My Two Cents
Opinions at the Intersection of Business and Technology
Latest Posts
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‘It Delivers’: Intercom’s Next-Gen Fin AI Agent Switches from OpenAI to Anthropic
Wrapping up a week packed with AI agent announcements, Intercom has unveiled Fin 2, the newest version of its customer service bot. The company claims its agent will be able to “answer more questions, in more ways, in more places.” To accomplish this, Intercom has added features designed to improve Fin’s intelligence and help it…
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Why Zendesk Thinks AI Is Key to Restoring ‘Humanity’ to Dreaded Customer Service Calls
This week, we’re exploring AI agents, an emerging topic that will dominate company discussions in the coming months as they reshape business interactions, both between organizations and consumers. I just returned from New York City, where I attended Zendesk’s inaugural AI Summit as a company guest. It seems like AI summits are everywhere these days;…
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Sierra Gives Its AI Agents a Voice, Delivering Lifelike Customer Service Over the Phone
Everyone is racing to give AI agents a voice. On the same day Zendesk announced voice capabilities for its AI agents, Sierra revealed it is also adding voice to its customer service bots. “People are highly sensitive to the subtleties of a voice and the flow of a conversation,” Sierra’s co-founders Bret Taylor and Clay…
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Zendesk Extends AI to Handle Email and Voice, Enhancing Customer Support Across All Channels
Zendesk is expanding its AI agents to more digital channels where users submit support tickets. Previously limited to social media, these bots now also handle email and voice interactions. In addition, the customer experience company is announcing its Agent copilot is now generally available. These updates, revealed at the company’s AI Summit, build on the…
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Atlassian’s Rovo, an AI-Driven Search Engine for Enterprises, Is Now Generally Available
Five months ago, Atlassian introduced an AI agent equivalent of an enterprise search engine that sourced information from its family of apps and also third-party providers. Powered by Atlassian Intelligence, Rovo is designed to help workers better discover knowledge, learn from it and take action. Today, it’s generally available to all Atlassian customers. Rovo has…
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Strategic Leadership in the Age of Generative AI: A Guide for Long-Term Success
Can a new book finally help executives grasp the full potential of AI? In this issue of “The AI Economy,” we look at “Winning with Generational AI” and chat with one of its authors, Charlene Li, to understand if this 90-day blueprint can offer highly sought-after clarity. You have probably heard about NotebookLM, but what…
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The 90-Day Generative AI Blueprint
As we continue to see innovations around artificial intelligence accelerate, I continue to hear about how confused executives are when discussing how to use the technology. Multiple studies illustrate this point, which Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff further emphasized during his Dreamforce keynote last month. Organizations recognize AI as being transformative and fear being left…
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Augie Launches Highlighter, an AI Tool That Captures the Best Moments from Long-Form Videos
Aug X Studios, creators of the AI-powered video platform Augie, have introduced Highlighter, a tool designed to help users effortlessly capture viral-worthy soundbites. Upload a long-form video and provide a prompt for what you’re looking for. Highlighter takes care of the rest—automatically extracting the most shareable moments for social media. This is the newest feature…
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Pinterest Rolls out Performance+, a Suite of AI-Powered Tools for Smarter Ad Campaigns
Months after its introduction at Cannes Lion, Pinterest officially released its suite of AI-powered tools designed to help advertisers streamline and automate their campaigns. Branded as Performance+, this offering promises to aid marketers in “[driving] lower-funnel performance by optimizing targeting, managing budgets or deciding how much to bid.” Pinterest boasts that its technology can save…
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Salesforce Gives the Gift of Free AI Trailhead Courses Through 2025
This is my final dispatch from Dreamforce 2024. The conference did live up to the hype Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff promised: We’d all be talking about artificial intelligence. For this issue of “The AI Economy,” read about how Salesforce is preparing non-technical workers to adapt to this third wave of AI. Although Agentforce requires…