Text messages get more response than perhaps any other medium, mostly because people assume they are coming from other human beings.  Emotive is taking care of that, using artificial intelligence with human assistance to “replicate human interactions” to prevent cart abandonment, recommend products, and run promotions.  They just raised a $50 million Series B to do even more of it.

This Twilio survey also sees more silver lining than cloud, reporting that companies plan to add an average of four new communications channel this year. Nearly all (91%) of respondents would rather build than buy new communications solutions. The report provides interesting regional breakdowns if you care for that sort of thing.

Just over half of consumers (54%) like to receive personalized messages because they show the consumers are known to the brand, plus they can be time savers. The rest (46%) find it at best unimportant, at worst creepy. Relevance far outstrips personalization when it comes to driving email opens (54% vs. 19%). Takeaway: treat each customer the way they prefer.