2020 - 2021 Intelligent Virtual Agent Product and Market Report

DMG Consulting's ‘2020 - 2021 Intelligent Virtual Agent Product and Market Report ’, our fourth annual edition, is focused on contact center and service-related applications of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs). The Report covers customer- and agent-facing functions and, given the growing adoption of IVAs, it also addresses non-contact-center and enterprise uses of these solutions. IVAs are becoming mission-critical tools as organizations strive to maintain their service levels in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This Report is designed to help decision-makers choose the right solution to meet their requirements in this time of unprecedented social and business upheaval, as well as in the digitally transformed future when the world of service establishes a "new norm."

As this Report is being published, the COVID-19 pandemic is upending the business world. Many companies have transitioned their employees to work at home and other businesses have had to furlough or lay off large numbers of workers in order to remain viable. In the world of customer service, the pandemic has highlighted the need for organizations to develop and implement reliable disaster recovery (DR)/business continuity (BC) plans as well as comprehensive self-service solutions. IVAs are highly effective at handling a wide variety of interactions. They provide an automated means of responding to today's unprecedented service needs, as they can provide support 24 x 7, in some cases taking the place of live-agent support.

Today's customers prefer to resolve their inquiries via self-service, as long as the systems work well. Interactive voice response (IVR) systems have been the standard for voice self-service for the past 40 years, but it's time for these solutions to be retired. The new generation of flexible IVA solutions can be updated and enhanced quickly to provide far better, quicker and more adaptable service than outdated IVRs that require IT to reprogram them. Additionally, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are being used to make IVAs more responsive to customers' needs.

IVAs have features that are very attractive to business users. Many IVAs come with low-code/no-code development environments, so users can build and test their IVAs quickly, without having to wait for IT. Consumers can utilize natural language to speak or write an inquiry, and when an IVA needs to escalate a transaction to a live agent, it can pass on the transaction with context and stay on the line while using ML capabilities to "listen" and "learn" so that it can handle similar transactions more effectively on its own in the future.

IVAs can serve a wide variety of uses. They can be applied internally to assist employees, as well as externally, to interface with customers. Customer-facing uses include identification and verification of customers, answering questions about products and services, scheduling appointments, sending reminders and notifications, processing payments, checking inventories, placing orders and handling address changes. They can also respond to informational inquiries such as account balances, loan applications, etc. On an internal basis, IVAs can assist employees in performing their jobs, for example, bringing up a work case or other content to help an employee complete a transaction, providing real-time guidance, disseminating information and issuing reminders when a required step is missed in a process. By providing support to employees, IVAs increase productivity and accuracy in business operations.

The IVA market has experienced significant investments over the last few years, resulting in technologically advanced solutions. AI-enabled solutions are making quantifiable contributions to companies, providing personalized, concierge-type self-service. The value proposition for IVA solutions is compelling, and this market is expected to hold its own during the current challenges to economies around the world. Once the recovery process is underway and the "new normal" takes hold, adoption is expected to increase.

‘The 2020 - 2021 Intelligent Virtual Agent Product and Market Report’ provides an in-depth analysis of these solutions, which should become an elemental part of the strategic direction of contact centers and customer service departments. This Report examines the IVA market, competitive landscape, technology, products, functional capabilities, and the business, servicing and market trends that are driving adoption and innovation. It features 7 leading and contending vendors who offer IVA solutions that address front- and back-office functions and other enterprise-wide uses: Artificial Solutions, Avaamo, Inference Solutions, Kore.ai, Omilia, Rulai and Verint Systems.

Key Reasons to Buy this Report:

• Definition of an IVA and the key distinctions between IVAs and robotic process automation (RPA)

• High-level overview of the underlying technical components of IVA solutions

• Market trends and challenges that are driving interest, adoption and innovation in this sector

• IVA vendor innovation and near-term roadmaps, including new product features and what is planned to be delivered in the next 12 - 18 months

• Insightful discussion of the foundational role of AI and automation in contact center applications and their impact on the contact center of the future

• DMG's predictions for the future of IVA and self-service

• Review of how IVAs are delivering seamless and intelligent self-service in the customer's channel of choice

• A look at the top use cases for IVAs in the contact center and back office, and the growing number of applications for IVAs across the enterprise

• IVA vendor market activity

• Review of the IVA competitive landscape, including the technology sectors that are developing AI-based IVA solutions and an overview of the 7 featured IVA vendors, their product offerings and packaged solutions

• Detailed side-by-side comparative analysis of the technical and functional aspects of the 7 featured IVA solutions

• Implementation analysis, including vendor methodology, best practices, professional services, training, maintenance and support

• IVA benefits and return on investment (ROI) analysis

• IVA pricing structure, by vendor

• Results of DMGs comprehensive customer satisfaction survey, which ranks vendors based on customer satisfaction across 10 product capabilities, 10 product effectiveness categories and 10 vendor categories

• Detailed company reports for the 7 IVA vendors, analyzing product functionality and near-term product roadmap deliverables

• IVA Vendor Directory

Report Highlights

• IVAs have proven their value during the current pandemic: The critical role of IVAs on the frontline of self-service during the COVID-19 crisis has eliminated any doubt about the efficacy of these solutions. IVAs are highly effective in handling a wide variety of transactions, and they have assisted service departments in responding to a deluge of inquiries during the coronavirus crisis, in some cases providing fully automated self-service to replace a diminished staff of live agents.

• IVAs provide faster, more responsive service than outdated IVR solutions: IVAs have many advantages over outdated, inflexible IVR solutions. IVAs can be rapidly programmed and implemented, in some cases, without the assistance of IT staff. IVAs are using AI and ML, which enable them to respond to customer inquiries with concierge-style service.

• The uses of IVAs are numerous and continue to grow: There are many internal and customer-facing uses for IVAs in public and private organizations. They can send outbound communications and respond to a wide variety of customer inquiries. When used internally, they can assist employees by automating tasks, increasing productivity and improving accuracy.

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning are making IVAs "smarter": Even when an IVA cannot resolve an inquiry on its own and must pass it on to a live agent, it can "learn" from that transaction in order to provide better self-service in the future. AI and ML capabilities are enhancing the value proposition of IVAs, which is driving growing adoption of these solutions.

SAMPLE FIGURE

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary

2. Introduction

3. DMG Consulting Research Methodology

• 3.1. Report Participation Criteria

4. Intelligent Virtual Agents Defined

• 4.1. IVA vs. RPA

5. Anatomy of an IVA

• 5.1. High-Level Technical Components

6. IVA Trends and Challenges

• 6.1. IVA Trends
• 6.2. IVA Challenges

7. IVA Market Innovation

8. AI: The Force Behind the Contact Center of the Future

9. DMG's Projections for the Future of Self-Service

10. IVAs: Intelligent Self-Service in the Customer's Channel of Choice

• 10.1. Customer-Facing Use Cases
• 10.2. Escalating from Automated to Live Assistance

11. IVA for the Enterprise

• 11.1. Contact Center Use Cases
• 11.2. Non-Contact Center Use Cases

12. IVA Market Activity Analysis

13. IVA Market Projections

14. IVA Competitive Landscape

• 14.1. IVA Company Snapshot
• 14.2. IVA Vendor Offerings and Products
• 14.3. Packaged IVA Offerings

15. IVA Technical Analysis

• 15.1. High-Level Technical Analysis
• 15.2. High-Level Cloud Infrastructure
• 15.3. Integration
• 15.4. Security and Compliance

16. IVA Functional Analysis

• 16.1. High-Level Functional Analysis
• 16.2. Administration/Design and Content Development Environment
• 16.3. Accuracy and Tuning
• 16.4. Dashboards, Reporting and Analytics

17. IVA Implementation Analysis

18. IVA Benefits and Return on Investment

19. IVA Pricing Structure

20. IVA Vendor Satisfaction Survey and Analysis

• 20.1. Summary of Survey Findings and Analysis: Vendor Categories
  • 20.1.1. Vendor Satisfaction by Category and Customer
• 20.2. Summary of Survey Findings and Analysis: Product Capabilities
  • 20.2.1. Product Capabilities Satisfaction Ratings, by Category and Customer
• 20.3. Summary of Survey Findings and Analysis: Product Effectiveness
  • 20.3.1. Product Effectiveness Satisfaction Ratings, by Category and Customer
• 20.4. Customer Background and Insights
  • 20.4.1. Business Units Using IVAs
  • 20.4.2. Channels Supported
  • 20.4.3. Top 3 Benefits from IVA Solutions
  • 20.4.4. Top 3 IVA Challenges
  • 20.4.5. Additional Comments

21. Company Reports

• 21.1. Artificial Solutions
• 21.2. Avaamo Technologies, Inc.
• 21.3. Inference Solutions
• 21.4. Kore.ai
• 21.5. Omilia Natural Language Solutions Ltd.
• 21.6. Rulai
• 21.7. Verint Systems

TABLE OF FIGURES

• Figure 1: IVAs vs. RPA
• Figure 2.1: IVA vs. RPA
• Figure 2.2: IVA vs. RPA
• Figure 3: Conversational Intelligent Virtual Agent
• Figure 4: Technical Components Summary
• Figure 5: 2020 IVA Trends
• Figure 6: 2020 IVA Challenges
• Figure 7: New Product Features, by Vendor
• Figure 8: Future Enhancements, by Category
• Figure 9: Premise-Based Contact Center Infrastructure
• Figure 10: Cloud-Based Contact Center Infrastructure
• Figure 11: The Contact Center AI Brain
• Figure 12.1: Omni-Channel Capabilities
• Figure 12.2: Omni-Channel Capabilities
• Figure 13.1: Customer-Facing Applications
• Figure 13.2: Customer-Facing Applications
• Figure 14.1: Escalations
• Figure 14.2: Escalations
• Figure 15.1: Contact Center and Enterprise IVA Use Cases
• Figure 15.2: Contact Center and Enterprise IVA Use Cases
• Figure 16.1: Contact Center IVA Use Cases
• Figure 16.2: Contact Center IVA Use Cases
• Figure 17.1: Non-Contact Center IVA Use Cases
• Figure 17.2: Non-Contact Center IVA Use Cases
• Figure 18: IVA Market Share, by Customers, as of January 31, 2020
• Figure 19: Total Number of IVA Customers, 2020 vs. 2019 Comparison
• Figure 20: IVA Projections by Number of Customers, 2020 - 2024
• Figure 21: IVA Competitive Landscape
• Figure 22.1: Company Information, as of February 2020
• Figure 22.2: Company Information, as of February 2020
• Figure 23: Product Information
• Figure 24.1: Packaged/Verticalized Applications
• Figure 24.2: Packaged/Verticalized Applications
• Figure 25.1: High-Level Technical Summary
• Figure 25.2: High-Level Technical Summary
• Figure 26.1: High-Level Cloud Infrastructure
• Figure 26.2: High-Level Cloud Infrastructure
• Figure 27.1: Integration
• Figure 27.2: Integration
• Figure 28.1: Security and Compliance
• Figure 28.2: Security and Compliance
• Figure 29.1: High-Level Functional Summary
• Figure 29.2: High-Level Functional Summary
• Figure 30.1: Administration/Design and Content Development Environment
• Figure 30.2: Administration/Design and Content Development Environment
• Figure 31.1: Accuracy
• Figure 31.2: Accuracy
• Figure 32.1: Dashboards, Reporting and Analytics
• Figure 32.2: Dashboards, Reporting and Analytics
• Figure 33.1: Implementation Analysis
• Figure 33.2: Implementation Analysis
• Figure 34.1: Return on Investment (ROI)
• Figure 34.2: Return on Investment (ROI)
• Figure 35.1: Pricing Structure
• Figure 35.2: Pricing Structure
• Figure 36: Customer Survey Rating Categories
• Figure 37: Average Vendor Satisfaction Ratings, by Category
• Figure 38: Product Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 39: Implementation Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 40: Training Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 41: Professional Services Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 42: Ongoing Service and Support Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 43: Product Innovation Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 44: Responsiveness to Product Enhancement Requests Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 45: Vendor Communication Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 46: Pricing Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 47: Overall Vendor Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 48: Product Capabilities Satisfaction Ratings, by Category
• Figure 49: Omni-Channel Capabilities Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 50: Design Tools Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 51: AI Capabilities Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 52: NLU/NLG Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 53: Customer-Facing Self-Service Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 54: Employee-Facing Self-Service Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 55: Employee-Assisted Capabilities Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 56: Automation Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 57: Ease of Integration with Third-Party Applications Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 58: Ability for Non-Technical Resources to Build and Maintain IVAs Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 59: Product Effectiveness Satisfaction Ratings, by Category
• Figure 60: Ability to Improve Self-Service Containment Rates Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 61: Ability to Improve Customer Satisfaction and Engagement Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 62: Ability to Improve Employee Engagement Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 63: Ability to Maintain Context Across Multi-Modal Interactions Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 64: Ability to Identify and Incorporate Customer Preferences Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 65: Ability to Handle Interactions in Multiple Languages/Dialects Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 66: Ability to Kick Off Automated Functions Without Human Intervention Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 67: Ability to Access and Present Appropriate Content from Knowledge Bases or Other Repositories to Customers and/or Employees Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 68: Ability to Help Your Organization Comply with Privacy Regulations Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 69: Accuracy, Tuning and Ongoing System Optimization Satisfaction Ratings, by Customer
• Figure 70: What business units are using IVAs?
• Figure 71: What channels do you use your IVA solution to support?
• Figure 72: What are the top 3 benefits that your IVA solution provides?
• Figure 73: What are the top 3 challenges of your IVA solution?
• Figure 74: Additional comments about your experience with the vendor and/or product.