Leading conversational texting platform brings one of a kind, embedded SMS integration to HubSpot empowering HubSpot customers to text directly from workflows and contact records.

TextUs, the leading conversational texting platform has announced the release of its HubSpot integration, enabling users to send and receive two-way SMS from directly within HubSpot workflows and contact records.

The TextUs-HubSpot integration fulfills a unique need in the SMS space by allowing users to easily add texting to their automation workflows, enabling them to better nurture leads throughout their sales and marketing funnels.  Additionally, TextUs is the first SMS partner in the HubSpot marketplace to include embedded messenger capabilities, which allows users to utilize two-way text messaging directly from the HubSpot contact record.  Text messages are then logged back into the contact record as notes, so that users can easily track all conversations with leads, prospects and customers.

Key features of the HubSpot integration include:

• Build texts into HubSpot workflows. Customizable texts can be triggered automatically within HubSpot workflows that send from a text-enabled business phone number.
• Use Texts as Automation Triggers. Use logged inbound texts as triggers for other HubSpot actions, giving users more ways to build pipeline, nurture leads and convert at higher rates.
• Add Two-Way Texting to HubSpot. Easily respond to prospects and customers by texting them directly from HubSpot using the TextUs embedded messenger. 
• Easily resume conversations. Easily find and resume any conversation within the TextUs inbox, with clear indicators of which messages were sent from HubSpot workflows.
• Log conversations back to HubSpot. Texts are auto-logged text communications back into HubSpot for a single system of record.

As SMS has become the communication tool of choice for many businesses, TextUs has seen adoption of the medium expand.  In TextUs’ latest State of Texting report, they found text messaging to be the leading communication channel among those surveyed, outpacing email and phone by large margins.  Over 50% indicated text messaging was the most effective way to communicate in their business workflows.  Additionally, 62% of users indicate they are using text messaging multiple times per day.

“We are excited to announce the release of our HubSpot integration, which adds text communication throughout the Hubspot platform,” notes Megan Dumas, Product Marketing Manager at TextUs.  “By adding SMS to your automation workflows, we make it easy to drive higher response rates in a way that's scalable for your team while the embedded messenger puts one-to-one follow ups at your fingertips. This integration will unlock a ton of potential for anyone that uses HubSpot, with multiple ways to add touchpoints and nurture leads at any stage within your pipeline," she adds.

The TextUs integration to Hubspot is available to all Hubspot customers effective immediately.  As an authorized Hubspot marketplace partner, TextUs is easily searchable in the marketing and SMS categories.  Once a user has created a TextUs account, the integration is easily connected through the account settings on both platforms.

Survey also uncovers 63% of respondents distrust ChatGPT while 51% question AI's ability to improve internet safety

Malwarebytes, a global leader in real-time cyber protection, today released the results of its consumer pulse survey, exposing deep reservations about ChatGPT, with optimism in startlingly short supply.

"An AI revolution has been gathering pace for a very long time, and many specific, narrow applications have been enormously successful without stirring this kind of mistrust," said Mark Stockley, Cybersecurity Evangelist at Malwarebytes. "At Malwarebytes, Machine Learning and AI have been used for years to help improve efficiency, to identify malware and improve the overall performance of many technologies. However, public sentiment on ChatGPT is a different beast and the uncertainty around how ChatGPT will change our lives is compounded by the mysterious ways in which it works."

The survey findings indicate that ChatGPT has a trust issue. Only 10% surveyed agreed with the following statement, "I trust the information produced by ChatGPT," while 63% disagreed. Similar sentiment was held among respondents in relation to accuracy with only 12% agreeing with the statement, "the information produced by ChatGPT is accurate," while over half (55%) disagreed.

Beyond concerns around trust and accuracy, a resounding 81% of respondents believed ChatGPT could be a possible safety or security risk with 52% of respondents calling for a pause on ChatGPT work for regulations to catch up – echoing similar tech luminary concerns voiced earlier this year. 

Key Findings
Despite the avalanche of ChatGPT media coverage and online chatter, only 35% of respondents agreed with the statement "I am familiar with ChatGPT," significantly less than the 50% that disagreed.

Of those who said they were familiar with ChatGPT:

• 12% agree the information produced by ChatGPT is accurate
• 81% are concerned about possible security and safety risks
• 63% distrust ChatGPT information
• 51% question whether AI tools can improve internet safety 
• 52% want ChatGPT developments paused in order for regulations to catch up

eGain Corporation, the leading AI Knowledge platform for customer engagement automation, today announced the launch of a unique pilot program to help businesses adopt generative AI in a risk-free way—eGain® Innovation in 30 Days™ for Generative AI.

Unlike sandboxes and “toy” pilots, eGain Innovation in 30 Days™ is a guided innovation consumption model that is safe, easy, and risk-free. Businesses can experience the capabilities of generative AI within days. This disruptive offer includes:

• Your use case
  • Identify a high value/high impact use case to enable better CX and/or EX (employee experience) with generative AI
• Our pilot
  • Technology: GPT for generative AI, integrated with our award-winning AI knowledge platform
  • Deployment: eGain Cloud
  • Implementation: Two weeks of discovery, design, and configuration
  • Production: Two weeks of operation

The business can experience the generative AI and knowledge capability for two weeks in a production setting and decide to either move forward or quit with no strings attached—no cost, no catch, and no commitment!

“eGain Knowledge Hub orchestrates many AI technologies across the knowledge creation, delivery, and optimization process,” said Ashu Roy, eGain CEO. “This offer will focus on a compelling use-case for generative AI with a novel, risk-free approach to innovate with it boldly.”

New research from ebbo shows that 72% of consumers use 50% or less of their loyalty program memberships and offers insights as to why – and what brands can do about it.

Loyalty program membership has been on the rise for the past five years. The challenge is getting members to engage.

To better understand the impact of loyalty programs and how consumers feel about them, ebbo, a leading provider of end-to-end loyalty solutions, surveyed 2,500 U.S. consumers about the factors that drive their engagement, including what they value the most in loyalty programs and where these programs fail to meet their expectations.

ebbo’s research found that 81% of consumers agree that holding a loyalty program membership to a brand influences their likelihood of making a purchase from that brand. Yet 73% of consumers agree that their loyalty is more difficult for a retailer to maintain than ever before – up from 68% in 2022.

The data study dives deep into why there is an engagement gap in loyalty programs, where consumers feel programs fall short and their expectations and what successful loyalty programs will look like in the future.

Key findings from the data study include:

• 81% of consumers agree that holding a loyalty program membership to a brand influences their likelihood of making a purchase from that brand.
• 90% of consumers agree that in general, when it comes to being personalized to their preferences, most loyalty programs have room for improvement.
• 91% of consumers agree that many loyalty programs feel similar and are not that differentiated from other programs.
• The No. 1 reason consumers don’t sign up for a brand’s loyalty program: It requires too much effort/it’s time-consuming.
• 74% of consumers agree that they would engage more with brands that offered different tiers in their loyalty programs based on how much they spend per year.

“There has never been a more important time to double down on your loyalty strategy,” said Tyler Haskins, EVP of Marketing at ebbo. “It’s clear from the data that consumers are willing to join loyalty programs, but if you want them to engage, you have to stand out from your competitors and give your members what they expect. Offering more attainable rewards, more options on how to use their points and different tiers are great places to start.”

The most visited automotive shopping site in the U.S.¹ builds on its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to help shoppers discover their best-fit next car with greater ease

CarGurus , the No. 1 visited digital auto platform for shopping, buying, and selling new and used vehicles¹, today announced the release of the CarGurus ChatGPT plugin to help shoppers discover their ideal car match more efficiently. The tool integrates the power of generative artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance automotive search, providing shoppers a greater level of personalization and ease when exploring CarGurus’ extensive platform of listings.

With the CarGurus ChatGPT plugin, shoppers can now explore vehicle options on their own terms without being limited by specific search fields. Through ChatGPT, users can input conversational prompts that are broad — such as “Find me a fuel-efficient car under $25,000” — or more specific — “Show me SUVs near Boston with less than 20,000 miles” — to prompt the plugin to return the most relevant cars available on CarGurus.com. With the top recommendations at hand, shoppers can then evaluate vehicle details by clicking through to the CarGurus platform.

“The car shopping process can be both exhilarating and daunting, especially for those who aren’t sure of the make or model they’d like to buy. The CarGurus ChatGPT plugin provides users with an alternative way to explore our comprehensive vehicle information, enabling shoppers to tailor their search journey beyond specific criteria to discover an ideal match that might not have been on their radar initially,” said Matt Quinn, Chief Technology Officer at CarGurus. “As the first major U.S. online automotive marketplace² to enter the conversational search arena in this way, the CarGurus ChatGPT plugin represents the latest step in our ongoing focus to leverage emerging technology to improve the car shopping, buying, and selling experience for consumers and dealers.”

CarGurus has utilized machine learning algorithms for many years to better serve customers and optimize operations. For example, AI underpins the platform’s vehicle recommendation engine, its Instant Market Value tool, and on-site merchandising to create a more personalized experience for users. With advancements in generative AI, CarGurus will continue to evaluate best use cases as part of a longstanding focus on using the power of technology to deliver a more seamless and personalized experience across the automotive journey.

New solution helps businesses consolidate product reviews with their first party data under one platform, creating a seamless and unified post-purchase journey

Klaviyo, a marketing automation and customer data platform that drives revenue growth for businesses of all sizes, today announced the launch of Klaviyo reviews. Announced at K:LDN, Klaviyo’s second annual ecommerce summit, Klaviyo reviews enables Shopify merchants to collect product reviews with their customer data and messaging in one platform, leading to a more seamless customer experience, more accurate reporting, and time saved through application consolidation.

Reviews continue to be an integral part of the online shopping experience. According to a 2022 study, 95% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase.

“Product reviews are a huge part of a buyer’s purchasing decision, but collecting great reviews while providing a seamless customer journey can be surprisingly hard to achieve,” said Ed Hallen, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Klaviyo. “Most brands don’t have the time to research and integrate the right reviews, shipment tracking, email, SMS and mobile push notification solutions, which leads to double-sending, subpar email designs and poorly timed requests coming out of different platforms. With this launch, we’re rethinking what’s possible with product reviews and helping businesses double down on customer loyalty and drive more sales.”

Klaviyo reviews makes it easier for brands to set up a unified post-purchase journey, from the moment of purchase to rewarding reviewers with coupons, all from the same platform where brands’ customer data and communications are already stored and accessible. Klaviyo reviews allows businesses to:

• Consolidate their tech stack: Klaviyo reviews helps businesses consolidate their tech stack so they don’t need to juggle multiple log-ins, pull separate reports, and manage different platforms for real-time shipment tracking and reviews, email, SMS and mobile push, saving them time and resources.
• Personalize data: All the data – from when a package is shipped to what a customer said in their review – lives in Klaviyo profiles and events, so businesses can create segments of their biggest advocates, and proactively offer help to those who had a poor experience.
• Send messages at the right time: Klaviyo reviews leverages real-time shipment tracking data from carriers to ensure that review requests are sent only to customers who have actually received their product.
• Easily set-up and deploy: Businesses can simply install the Klaviyo widget, customize their flow, and immediately start collecting reviews. If businesses need to migrate existing reviews into Klaviyo, they can do so with a CSV import of all review data. The widget also provides easy-to-use and mobile-friendly review capture with options for text and photos.
• Automate review requests: Shoppers can leave reviews that are published to a businesses’ website with Klaviyo’s one-click experience, which is fluid and mobile-first from an email or SMS. Messages are automatically sent via Klaviyo flows, so it’s easy to use and powerfully customizable.

“With other solutions, you get the out-of-the-box review request and referral flows, but you can't set all the rules and filters and triggers that you can with Klaviyo,” said Joel Shetterly, Chief Marketing Officer of Compass Coffee. “Klaviyo wins on the customizability of the review collection correspondence.”

Hypefactors is pleased to announce that the planned advanced automated solution for processing printed news (from newspapers and magazines) will be launched as planned at 31 July 2023. The unique AI program enables Hypefactors to deliver a magnitude larger print coverage than any competitor within media intelligence, and to deliver a superior solution to large enterprises with cross-border media presence.

In October 2022, Hypefactors kicked off a 10-months AI development project named 'New Print PDF Processing Program'. The special AI effort was backed by the Innovation Fund Denmark with a grant of DKK 988,575 and was set to be finalized at the end of July 2023.

The AI development stages have been successfully completed and the AI program is confirmed to be launched as expected. It will benefit current and new clients. Hypefactors is exploring additional global business and partnership opportunities for this unique AI solution.

The AIs developed in New Print PDF Processing Program are uniquely superior for its multi-lingual and multi-modal qualities: It includes an encoder design also found in modern generative AIs like ChatGPT, and is combined with computer vision algorithms and an automated reasoning engine also found for development of safety-critical systems such as satellites. This rare mixture of technologies yields a unique technology asset whose roots stem from the project's leader, CTO Viet Yen Nguyen’s extensive scientific background in systems design and applied AI.

New capabilities enable organizations to unleash AI-powered automation to targeted business challenges

UiPath, a leading enterprise automation software company, today announced its latest AI-powered automation features that accelerate customers’ ability to discover, automate, and operate automations at scale through Generative AI and Specialized AI.

According to a recent report by McKinsey on the economic impact of Generative AI, automation potential has accelerated and Generative AI has increased the total percentage of hours that could theoretically be automated by integrating technologies that exist today from about 50 percent to 60–70 percent. The UiPath Business Automation Platform is adding more AI offerings with Generative AI, including the general availability of OpenAI and Azure OpenAI connectors with support for GPT-4. UiPath customers are already using the OpenAI connector to extend automation deeper into business operations and turn data into actionable insights.

“Using the UiPath OpenAI connector, we can leverage GPT models to prewrite responses to customer inquiries, or for summarizing and distilling longer documents into key points. This is an asset when faced with character limits or size constraints,” said Aaron Phillips, Manager of Intelligent Automation at Reveal Group.

In addition, UiPath is announcing support for the Falcon Large Language Model (LLM) via its AWS SageMaker connector, and the preview of the Google Vertex connector with support for PaLM 2.

UiPath has been working on AI for many years. Its Specialized AI solutions include over 70 models that enable customers to understand screens, mine tasks, process documents, and utilize unique and proprietary data sets within enterprise workflows. Specialized AI can be securely trained with a customer’s data and optimized for its specific needs, resulting in fast, accurate, and tailored solutions that are cost-effective to operate and that deliver high value outcomes.

UiPath is continuing to make significant advancements in Specialized AI, refining its industry-leading solutions such as Document Understanding and Communications Mining by incorporating GPT-based technologies. Communications Mining is using GPT to generate suggestions for labels, which speeds up the model training process to allow for faster deployment and faster time-to-value. Similarly, GPT is being used in Document Understanding to improve classification and pre-labeling.

“AI technologies are at the core of the UiPath Business Automation Platform, and we are excited to extend the capabilities of our enterprise automation with new Generative AI and Specialized AI offerings,” said Graham Sheldon, Chief Product Officer at UiPath. “UiPath is uniquely able to combine our understanding of screens, documents, tasks, and processes with the intelligence of Generalized AI to watch work happen, understand what is being done, and automate it in our platform. Only when AI is combined with enterprise automation, to provide context and take appropriate action, will companies realize the complete value.”

In addition to these new features, UiPath has also announced the preview availability of Clipboard AI for finance teams. Clipboard AI is an offering that uses UiPath AI Computer Vision and Generative AI to easily transfer data between documents, spreadsheets, and apps, understand the content, and automatically insert the data in the right places. The preview for finance teams is designed to help them effectively and efficiently manage invoicing across numerous finance platforms.

UiPath announced the features during Europe’s largest automation and AI conference, TOGETHER London. The event is taking place today at the Intercontinental O2 in London with 600 automation professionals gathering for a full day of sessions showcasing how AI-powered automation delivers cost transformation, profitable growth, and increased customer and employee engagement across the enterprise. Customers such as British Airways, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Flutter UKI, NatWest Group, and IAG Tech are presenting on how AI-powered automation is helping their companies grow and create better customer and employee experiences.