artificial intelligence 8 May 2025
Parloa, a pioneer in Agentic AI for customer experience, has successfully secured $120 million in Series C funding, raising its valuation to $1 billion. This round of investment, led by Durable Capital Partners, Altimeter Capital, and General Catalyst, comes just a year after its Series B funding and underscores the growing demand for AI-driven solutions in customer service. With this new influx of capital, Parloa plans to accelerate the development of its AI Agent Management Platform (AMP) and expand its operations globally, especially across North America and Europe.
Parloa's AMP is the first Agentic AI platform designed specifically for enterprise contact centers, offering businesses the ability to build dynamic, scalable AI agents that engage with customers in personalized conversations.
Since launching AMP, Parloa has seen significant growth, quadrupling its revenue and earning the trust of Fortune 200 companies to deliver AI-driven customer service at scale.
According to Gartner, by 2029, 80% of common customer service issues will be autonomously resolved by agentic AI, marking a revolutionary shift in how businesses interact with customers.
Parloa is positioned at the forefront of this shift, helping enterprises develop 1:1 AI-agent relationships that enhance customer loyalty, create new revenue streams, and foster highly personalized interactions.
The recent funding will allow Parloa to accelerate its expansion into North America and Europe. The company aims to scale its operations to meet increasing global demand for AI-driven customer support solutions in sectors like e-commerce, financial services, and travel.
This expansion is also supported by Parloa’s ongoing investment in the development of new AMP capabilities and attracting top international talent to fuel future growth.
Durable Capital Partners, Altimeter Capital, and General Catalyst are leading the Series C funding round. The investors expressed confidence in Parloa’s potential to revolutionize customer service by leveraging Agentic AI.
Durable Capital Partners highlighted Parloa's unique position in leading the next wave of customer experience innovation.
Apoorv Agrawal from Altimeter Capital emphasized the company's role in elevating customer experiences through faster, smarter, and more human-like interactions at scale.
With its recent $120 million Series C funding, Parloa is poised to transform the future of customer service with its Agentic AI technology. The investment will accelerate the company's mission to provide highly personalized, scalable customer interactions through its AI Agent Management Platform (AMP). As AI continues to redefine the customer experience, Parloa’s innovative solutions are set to help businesses enhance customer loyalty, drive new revenue opportunities, and stay ahead of the competition.
artificial intelligence 8 May 2025
Optimum and Google Cloud have announced an expanded collaboration to deliver a more intelligent and personalized customer experience across various channels, including web interactions, mobile apps, call centers, and in-person kiosks. This partnership leverages Google Cloud’s generative AI technology, including Customer Engagement Suite, Vertex AI platform, and Gemini models, to improve customer service. Through this multi-year agreement, Optimum aims to build stronger relationships with customers, using advanced AI solutions to offer faster resolutions and more personalized experiences.
Optimum is utilizing Google Cloud’s generative AI technology and its virtual AI agent, AVA, to assist customer service representatives. This intelligent partnership helps guide agents with real-time insights and relevant offers, delivering better customer support and faster resolution times.
These AI tools are currently handling more than 50% of customer inquiries, with plans to expand their capabilities for an even greater impact.
By leveraging Google Cloud’s AI, Optimum anticipates customer needs by automatically creating and updating an intelligent knowledge base. This provides customer service representatives with contextually relevant insights, allowing them to deliver solutions even before customers ask.
This technology enables proactive customer support, helping businesses stay ahead of customer needs and enhance their experiences.
Optimum can now monitor customer sentiment in real-time with AI-powered sentiment analysis. This ensures that every interaction feels empathetic and appropriately responds to the customer's emotions, creating a more human-like experience.
One of the standout features of this partnership is the ability for customers to continue conversations seamlessly across different platforms (e.g., website, messaging app, social media). Even if a customer returns after a few days, the AI system ensures that their previous interaction context is preserved, providing a smooth and consistent experience across all touchpoints.
Google Cloud’s AI technology provides Optimum with valuable insights into customer behavior and the performance of both human and AI agents. This allows Optimum to continually optimize service quality, identify areas for improvement, and gain a deeper understanding of its customers.
Optimum's expanded collaboration with Google Cloud marks a significant milestone in its mission to provide superior, AI-driven customer service. The integration of generative AI into its customer support operations will enable Optimum to deliver faster resolutions, personalized experiences, and empathetic interactions that drive customer satisfaction. With these innovations, Optimum is well-positioned to continue its journey of transformation and business growth, ultimately becoming the connectivity provider of choice across its 21-state footprint.
artificial intelligence 8 May 2025
Bloomreach, a leader in AI-driven personalization, has introduced a new set of powerful features designed to transform marketing and product discovery. These capabilities, highlighted at their Innovation Fest, showcase the growing influence of agentic AI in creating personalized and engaging customer experiences. From autonomous marketing agents to conversational search enhancements, Bloomreach is shaping the future of how businesses connect with customers and deliver personalized experiences at scale.
AI-powered agents now assist marketers by automating the entire campaign creation process. These agents allow teams to move beyond traditional workflows and focus on more strategic and creative tasks, streamlining campaign execution and increasing efficiency.
Bloomreach’s Recommendations+ feature analyzes customer journeys in real-time, delivering personalized product suggestions that align with each individual’s preferences. This ensures more accurate and relevant recommendations, driving increased sales and engagement.
Bloomreach’s platform now offers automated personalization at scale through dynamic, individualized emails, mobile messages, and onsite experiences. These are delivered in the context of a customer's journey, ensuring the right message at the right time.
Search Triggered Conversations: A personalized conversation is automatically triggered from the search bar, acting as a shopping assistant to guide users to exactly what they are looking for. This enhances the overall shopping experience.
Embedded Conversations: Bloomreach brings conversational capabilities directly to Product Detail Pages (PDPs) and Product Listing Pages (PLPs). This allows customers to engage with brands more interactively, even without traditional chat boxes or search bars.
Personalization Studio: This tool learns from live customer signals and optimizes in real-time, reflecting current shopper intent. It provides merchandising teams with full control to strategize effectively.
Ranking Studio: This feature integrates key business signals, such as margins and offline sales, into search algorithms, allowing for automated ranking while maintaining business-specific priorities.
Multi-language Search: Bloomreach expands its reach with 33 supported languages, enabling global commerce and streamlining user experiences across different markets.
Conditional Slot Merchandising: This feature allows merchandisers to define business-driven conditions, enabling AI to autonomously populate product grids and placements according to specific business logic.
Bloomreach continues to lead the charge in the AI-driven transformation of marketing and e-commerce. With innovations like autonomous marketing agents and conversational search, the company is helping businesses create more personalized, efficient, and impactful customer experiences. As AI-powered tools take over manual tasks and optimize personalization, Bloomreach is positioning itself at the forefront of the agentic AI revolution, empowering brands to engage customers in deeper, more meaningful ways.
digital experience 8 May 2025
Mediacom Communications, the fifth-largest cable provider in the U.S., has renewed and extended its partnership with CSG® for an additional five years. This long-standing collaboration, which spans nearly 30 years, allows Mediacom to continue providing customer-centric solutions that meet the evolving needs of their customers, particularly in rural America. With a focus on innovative digital experiences and future-ready broadband solutions, this extended partnership ensures Mediacom stays ahead of connectivity demands while driving growth and customer satisfaction.
As demand for faster, more reliable multi-gig broadband increases, Mediacom is committed to expanding its broadband platforms to rural America. This partnership with CSG enables Mediacom to provide cutting-edge technology and innovative digital solutions to enhance service quality and customer satisfaction.
With CSG’s solutions, Mediacom gains a unified view across all touchpoints, providing the ability to anticipate customer needs and deliver personalized experiences. This enables Mediacom to bring new offerings to market quickly while maintaining a focus on customer-first strategies.
The partnership enables Mediacom to enhance customer service by offering proactive bill explanations, improving order accuracy, and strengthening data security. These optimizations help to reduce churn, decrease call volumes, and encourage on-time payments, thus delivering long-term customer value.
Mediacom’s collaboration with CSG is built on a shared people-first culture and a focus on exceptional customer experiences. With a customer-centric approach, Mediacom is able to build stronger customer relationships and enhance its brand loyalty while driving growth in a competitive market.
By leveraging CSG Advanced Convergent Platform, Mediacom can increase operational efficiency and drive revenue growth. This platform helps Mediacom streamline processes, enabling faster market responsiveness and more personalized customer interactions.
The renewed partnership between Mediacom and CSG ensures that the broadband provider will continue to offer innovative, customer-centric solutions. This collaboration helps Mediacom stay at the forefront of the rapidly changing telecommunications landscape, positioning the company for sustained growth while enhancing customer loyalty through seamless and personalized service delivery. With this extension, Mediacom is equipped to meet evolving customer demands and maintain its leadership in broadband technology, especially in underserved regions.
artificial intelligence 8 May 2025
Creatopy, an AI-powered ad campaign platform, has appointed Thibault Imbert as its new Chief Product & Growth Officer. Imbert, with over 15 years of experience in product management and growth, will be at the forefront of advancing Creatopy's AI-native product strategy. This move is aimed at enhancing Creatopy’s ability to help marketers build, scale, and deploy ad campaigns more efficiently, further solidifying the company's position as a leader in AI-driven advertising solutions.
Thibault Imbert will oversee product strategy, development, and execution at Creatopy, with a focus on integrating artificial intelligence into every aspect of the platform. He aims to leverage AI to improve ad creation and campaign management, streamlining workflows for marketers.
Imbert brings a wealth of experience from his previous roles at Picsart, Adobe, and GitHub. His success in Product-Led Growth (PLG) strategies will be key in scaling Creatopy’s innovative products, as he aims to address marketers’ needs in the fast-evolving digital ad space.
With AI becoming a game-changer in the marketing industry, Imbert’s deep expertise in integrating AI into business models positions him to drive Creatopy’s next phase of AI-powered product innovation. Imbert’s vision is to reshape the world of marketing by bringing productivity-enhancing AI tools to the forefront.
Imbert is passionate about creating valuable products that customers love. He envisions a future where AI dramatically reshapes the marketing industry, enabling marketers to create high-quality, on-brand ads at unprecedented speeds and efficiencies.
As Chief Product & Growth Officer, Imbert will spearhead growth initiatives at Creatopy, expanding the platform’s market reach and impact. His leadership is expected to accelerate the company’s global expansion and help Creatopy solidify its position as a leading AI-powered ad generation platform.
With the appointment of Thibault Imbert, Creatopy is set to enter a new era of AI-driven innovation in the marketing industry. Imbert’s extensive experience at leading tech companies will play a pivotal role in driving product strategy and growth initiatives, helping marketers scale their ad campaigns with greater speed and efficiency. As AI continues to reshape industries, Creatopy is well-positioned to lead the charge in creating smart, impactful marketing solutions that transform the way brands engage with their audiences.
marketing 8 May 2025
QVC, a global leader in live shopping, is set to amplify its Age of Possibility mission with a groundbreaking collaboration with TikTok. Launching on May 14 in Santa Monica, the initiative marks the second year of the campaign and introduces a unique TikTok Shop Super Brand Day that puts women at the forefront of modern retail innovation.
Second Year of Age of Possibility
QVC renews its mission to inspire and empower, with the second annual celebration focusing on reinvention and transformation through live shopping.
TikTok Shop Super Brand Day Debut
A cross-category digital shopping experience featuring celebrity and creator-led content streamed live on TikTok Shop.
Event Location and Setup
Hosted in Santa Monica, the event will include:
Creator and celebrity-led sessions
Red-carpet entrance
Immersive on-site experiences
Appearances from QVC hosts, Q50 ambassadors, and brand partners
Q50 Ambassadors – A Spotlight on Women
This year’s Q50—a community of inspiring women celebrating reinvention at any age—includes:
New members: Hoda Kotb, Carla Rockmore, and Kathy Hilton
Returning names: Kathie Lee Gifford, Stacy London, and Barbara “Babs” Costello
Product Discovery & Exclusive Deals
An 8-hour livestream will showcase:
New product launches
Special event-only deals
Curated collections in beauty, fashion, home, and kitchen
QVC’s Commitment to Inclusive Retail
Live content focuses on empowering women and creating a space for connection, community, and commerce—meeting audiences where they are on platforms like TikTok.
QVC’s collaboration with TikTok for the Age of Possibility Super Brand Day is more than just a retail event—it's a statement on how live, creator-led content is shaping the future of shopping. By spotlighting female voices and building a community rooted in empowerment, QVC is redefining relevance in the age of digital commerce.
marketing 8 May 2025
Intercept Music, a prominent name in tech-driven music distribution and marketing for independent artists, has announced the closing of a $50 million private partnership. This strategic investment aims to reshape the future of music rights and catalog management, with a specific focus on U.S. and Latin music catalogs. The move underscores Intercept’s broader mission to become the leading platform for independent creators worldwide.
$50 Million Funding Partnership
The private investment will fund strategic acquisitions of music catalogs, with an emphasis on:
U.S. and Latin music markets
Catalogs with under-leveraged streaming and licensing potential
Flexible Deal Structuring
Intercept will offer:
Full or partial acquisition of music rights
Collaborative partnerships with original rights holders
Continued creator involvement for synergy and authenticity
Technology-Driven Value Amplification
Intercept will utilize its proprietary platform to:
Employ predictive analytics and targeted marketing
Enhance streaming, sync, and licensing revenues
Expand reach across digital music channels
Expansion of Catalog Management Operations
The funding enables:
Strengthened operational capacity
Increased efficiency in rights management
Scalable tools for independent artists and rights holders
Executive Vision & Endorsement
CEO Tod Turner sees this as a pivotal step in reshaping how music rights are valued and monetized
Founder Ralph Tashjian emphasizes the integration of institutional-grade funding with transparent, tech-driven tools to set a new industry benchmark
With its $50 million investment, Intercept Music is taking a decisive step toward transforming the music rights landscape. By combining capital with proprietary technology and a focus on empowering independent creators, the company is poised to redefine catalog acquisition, management, and monetization in the digital era.
digital marketing 8 May 2025
WebPT, the leading rehab therapy platform, has rolled out significant upgrades to WebPT Local, a feature-rich solution aimed at enhancing digital visibility for physical therapy clinics. These enhancements focus on streamlining local SEO, reputation management, and social media marketing equipping rehab providers with easy-to-use tools to attract new patients and build a stronger digital presence without diverting focus from patient care.
AI-Optimized Business Listings
Automates listing updates across 90+ directories (up from 18)
Improves visibility in local search results
Ensures consistency in clinic name, address, phone, and services
Expanded Social Media Management
Supports more platforms for content publishing
Enables content scheduling and performance tracking
Reduces time spent on social engagement
Real-Time Review Management
Sends instant alerts for new patient reviews
Offers AI-powered suggested responses
Automates feedback display via website widgets and email outreach
Improved Search Ranking & Discoverability
Syncs practice data across major directories
Enhances local SEO to reach 97% of consumers searching online
Helps clinics appear in Google’s local search results more frequently
Competitive Benchmarking Tools
Provides insights into how patients discover the clinic
Offers performance comparison with local competitors
Delivers recommendations to optimize digital presence
With the latest enhancements to WebPT Local, rehab therapists now have access to a robust, AI-powered digital toolkit that simplifies local SEO, social engagement, and online reputation management. These features are designed not only to help clinics attract more patients but also to maintain a competitive edge—while allowing therapists to stay focused on delivering high-quality care.
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