Notes on Verint Engage 2024
My first time attending Verint Engage did not disappoint. Not only does the company have an interesting history (read my pre-conference post), it’s also a reflection on how the CX market has evolved. Verint cut its teeth in WFM and QM to become a power player in those areas, but these days company’s solidified a reputation as an open, AI-driven CCaaS vendor.
Business outcomes first
During both general sessions of the conference it was clear that Verint wanted to leave no doubt on a central message: business outcomes should guide what systems and processes to adopt.
The company execs and customer representatives who were on stage were well choreographed to deliver that message. Cut through the noise and don’t stray from focusing on business outcomes, they said. Several customer success stories were highlighted, and although no customer names were mentioned, the audience got a good glimpse of the positive results from implementing Verint bots, mostly in terms of millions of dollars saved and improved metrics on CX interactions.
I believe the messaging was well received by the audience and other observers. There’s indeed a lot of noise in the CX landscape especially after the generative AI pandora’s box was opened. Many vendors have been bombarding potential customers with longs lists of AI-enabled product features without putting themselves in the customer’s shoes: How do these fancy features help my day-to-day business?
This point of view surfaced a few times in my conversations with customer and partner attendees. However, overall they showed appreciation of the “business outcomes first” messaging from Verint, and saw that as a distinction from other vendors.
Embrace AI now
The other half of the messaging was calling out the urgency of adopting AI.
Verint lit a fire under folks who’re still wishy-washy on AI and of course, offered a flexible solution in their team of bots.
Interestingly, these bots are marketed less as AI agents and more as ways to automate CX tasks in the contact center. In essence, AI-enabled CX automation in contact center operations.
But keep in mind that some bots are “less AI” than others, such as the Coaching Bot and Transfer Summary Bot. Then there are bots which utilize generative AI a lot more, such as the Knowledge Automation Bot and the Intelligent Virtual Assistant.
For customers who may feel overwhelmed by all these specialized bots, Verint is in no hurry to sell you all of them. In fact, the company will suggest a piecemeal approach by identifying the intended business outcome first then pick the best bot(s) from the catalog to implement. The company also claims that a bot can be deployed in as short as 30 days. Don’t get too excited though, I’m sure in reality it depends on a case-by-case basis since no two businesses are the same.
There was a particular case study which was referenced multiple times at the event. The customer was not disclosed but it’s a “leading healthcare company” which deployed the Wrap-Up Bot to 300 agents initially then expanded to 30,000 agents in a span of six months to the tune of increased agent capacity equivalent of $70 million.
One major announcement during the conference was the Genie Bot that’s soon to be released. This bot is built on top of Verint’s leading speech analytics solution and aims to supercharge it with AI-driven business analytics capabilities, including quick creation of dashboards and reports to show executives (this received a round of applause from the audience during the on-stage unveiling).
Partners are important, too
Several CCaaS vendors were sponsors of the conference, including Avaya, Five9, 8x8, Talkdesk, UJET, Vonage, and Cisco Webex. It’s a mix of CX players from a broad spectrum and a testament to the health of Verint’s partnership ecosystem.
There were a couple of noteworthy announcements to further reinforce relationships with Verint:
Five9 and Verint integrate platforms for cloud-to-cloud connectivity
Verint bots will be available on the Avaya Experience Platform (AXP)
No doubt partners appreciate Verint’s Open Platform which makes integrations easier in order to offer respective customers better CX features.
Most of these partners also bundle Verint WFM and QM as part of their overall CCaaS solution.
Concluding thoughts
Like all vendor conferences, Verint Engage 2024 painted a rosy picture of its past, present, and future. More customers spending more money, more customers excited about new products and features. And indeed the company has some major customers, “10/10 largest U.S. insurance companies” and “10/10 largest U.S. banks,” according to a December 2023 presentation to investors. There’s no dispute that its forte, WFM and QM, are battle-tested and enjoy a loyal user base. The company has also gained reputation as a leading CX SaaS vendor in analytics and AI.
The AI-driven bot strategy has proven to win the hearts and minds of customers so far. I fully expect Verint to continue this roadmap to develop even more specialized bots. The Genie Bot is highly anticipated by contact center business analysts and data nerds. The acquisition of Fonolo was not mentioned during the conference, but evidently it’s now branded as Verint Callback and complements Verint IVA Voice.
Verint bills itself as the CX automation company. That’s an intentionally simplified marketing message to make it easily understood. Peel back the layers of automation enablement and you’ll find that fundamentally, it is a CX data company.
It is not surprising that with the direction and momentum of the company, an executive speakers on stage proudly proclaimed that this year’s Engage was the first time ever being sold out. I’m glad to have been part of it.