ASAPP, which uses artificial intelligence to advise customer service and sales agents on what to say next, has raised a $185 million Series B, bringing total funding to $260 million. The system uses a combination of speech recognition, natural language processing, and machine learning. It’s a reminder that lots of money is spent on customer experience outside of martech.
Salesforce has announced a suite of products to help companies safely reopen their businesses. The combination of new and existing solutions will cover reporting, contact tracing, emergency response, employee wellness and shift management. Prices vary by component and availability ranges from mid-May to June. Expect a wave of similar offerings as companies move past the “we’re in this together” stage of coronavirus marketing.
Just as you expected, privacy has become a luxury good. Smart home device maker Josh.ai has found that high-end buyers will pay extra for a privacy-safe alternative to voice-activated devices from Google and Amazon. Josh just raised an $11 million Series A.
It’s tough to get brand safety right, but the industry keeps trying. IPG Mediabrands announced a new set of tools to find and block inappropriate ad placements, while IAS expanded its suitability measurements to include standards from the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM). Meanwhile, DoubleVerify admitted a mistake made brand safety on X/Twitter look worse than it really was in October 2023 and March 2024.