[24]7.ai

7.ai operates as a customer service software and services company, utilizing conversational artificial intelligence to enhance customer engagement for large brands. Founded in April 2000 by P. V. Kannan and Shanmugam Nagarajan, the company emerged from their previous venture, Business Evolution Inc., which was sold in 1999. Kannan and Nagarajan, who met while working at Tata Consultancy Services, identified inefficiencies in traditional contact centers, which sparked their move to create a technology-driven customer engagement solution.

The company's core business revolves around its AI-powered platform, 7 Engagement Cloud, which provides omnichannel customer experience (CX) solutions. This platform integrates various communication channels, including web chat, messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, SMS, and voice, to manage the entire customer journey. The business model combines software-as-a-service (SaaS) with managed services, offering both the technology platform and the operational expertise of its contact center agents. Clients are typically large enterprises in sectors such as telecommunications, financial services, retail, healthcare, and travel, who need to handle high volumes of customer interactions.

The product suite is designed to understand customer intent to create personalized and predictive interactions. It features solutions for campaign management, conversation automation with AI-powered bots, and tools to improve the agent experience. By leveraging predictive analytics and natural language processing, the platform automates a significant portion of customer conversations, aiming to increase digital adoption, boost customer satisfaction, and lower operational costs for its clients. The company has strategically expanded its capabilities through several acquisitions, including Voxify for call automation, IntelliResponse for digital self-service, and Campanja for search engine bidding technology, integrating these into its core platform. This strategy has enabled the firm to evolve from a business process outsourcer (BPO) into a technology-centric customer engagement provider.

Initially funded with $2 million in seed capital, the company secured a significant $22 million in a Series A round in 2003, led by Sequoia Capital. A key milestone occurred in 2012 through a partnership with Microsoft, which became an equity investor and transferred around 400 employees to 7.ai to combine technologies for natural user interfaces and cloud-based data analytics. Originally named 24/7 Customer, the company rebranded to 7.ai in 2017 to reflect its deep focus on artificial intelligence. Keywords: conversational AI, customer engagement, customer experience management, omnichannel CX, contact center solutions, AI-powered chatbots, virtual agents, predictive analytics, customer journey analytics, natural language processing, customer service automation, digital self-service, intent-driven engagement, agent productivity, BPO services, SaaS, customer retention, lead generation, customer support solutions, contact center AI