Observe.AI, which offers AI-powered insights into contact center interactions, has raised a $125 million Series C, bringing total funding to $214 million.  Observe.AI uses speech analysis to understand conversations, recommend responses to call center agents, and execute intelligent workflows.

Neighborhood social media network Nextdoor offers its own alternative to the usual ad channels.  They just added a self-serve ad campaign management tool to make it even easier for small and mid-size businesses to advertise without relying on agencies or other specialists.  Self-service and bringing agency functions in-house are two more trends we track.

Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.