All of the studies, evaluation, and endless analysis are finally over. The current global crisis has driven companies to embrace digital transformation, and Pegasystems Inc. has positioned itself at the heart of this transition.

“There’s been a lot of talk about it over several years, and there’s been lots of initiatives, but it was missing the urgency that it needed to get things done,” said Kerim Akgonul (pictured), senior vice president of products at Pegasystems. “There’s no longer a question about whether to go through a digital transformation. Everybody knows it’s a ‘yes.’”

Akgonul spoke with Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the PegaWorld iNspire virtual event. They discussed a new software architecture for bridging tech stacks, the role of real-time data in driving artificial intelligence, and how Pega’s customers have responded to a more uncertain and volatile world. (* Disclosure below.)

Closing connectivity gaps

Pegasystems unveiled a new offering on Tuesday to help move enterprises further along the digital transformation journey. Pega Process Fabric was released as a cloud-based software architecture that used APIs, an open UX framework, robotic automation, UI components, and data virtualization to bridge connectivity gaps between bloated tech stacks.

“Users and employees have to juggle through all of these systems to get their work done,” Akgonul explained. “The job of Process Fabric is to bring all of these tasks, bring all of this work on behalf of customers, which has to get done, and weave them into a single experience.”

Rather than a top-down or bottom-up approach, Pega’s solution is engineered around what it describes as the “more agile center layer,” where workstreams can be combined without disrupting the infrastructure. This includes the application of AI as a tool for taking action based on real-time data.

“Our AI leverages predictive models based on historical data, but also adds on top of it the ability to evaluate real-time data based on the real context of the end customer,” Akgonul said. “It’s able to determine the best way to engage with that customer at that moment in time and be able to deliver that one-to-one personalized experience. This has been one of the major capabilities of Pega technology, and that’s how we differentiate in the marketplace.”

Real-time AI

This emphasis on real-time data is a key element of Pega’s approach, and recent events have underscored the importance of it. As COVID-19 engulfed major portions of the world outside of China three months ago, running productive models against data from the beginning of the year would have been meaningless.

For one of Pega’s banking customers, this allowed the institution to more rapidly respond to customer needs.

“They looked at customer data of who might be at risk due to the crisis and changed payment programs for them because things had changed dramatically,” Akgonul said. “When you are engaging with customers you need ‘real’ real-time AI.”

An ability to respond to rapidly changing global events appears to be the new table stakes in 2020. As a business positioned at the forefront of digital transformation, Pega has seen this play out among its customer base.

This was especially true for one contact center client when its employees could no longer enter the operations building.

“While the agents were not allowed to go to work, call volumes were going through the roof,” Akgonul recalled. “They created an army of volunteers from within the business to respond to customer requests from home. They also ramped up the pace of taking processes and making them self-service available on mobile apps and on the website.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the PegaWorld iNspire virtual event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for PegaWorld iNspire. Neither Pegasystems Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE