Customer service and sales software provider Zendesk Inc. today announced that it plans to acquire artificial intelligence software for customer support teams startup Forethought Technologies Inc. for an undisclosed price.

Founded in 2017, Forethought offers AI software that is used by customer support teams to automate the handling and resolution of service inquiries. The company’s platform applies natural language processing and machine learning to interpret customer requests, retrieve relevant knowledge and determine whether an issue can be resolved automatically or requires escalation to a human agent. It addresses the operational challenge faced by support organizations that manage large volumes of repetitive tickets and inquiries across multiple communication channels.

It works by ingesting enterprise support data such as historical tickets, help center articles and internal documentation and then uses large language models and machine learning systems to process the data to generate responses, extract relevant information and determine appropriate actions within connected systems. It also supports interactions across channels such as email, chat, messaging and voice systems and can perform automated tasks such as order tracking queries, password resets, appointment scheduling and product troubleshooting.

Zendesk plans to use Forethought’s technology to expand its AI agent offering on its Resolution Platform, a platform that supports continuous improvement by learning directly from every customer conversation, without the need for manual retraining.

With the addition of Forethought, Zendesk plans to advance the technology into fully self-learning AI agents that can generate, adapt and execute complex workflows across any channel or platform. The planned Forethought AI agents by Zendesk will support more complex workflows, additional channels and a wide range of service environments.

“Forethought was founded on the belief that AI will transform customer experience for every business,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Sami Ghoche. “With Zendesk’s platform, resources and global reach, we will bring our technology to many more organizations around the world, move faster on innovation and continue pushing the boundaries of what AI can do in customer experience.”

Coming into its acquisition, Forethought had raised $117 million over five rounds. Investors in the company include 8VC Management, Collaborative Fund Management, Frontline Ventures, New Enterprise Associates Inc., Samsung Next Ventures, Sound Ventures, South Park Commons, Village Global VC, Cleo Capital, K9 Ventures, Industry Ventures, Operator Collective and Blue Cloud Ventures

Image: Forethought