The startup uses AI to improve human capabilities, rather than replace agents with chabots

Contact center startup Observe.ai has raised $54 million in a Series B financing round, bringing the company’s total funding to $88 million.

The company develops AI call center software that transcribes and analyzes calls.

Observe.ai plans to use the funding to expand its go-to market programs, invest in R&D, and add new capabilities in real-time coaching, omnichannel support, and interaction analytics.

“Today’s contact center is mired with inefficient workflows and lack of data-driven training for frontline agents who represent the voice of the company,” said Swapnil Jain, CEO and co-founder of Observe.ai. “By leveraging AI to analyze customer interactions, businesses will turn their contact centers into growth centers. This latest round of funding is a direct result of the trust we’ve built with customers and investors, and the dedication of our team.”

AI as a coach

Observe.ai has added 20,000 agent licenses to its platform in the past 12 months, and counts Tripadvisor, Assurant, Root Insurance, Pearson, and Alcon Laboratories among its customers.

Its technology leverages AI to extract information from audio conversations, automatically identifying opportunities to improve the customer experience.

The AI system transcribes voice from millions of calls each week and selects terms specific to the business. It identifies silence during calls to identify where agents need more coaching.

During a call, the system can run sentiment analysis and send automatically-generated coaching messages to front-line staff.

The latest funding round was led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from Next47 Ventures, and NGP Capital.

“Menlo Ventures has been closely following the transformation of the customer service landscape,” said Steve Sloane, partner at Menlo Venture, who joins the Observe.ai board of directors. “We see a massive market opportunity to solve automation, data capture, and collaboration problems that prevent enterprises from delivering the kinds of support experiences that customers deserve.”