Google LLC said today that its Dialogflow CX service is now generally available, meaning enterprises now have an easier way to create more advanced virtual agents to staff their contact centers.

Part of Google’s Contact Center AI offering, Dialogflow CS is designed for companies that want to automate their contact center operations. Google said Dialogflow CX’s virtual agents can help by “holding the fort” on routine calls, allowing human agents to focus only on high priority customer interactions that need a more personal touch.

The technology was developed based on feedback from customers about how artificial intelligence can best support complex use cases, Antony Passemard, Google’s head of product for Conversational AI, and Shantanu Misra, a Dialogflow CX product manager, said in a blog post.

“Dialogflow CX can seamlessly and accurately switch between topics, handle supplemental questions and operate across multiple channels to minimize live agent interventions,” Passemard and Misra explained. “It was designed specifically for enterprises with large scale, high complexity environments to enable a new level of collaboration and efficiency for customer experience teams.”

Dialogflow CX offers a library of pre-built virtual agents that are designed to handle a range of complex queries, whether it’s an inquiry about an unfulfilled order or someone asking for assistance on how to pay their bill. The agents can handle both voice calls and chat.

The service is built atop Google’s Natural Language Understanding AI technology, which means the virtual agents can recognize people’s intent, Google said. It supports more than 20 different languages. Companies can also use a visual flow builder tool to refine the conversational design to better reflect their customer’s needs and test which interactions perform best without disrupting customer service.

Singtel Optus Pty Ltd., the Australian telecommunications firm, has been using Dialogflow CX in its customer support application for some time already and said it was impressed with the tool.

“The visual flow builder allows for faster scale of virtual agents because it’s easy and intuitive for a variety of skill sets to use, from developers to designers,” said Kate Brodie, acting director of AI Digital at Optus.

Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller told SiliconANGLE that Dialogflow CX will make it easier for enterprises to build their next-generation applications.

“Google is using its strong position in AI, application development and cloud to come up with another attractive platform-as-a-service offering that allows companies to instrument and architect virtual agents for their call centers,” Mueller said.

Google said its Dialogflow CX agents are available in multiple agent types and editions. The agent type, features, pricing and quotas vary for each edition.

Image: Google