Intercom is doubling down on AI-driven customer support with a significant expansion of its Fin agent. The customer service tech provider is adding multimodal capabilities to its chatbot that go beyond text. It now supports voice-based interactions, image recognition, and third-party app integrations.
Launched in 2023, the Fin AI agent is built to deliver AI-powered customer service experiences using generative AI. As the customer experience (CX) space becomes increasingly crowded with AI-driven bots, Fin competes with offerings from Microsoft, Salesforce, Zendesk, Sierra, and others.
“Our vision is for Fin to answer any question, on any channel, across any platform,” Francesca Conde, Intercom’s product marketing manager, writes in a blog post. “We believe that AI is on the path to resolving the majority of customer questions, creating a dramatically improved support experience.”
Disclosure: I used to work at Intercom as a senior editor. This post is based solely on public information and my independent analysis. The company did not influence or compensate me to write about this news.No Question Ignored
The improved Fin agent now supports any queries, no matter how submitted.
Using Fin Vision, the agent can analyze details in a screenshot or photo, such as text, reference numbers, or product information, to make diagnosing a problem easier and quicker. If a mobile app error occurs, users can simply upload a screenshot instead of struggling to describe the issue. Similarly, for concerns about a recent physical product purchase, customers can snap a photo and share it with Fin, allowing it to assess and clarify the situation quickly. This helps cut to the chase on the real problem, reducing support times and uncertainty.
Intercom has also added Fin Guidance, a feature allowing organizations to train the Fin agent on their specific brand guidelines. Through natural language prompting, administrators can have the bot learn how to address customers, deal with escalation, and specify its voice.
Administrators can specify the tasks they want Fin to handle on their behalf using Fin Tasks. Similar to Fin Guidance, natural language prompts can train the agent to identify the job to be done, build the workflow, and ensure that it adheres to the business rules set forth.
Intercom also makes it easier for human agents to respond to customers universally. Fin now supports AI Inbox Translation, meaning incoming messages will be displayed in the agent’s preferred language, and outgoing service ticket replies will automatically be translated into the customer’s language. This eliminates the need to find a human representative knowledgeable in a specific language or having to switch between apps like Google Translate and Intercom.
Although primarily a text-based chatbot, Fin can now be deployed on the phone. Intercom has added Fin Voice, enabling what it claims are “natural, real-time conversations, adapting to multiple languages, handling interruptions smoothly, and keeping interactions efficient and engaging.” The embrace of multimodal support puts Fin in the same company as Google (remember Duplex?), Zendesk, Twilio, and Sierra, all of which have tackled the call center space for a while.
Now, Fin works across the leading communication platforms for customer service. The only thing that’s missing is video.
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Opening Fin to Third-Party Developers
Organizations want tools to work closely together, and Intercom’s latest update permits Fin to do just that. Through Fin for Platforms, the agent easily integrates with any customer service platform, starting with Salesforce and Zendesk. Once connected, Fin is expected to learn from available knowledge bases, adhere to automation rules, and sync up with tickets, cases, live chats, and email workflows.
However, for developers looking to build on top of the Intercom agent, there’s Fin over API. The company touts that this future feed feature will power AI-powered support on any platform or product, making available custom searches, community forums, or even an internal help system.
When Will These Features Be Available?
- Fin Vision and Fin Guidance are available today
- Fin Tasks is currently in closed beta
- AI Inbox Translation is in open beta and available for all customers
- Fin Voice is in early testing with a small set of customers
- Fin for Platforms is available today at $49 for 50 resolutions, plus $0.99 for each one thereafter
- Fin over API doesn’t have a specific launch date, only that it’s “coming soon”
Featured Image: How Intercom's Fin AI assistant works within the platform. Image credit: Intercom
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