AffinityX, a global partner for building, deploying, and scaling creative and marketing campaigns across digital and print platforms for businesses of all sizes, has announced that as part of their ongoing commitment to delivering cutting-edge marketing solutions and support, they are proud to launch Chat to Conversion, a generative AI-powered tool designed to help businesses engage with customers and track conversions across multiple channels, 24/7.

Today's customers demand seamless and tailored experiences, which means local businesses currently face the challenge of engaging with customers across multiple touchpoints and channels during all times of the day and need intelligent solutions for customer engagement and conversion tracking beyond traditional website forms.

With Chat to Conversion, businesses can easily engage with their customers in real-time, converting casual visitors into leads and customers. The tool leverages generative artificial intelligence (AI) to provide responses to questions based on content found on the website, helping businesses streamline customer engagement and support, and providing a seamless experience for users across the business website, SMS, Facebook, Google Business, and phone calls while capturing valuable lead information and freeing up staff to focus on higher-level tasks. In addition, Chat to Conversion offers channel-specific customer experiences to create unique customer engagement touchpoints, helping local businesses continually optimize their customer experiences and turn conversations into conversions.

Key Features and Benefits of the Tool Include:

• Integrations across multiple channels (Website, Facebook, voice, SMS, and Google Business)
• Channel-specific customer experiences
• Knowledge base configured for the accurate details of your business
• Increased efficiencies in customer communication and lead capture
• Unlimited customer conversations handled at once, 24/7
• Real-time tracking in a unified inbox

"We are proud to introduce Chat to Conversion as the latest addition to our suite of innovative solutions," said AffinityX's head of Product Marketing, Amanda McGinnis. "Our goal is to provide the best customer experience possible and this tool enables our clients to help local business make their conversations with customers easier and more productive."

Chat to Conversion is a cost-effective way for local businesses to increase the efficiency and quality of customer interactions, improving customer engagement, offering better lead qualification processes, enhancing user experiences, and increasing conversions. It is available for companies looking to streamline their digital marketing efforts and drive sales.

Unbounce, a trailblazing force in marketing technology innovation, is excited to announce the launch of "Unprompted" an all-new podcast hosted by Chief Marketing Officer, Pete Housley. Unprompted will bring together a diverse lineup of guests who will explore the ways in which artificial intelligence is transforming the world of digital marketing, dissecting the possibilities, challenges, and ethical considerations surrounding the technology’s impact on the industry.

Poised to become an essential resource for marketers seeking to gain a competitive edge in today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, Unprompted will be the first podcast of its kind to not only spotlight the latest and greatest AI use cases for marketers, but also delve into real life outcomes from deployments. From creating an entire marketing campaign in 24 hours using nothing but AI-powered tools, to discussing how the technology might evolve over coming years, Unprompted leaves no stone unturned in its exploration of AI and marketing.

Engaging conversations and thought-provoking interviews with top marketing experts, marketing industry thought leaders, and successful entrepreneurs, will explore topics ranging from limitless content generation, to performance marketing, conversion intelligence, landing pages, disruptive brand building and the potential dystopian nightmare of job displacement. Housley and guests will thoughtfully assess the rampant AI conversation, and seek to debunk myths, unravel hype, and provide global marketers with essential insights to navigate this rapidly evolving landscape. He will also equip listeners with actionable tactics to achieve exceptional results through uncovering the secrets behind some of the world’s most successful marketing campaigns.

"We are thrilled to introduce Unprompted to marketers around the world," said Pete Housley, Chief Marketing Officer of Unbounce. "In this unique period of change for marketers and rapid evolution of the industry as a whole, staying ahead and delivering results requires constant innovation and a deep understanding of what truly is driving trends and behaviors. With Unprompted, we plan to venture into the fascinating world of AI marketing, addressing the wonders, the weirdness, and the genuine concerns, all while providing actionable guidance for marketers to effectively harness the power of this technology."

As Chief Marketing Officer of Unbounce, Pete Housley has solidified his position as a performance and data driven executive with a track record of success. With a distinguished career spanning multiple sectors, including commerce, hospitality, and consumer goods, Housley has consistently demonstrated his ability to revolutionize brands and achieve exponential growth. Notably, as Chief Revenue Officer at INDOCHINO from 2015-2021, his strategic and operational leadership contributed to a remarkable period of growth and creative innovation.

The leading AI photo-editing app will use Google Cloud's ability to scale large AI models to help more businesses take advantage of the opportunities generative AI offers, by enabling them to create high-quality images faster than ever before

PhotoRoom, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based photo editing app designed for e-commerce businesses, announced a new partnership with Google Cloud today. PhotoRoom will use the power of Google Cloud A3 instances based on NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs), and its expertise in scaling large AI models, to offer studio-quality images to more businesses than ever before.

As a result, PhotoRoom will be able to increase the speed of content delivered to its customers and maintain its position as the fastest generative AI provider in the commerce space, reducing the time needed to create product content from days to less than an hour–without compromising accuracy or quality. Small businesses and entrepreneurs will benefit from PhotoRoom's speed and scale by significantly reducing the time and costs requested to produce and edit commercial photography.

"We're already processing 2 billion images per year, and we expect that to double in 2024, as more businesses adopt PhotoRoom's generative AI technology. We clearly need a partner who can help us scale and meet the needs of our customers over the next few years," said Matthieu Rouif, CEO of PhotoRoom. "Google Cloud fits perfectly with PhotoRoom's growth philosophy and provides the ideal foundation for our continued success with its capacity to scale, its flexibility, and its sustainable infrastructure. We are thrilled to work with this generative AI pioneer as we realize our vision of making amazing product photography available to everyone."

Generative AI presents incredible opportunities for small businesses. Partnering with Google Cloud is one of the steps PhotoRoom is taking to provide its customers with quality images at an affordable price. This partnership builds on the recent launch of PhotoRoom's Instant Backgrounds and Instant Shadows features, which use AI to enhance product shots. With these product developments, PhotoRoom aims to expand the use of generative AI and make it more accessible to smaller businesses and entrepreneurs: allowing them to imagine new business opportunities with breakthrough technology.

Since the beginning of the year, numerous companies using PhotoRoom have shared their feedback on improved performance and efficiencies. For example, Campsider, a marketplace for second-hand equipment and clothing, saw a 15% decrease in their Google Ads CPC (cost-per-click) since they started using PhotoRoom to edit their product images.

"Google's long-term focus on AI and investments in infrastructure are unlocking the full potential of generative AI for businesses and individuals alike," said Mark Lohmeyer, vice president and general manager, Google Cloud. "We're thrilled to offer Google Cloud's industry leading infrastructure, foundation models and AI tooling to PhotoRoom so the company can build, train, and deploy AI creatively, reliably and at scale."

Downloaded more than 10 million times globally from mobile app stores and with a review score of 4.7 out of 5 on the Google Play Store, PhotoRoom will increase its servers' processing power thanks to Google Cloud and will further support small businesses around the world.

With this addition, the human intelligence-powered advertising automation platform offers cross-channel optimization

 Shirofune, the #1 digital automated advertising management tool in Japan used by leading brands such as Dentsu and Rakuten, is pleased to announce its compatibility with Google Analytics 4 (GA4), in addition to its existing support for Universal Analytics (UA)/legacy Google Analytics.

Starting July 1, 2023 Shirofune will continue to integrate with both UA and GA4, allowing the seamless generation of consolidated reports combining data from both measurement sources.

With the integration of GA4, Shirofune enables cross-channel optimization of advertising campaigns and the creation of consolidated reports. After July 1, 2023, Shirofune will automatically acquire GA4's conversion measurement data, including historical data, and integrate it with delivery data from various advertising channels. This integration enables automated bid optimization and report generation across multiple channels.

By connecting both UA and GA4, users can easily create seamless reports that incorporate past performance data from UA. This will be particularly useful for analyzing differences in evaluation between media/campaigns due to variations in measurement methods between UA and GA4, as well as for reporting and analysis that span measurement periods in UA and GA4.

Traditionally, it was necessary to create separate reports for UA and GA4 and compare them manually. Now, Shirofune eliminates the need for this manual process by seamlessly connecting both data sources and generating integrated reports. This makes it easier to compare measurement data from the same period in UA and GA4, as well as to compare past performance data from UA with current performance data from GA4.

Key Features of Shirofune's GA4 Integration:

• Easy integration of delivery data from various advertising channels through simple property ID input.
• Automatic attribution of advertising effectiveness measurement parameters for keywords and individual ads by Shirofune.
• Support for user-defined UTM parameters.
• Automatic analysis and linking of various configuration patterns, including tracking template settings, custom parameter usage, settings for the final destination URL, and mixed patterns thereof, without the need for manual linking.
• Integration with Shirofune's unique reports, such as the causal factor analysis report.

Google's publisher and developer partners in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom can use OneTrust to meet Google's new CMP requirements

OneTrust, the market-defining leader for trust intelligence, announces that OneTrust's consent management platform (CMP) is now Google certified, enabling partners using Google publisher products to meet their compliance requirements with IAB Europe's Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF). OneTrust's CMP helps advertisers and marketers deliver transparency and consistency in their privacy-first experiences and practice the responsible use of data.

"Marketers, advertisers, and publishers are facing a changing modern privacy landscape," said Alex Cash, Director of Strategy, Consent & Preferences at OneTrust. "The companies who will gain a competitive edge are responding by embracing privacy by design. As a Google certified CMP, OneTrust enables Google partners to drive transparency in their consent experiences, ultimately protecting their ad monetization. By providing our customers with a single platform for consent and preference management, they can activate consented data at speed and scale, demonstrate responsible data use, and ultimately build trust with their audiences."

Helping publishers comply with Google's new CMP requirements

To promote transparency, consistency, and control during the consent experience, Google will soon require all partners using their publisher products, specifically Google AdSense, Google Ad Manager, and Google AdMob, to use a Google certified CMP that integrates with IAB Europe's TCF when serving ads to users in the European Economic Area or the UK.

Now, Google partners can use OneTrust's CMP to meet this requirement. OneTrust integrates with IAB Europe's TCF and meets both the TCF's and Google's CMP specifications. Publishers using OneTrust's CMP can protect ad monetization by delivering consent-based advertising in Europe. 

No-code workflows and integrations to enforce and revoke consent

OneTrust's CMP paired with Privacy Rights Automation helps eliminate manual processes and improve efficiency. No-code workflows and integrations dynamically enforce or revoke consent statuses across first-party and third-party systems. This means marketers can promote data collection and processing accountability across web, mobile, and app experiences, and govern consumer privacy decisions in systems such as Google's advertising products, Adobe Experience Platform, Segment, Snowflake, Tealium, and more.

One platform to collect purpose-based consent and first-party data

In order to meet regulatory requirements and fulfill first-party data strategies, companies need to collect consent and first-party data while maintaining privacy preferences across platforms and systems that activate user data. However, disparate tools and platforms can create complexity and issues throughout the tech stack. Along with being a Google certified CMP, OneTrust's unified consent and preference management platform helps organizations power omnichannel engagements by capturing and activating consented data at scale. 

Now, OneTrust integrates cookie banners, first-party data web forms, preference centers, and out-of-the-box integrations into a single platform. This helps companies collect and track purpose-based consent and first-party data from first touch point and beyond. Teams can improve tech stack efficiencies and streamline digital experiences by proactively collecting consent from users across web, mobile, and CTV, and connecting consent records to person-based identifiers.

Company is leveraging Vertex AI to revolutionize sales processes

Google Cloud and GA Telesis, a global leader in innovative integrated commercial aviation services, today announced that GA Telesis will deploy Google Cloud's generative AI technology to revolutionize the sales and service processes for the parts the company supplies to major global passenger and cargo carriers. In tapping Google Cloud as its AI innovation partner, GA Telesis will leverage Google Cloud's generative AI technologies to quickly understand and respond to the hundreds of thousands of customer orders it receives each year from airlines operating on every continent.

As a major supplier of essential equipment in the airline industry, where long-term relationships and trust are the bedrock of many business transactions, GA Telesis' sales staff receive inquiries from global customers requesting quotes for all sorts of commercial aircraft and jet engine replacement parts. The typical inquiry is not standardized, requiring sales representatives to quickly decipher the relevant aircraft or jet engine model, applicable codes, quantity required, preferred condition and provenance, and often most importantly, where the part is needed and when. Additionally, in order for airlines to meet their on-time performance metrics, inquiries are often urgent and logistics have to be factored into the equation. GA Telesis' team is expected to accomplish what can resemble an impossible feat in minutes, not hours.

GA Telesis has selected Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform, which is designed to help businesses tune and deploy machine learning models, to help it quickly build innovative AI applications. Leveraging a new data extraction solution the GA Telesis' technology team built internally, GA Telesis will be able to automatically synthesize purchase orders and quickly provide customers a quote, eliminating the need for sales teams to manually cross-reference emails with their inventory availability.

"Responding quickly to customer requests on a person-to-person level is an absolutely critical part of our business and a key way we're differentiated. As we've grown, the number of inquiries for service and parts has increased exponentially, and we needed a way to scale our responsiveness without removing the personalized service we provide," said Abdol Moabery, CEO of GA Telesis. "The accuracy of Google Cloud's generative AI solution and practicality of the Vertex AI platform gives us the confidence we needed to implement this cutting-edge technology into the heart of our business and achieve our long-term goal of a zero-minute response time."

"Our work with GA Telesis is a prime example of how our generative AI tools can be applied quickly and effectively to create better customer experiences," said Carrie Tharp, VP of Industries, Google Cloud. "In an industry where speed truly matters, the ability to respond to customers quickly will help GA Telesis both continue providing exceptional service, while expanding its capabilities to take on new business opportunities."

First brand-buyer, two-way communication app in retail brings on thousands of new users and grows valuation

Volcanic Retail, the industry's first two-way communications platform built to connect retail buyers and brands, today reported significant milestones in company growth since its launch last year. To date, more than 2,000 buyers and 7,000 brands have joined the platform as the company expands into fast-growing retail categories including grocery, consumer electronics, toys, pet supplies, hardware and more. Bolstered by its advisory board, key partnerships and investment strategy, the company's valuation has erupted to 1900% of its valuation at launch.

Recognizing that the retail purchasing industry has historically been bogged down by inefficient practices such as costly and inefficient tradeshows magnified during the pandemic, Volcanic Retail was founded to empower brands and buyers with a more efficient way to do business. The platform offers AI-based analytics for curated recommendations and trends, searchable brand profile and product pages, as well as buyer calendars and contact windows to leverage efficiency for those bringing products to shelves.

"This rapid adoption from users across the industry is evidence of how this massive market of buyers and brands is ripe for disruption," said Jeremy Brockbank, chairman and CEO of Volcanic Retail. "This past year, we have invested in building a streamlined platform that provides retailers and brands with a much more affordable and efficient way to do business than ever before. By offering in-demand features including AI-based predictive analytics, direct messaging functionality, invite capabilities, influencer outreach tools and more, we are addressing some of the most prevalent pain points in the retail industry in a way that has never been done before."

At launch, Volcanic Retail focused on three of the fastest-growing retail categories in the United States, including outdoor world, specialty and natural grocer and pharmacy. Since then, additional categories have been added to meet market demand, including consumer electronics, farm and ranch, hardware, cosmetics and pet care, among others. This strategic expansion has resulted in a total of 7,000 brands joining the platform.

"The new features Volcanic Retail has added to the platform are critical for enhancing the business transactions between buyers and brands," said Richard Diamond, former vice president of Office Depot and OfficeMax and member of the Volcanic Retail advisory board. "Identifying and solving the challenges that specific retail categories experience has been key to our growth over the past year. These predictive analytics and extensive search tools not only save time and money for buyers and brands, but they also help us change the antiquated landscape of the entire industry."

In addition to user growth, Volcanic Retail has begun its first of four rounds of crowdfunding utilizing a platform called WeFunder. Most tech companies rely on investment associated with venture capital and private equity groups, but Volcanic Retail aims to support its surrounding community as it grows by leveraging ways for residents in nearby cities to invest at a low cost, as little as $200. This consistent crowdfunding has led to tremendous valuation growth in a short period of time while fostering lasting relationships with the community. The company plans to utilize funds to add features to the platform, increase staffing and enhance its database of buyers and brands.

Genesys continues to seize market share driven by strong demand for cloud experience orchestration platform

Genesys®, a global cloud leader in AI-powered experience orchestration, today announced that the Genesys Cloud CX™ platform has surpassed $1 billion annual recurring revenue (ARR)ⁱ. Achieving this milestone comes in less than four years since the company surpassed $100 million ARR. With Genesys Cloud CX ARR growth greater than 45% year-over-year during the first quarter of the company's fiscal year (February 1–April 30, 2023), Genesys continues to seize market share, growing faster than its closest Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) competitor during the same period.

"Leading brands understand great business outcomes are grounded in great experiences," said Tony Bates, Genesys CEO and chairman. "Our business momentum is validation that our strategy to enable personalized, empathetic experiences at scale is resonating — organizations everywhere are partnering with Genesys to set the new standard in loyalty defining customer and employee engagement. With Genesys Cloud CX, we're not only writing the next chapter but delivering on the future of experiences through continuous innovation, modern AI-powered orchestration and unmatched global presence, trusted by thousands of customers of all sizes, scale and industries."

Genesys saw significant demand for Genesys Cloud CX across segments and geographies during the quarter. Highlighted new customers include a Fortune 100 logistics company and a major US insurance provider, as well as a European auto insurance company that consolidated its contact center with Genesys Cloud CX, replacing NICE and several other vendors. The company also deepened relationships with existing customers, including a Fortune 100 retailer that expanded its experience orchestration capabilities and a Fortune 100 provider of insurance and retirement savings accounts, which evolved from a hybrid cloud to Genesys Cloud CX. In addition to these large enterprise deals, over 75% of new customers during the quarter were from small- and mid-sized businesses (SMB) as well as mid-market segments.

Highlighted growth includes:

• More than 80% year-over-year increase in Genesys Cloud CX revenue in healthcare; Genesys serves six of the top 10 of the global healthcare providers
• More than 50% year-over-year increase in Genesys Cloud CX revenue in financial services; Genesys serves eight of the top 10 global financial services providers
• The top 50 Genesys Cloud CX customers averaged more than 8,000 unique agents on the platform, up nearly 30% year-over-year

Market demand for Genesys Cloud CX has been accelerated by significant customer traction for Genesys AI, offering new generative AI features released this year and comprehensive capabilities spanning conversation automation, agent assistance, conversation intelligence, workforce engagement management, and predictive engagement and routing. During the quarter:

• Genesys had a year-over year increase of more than 3X for its conversational and predictive artificial intelligence (AI) solutions revenue
• The number of customers using three or more native Genesys AI solutions grew nearly 9X year-over-year
• The number of customers implementing Genesys digital and voicebots grew nearly 110% year-over-year

Genesys status as a leader in the customer experience (CX) industry continues to be recognized, most recently by Forrester, where it was named a Leader in "The Forrester Wave™: Contact Center as a Service, Q1 2023.ⁱⁱ The Genesys Cloud CX platform received the highest scores possible in the AI architecture, workforce optimization and customer self-service criteria, and among the highest scores in the outbound capabilities criteria. With this placement, Genesys has been named a Leader by Forrester across the company's four customer experience priorities.

In addition to traditional business results, Genesys includes environmental, social and governance (ESG) results as part of its key success metrics. Notable updates during the company's first quarter include:

• The representation of women leaders at Genesys eclipsed the 30% threshold. This is a net increase of 23.8% in the representation of women leaders across the global workforce at Genesys since the official establishment of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program during 2020.
• Genesys launched a pilot of its Diversity Accelerator Program (DAP) designed to create promotion velocity for women and underrepresented groups at the company.
• The results of the quarter's employee engagement survey illustrated a strong Inclusion Score of 84, indicating from the Genesys global workforce that the company is on the right track with its inclusion and belonging initiatives.
• Genesys won over $30 million in RFPs when sustainability was a significant selection criterion.
• Nearly 15 million experiences were orchestrated for charitable customers using Genesys Cloud CX.