IPsoft: scaling efficiency via transformative AI solutions

IPsoft is a leader in Enterprise Artificial Intelligence (AI), cognitive and automatic solutions, and the home of Amelia - the industry’s most human digital AI colleague.

IPsoft is one of the world’s largest privately held software companies. IPsoft teams with humans to provide a digital employee to unleash the creativity of delivery business value at scale. With 13 offices worldwide, IPsoft serves more than 600 brands globally across a range of different industries. Michael Anderson is a Vice President at IPsoft supporting the South and Midwest states of North America. He believes what makes his organisation stand out is its diversified approach to the global market supporting both front-end business and backend IT organisations. “In comparison to our competitors, we’re always ranked number one when it comes to automation and the technology we bring to market,” says Anderson. “We’re not a traditional bot company or RPA firm, we provide a complete lifecycle of all automation solutions that support not just IT but all the different business variations across the business unit.” Through DigitalWorkforce.ai - the onestop online marketplace where users can browse, interview and onboard digital employees - companies can combine human and digital workers together to drive greater business value. “The platform is extremely quick and someone can just download a pre-digital employee to perform various different roles,” says Anderson. “For example, it could be an IT service desk, Customer Care or HR Agent, they simply download it and have software that fully integrates with their existing business today.”

For intelligent end-to-end automation, IPsoft offers 1Desk, which serves as an autonomic backbone for businesses. With 1Desk, Amelia serves as the conversational front-end, and companies integrate their backend enterprise systems into a single intelligent platform, that is powered by RPA, autonomics, cognitive AI and machine learning to automate IT and administrative tasks with a single command. “We’ve built a platform that is based around Amelia, she is really the core,” he explains. “Amelia integrates with all of our solutions and allows us to scale.” Considered the most human AI for the enterprise, Amelia delivers the best-in-class elements of human interaction - conversation, expression, emotion, and understanding to user experiences every day, driving deeper connections and greater business value. IPsoft first introduced Amelia to the market in 2013 and in the subsequent seven years since, the software has undergone significant development based on feedback, with the organisation now on version four of Amelia. “Version one was very much a traditional bot, and didn’t really understand the full extent of what the end user was trying to achieve,” explains Anderson. “Whereas today, we have a full conversational AI solution. We don’t refer to Amelia as a bot, we refer to her as a digital employee that supports multiple different functions throughout the business for internal employees and external customers.”

Amelia is multilingual and speaks up to 12 languages with natural language processing and understanding. “She is now omnichannel and she’s available via voice or video chat, you can even FaceTime her through a powerful front-end avatar that we have as well,” he says. “To transcend that further, her facial expressions are based on what you say. Whether she’s happy or sad, you will see that reflected clearly in her face.” Such innovation wouldn’t have been possible without client feedback and Anderson believes this feedback has enabled the voice of the customer to transform Amelia to the digital employee she is today. “We certainly don’t work in a vacuum and we’ve developed Amelia in sprints,” affirms Anderson. “We turn around changes extremely quickly and we evolve with the voice of the customer.”

Anderson likens the Amelia solution to a “Rolls-Royce” but recognises it may not be everyone’s choice of vehicle. “That’s why it’s vital that we’re aware of the niche things that each client would like to leverage the technology for but also that we’re able to articulate that,” he explains. “We will provide the opportunity to grow with the technology and provide support to companies that they may not need right now but will in the future.” Due to the impact COVID-19 has had on businesses, IPsoft has trained the software to provide support to people and help assess their risk of infection by answering several questions about coronavirus symptoms. “Amelia is helping to self diagnose people. They can explain their feelings to Amelia and if she felt like they had symptoms, she would provide directions on what to do next or where to go to get additional help. This speeds things up considerably as there’s simply not enough humans on the planet to answer the number of questions about this pandemic today.”

IPsoft believes in the value of partnerships and operates with Global Alliance Partners. Anderson understands how critical it is to bring in partners with a positive mindset. “We don’t want partners that are content to fail. We need partners that are in it to be successful and are willing to make the Amelia or IPsoft brand a success,” he explains. “It’s also important to us that we’re constantly engaged with our partners, we don’t just hand them the keys and let them go. We provide training and give them assistance wherever they need it. No one is their own island.”

“In my specific region, I oversee several different partners. TEKsystems and Virtusa are adopting our technology to use internally as well as deploying it out to some of the large financial institutions within the Southeast. We also work with Advocate, which is a consultancy that works c-levels to help them with digital transformation. When they talk about conversational AI or automation within a business, they lead with us. Those two partnerships play an influential role in how we get out there in the market.”

Anderson believes that sometimes people are quick to look at solutions such as Amelia and say that the software is taking jobs away from humans, but in reality, it’s not actually the case and he is trying to change that perception. “It’s augmenting humans and increasing efficiency,” he affirms. “Solutions like Amelia can solve all the mundane and tedious tasks and allow humans to focus on the more complex issues. Amelia is ultimately here to help.”