate.
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has made a change that fundamentally shifts the offering of financial advice in New Zealand enabling personalised robo-advice. This move allows for comprehensive disruption of the sector via new and innovative means of delivering advice.
With the elections behind us, and a newly installed government making pledges to spend taxpayer dollars, it’s time to discuss how AI will fundamentally change one of the biggest issues we face as a society right now.
Chatbots in the West are a relatively new phenomenon.
Facebook launched their chatbot platform for Messenger in April 2016, shortly after Microsoft announced support for chatbots in Skype. Apple was even later to the party, announcing their Business Chat platform a few months ago.
However, as is more often becoming the norm, the West was soundly beaten by the East in this innovation.
Trust. The key to a perfect relationship. In a world where knowledge is power, consumers are more and more concerned with their data. (Emphasis on the ‘their’).
I just watched the film “Multiplicity” from back in the 90s.
It’s a story about a guy who had too much on his plate. Menial activities like work and admin kept him away from his wife, his family, and other things he was passionate about.
So when he found a way to clone himself, he proceeded to do just that.
The IDC FutureScape’s digital transformation predictions for 2019 present a list of implications for New Zealand and global businesses.
I love tech. I live and breathe it; from my meditation device that tracks my heart-rate variability, to my heavy app consumption, to the amazing drift button in my car. I love the sweet sauce it brings to my life. To support it, I’ve invested in over 20 hi-tech businesses and grown countless others.
Conversational user experiences (UX) take a lot of work. There’s a reason many state “I’m like a child and just learning”, whilst endeavouring to deliver adult grade conversation within months or even weeks of birth.
Building and training your virtual employee (VE) chatbot is a vital step in adopting AI within your business. Just as important, is ensuring the adoption of it by your staff (for internal VEs), and awareness of it among your customers (for external VEs).
Siri, Alexa, Cortana, Bixby, and Google Assistant. While they all sound like members of a snazzy female pop group (keep up Google!), these are names we will all be speaking to every day. And more often than to our spouse according to Gartner!
That’s an obviously nonsensical leading statement. Why on earth would you build your own CRM in today’s everything-as-a-service world? You just wouldn’t, would you? Not now anyway — 20 and score years ago, you probably would have, but not any longer.
So, in the same vein, why would you build your own Conversational AI Platform?
Negotiations are a part of our everyday life.
From negotiating with your boss for a higher salary to negotiating with your two-year-old to finish her food, negotiations dictate the big and small decisions of our lives.
Negotiations require knowledge, linguistic expertise, tactic, and emotion. It is a part of our daily social interaction which makes it an inherently human/biological trait.
The future is bright for Conversational AI, despite its tentative progress: people overhype innovation when it first arrives but underestimate it once progressed over a few years.
Unless you’ve been actively ignoring it, or live in Pyongyang, I suspect you’ll have either read, heard about or seen the naysaying predictions about how AI is going to replace humans, and do us all out of a job. The truth is that none of us really know. The future is literally imaginary.
In an interview with Tim Warren, CEO and Co-Founder of Ambit, we explore the reasons integrating digital employees into your workforce will help you reduce costs, accelerate your teams’ productivity, and deliver unrivaled customer experience.
Chatbots, AI, and finance. There is something exciting about being at the very beginning of a new era in technology. I’ve been here before. I was one of the first staff members of an Internet company, Qbik, in 1996.
When you hear the term ‘chatbot’ you’re probably thinking about janky, unreliable experiences which clutter website interfaces.
We’ve all been frustrated by digital conversations had with someone that is clearly non-human.
After helping over 100 NZ organisations design chatbots – we’ve learnt a thing or two!
Here are my top tips for creating a great human-centred chatbot.
Chatbots provide a new kind of user interface to computer software. Rather than navigating with menus and buttons on a mobile or desktop device, a user has a conversation with a bot.
Tower Insurance officially announced their chatbot, Charlie, into the world. I have been an integral part of Charlie’s growing up process and I can’t wait to share the excitement!
Using machine learning hides what the software is really doing, but maybe that’s nothing new…
Artificial Intelligence (AI), and in particular machine learning, is getting no shortage of mainstream media coverage these days.
Context is everything. You don’t just walk up to someone and just start telling them about your new mobile phone deal or that Gartner predicts people will talk to bots more than their spouse by 2020.
Emerging technologies are shaping every single aspect of the way any modern business operates. So, it’s not a big surprise that chatbots are becoming an essential content marketing tool. Intelligent bots literally take content creation and distribution to the next level.