- Poised To Deliver Flexible Market Alternative By Creating The Most Advanced Speech, Touch And Text-Enabled Recognition And Understanding Technology
- Delivers On Promise To Enable “Interface Of Things” to Power Coming Wave Of Speech And Multi-Modal Devices And Services
FRANKLIN, MA – December 16, 2014 – With the goal of delivering the most accurate and conversational speech recognition and multi-modal interface solutions, Interactions Corporation today announced the completion of its acquisition of the AT&T Watsonsm technology program. With the close of this transaction, Interactions will drive development of the “Interface of Things,” a new wave of speech, touch and text-enabled interfaces with unprecedented accuracy and provide a true market alternative for OEMs, developers and enterprises.
“This acquisition allows Interactions to deliver fundamentally disruptive technology that will enable the development of highly intuitive interfaces for virtually any device or service and deliver on our vision for the ‘Interface of Things’” said Mike Iacobucci, CEO of Interactions Corporation. “Interactions will empower enterprises and developers to create solutions that otherwise wouldn’t be possible – enabling development of natural language solutions for smart automobiles, connected homes and wearable devices that respond naturally to human interaction.”
By combining AT&T Watson with Interactions’ award-winning Adaptive-Understanding™ technology, the company will make available speech and multi-modal capabilities that deliver unprecedented accuracy in understanding. This new technology platform will offer a meaningful alternative to the existing market options currently available for enterprises and developers.
“This is going to make the whole speech and natural language market much more interesting and dynamic,” said Dan Miller, senior analyst and founder, Opus Research. “Enterprises are looking to provide easier paths for consumers to carry out everyday activities over smartphones and other devices and need the tools to make this happen. Interactions, with AT&T technology, can fill this need. The deal marks a big change in the speech processing market.”
“This is an exciting transaction and the type of strategic move we like to see from a disrupter in a market starving for innovation,” said Craig Nankervis, senior vice president focusing on CRM optimization for investment firm First Analysis. “This deal offers Interactions the opportunity to deepen its core capabilities while also extending its market opportunities. In terms of fit, this is one of the better acquisitions we’ve seen in the contact center and voice-interface spaces.”
AT&T Watson is a globally renowned speech recognition and natural language understanding platform. The acquisition, coupled with Interactions’ existing technology portfolio, positions Interactions as the leading provider of speech and multi-modal technologies. The acquisition includes the transfer of assets related to AT&T Watson from AT&T Labs Advanced Technologies, including the AT&T Watson technology, certain patents and intellectual property and members of the talented research team, including world-class speech scientists, researchers and software engineers. In exchange, AT&T will receive an undisclosed equity stake in Interactions.
Interactions will offer developers, enterprises, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and others the opportunity to license Watson as a standalone technology or combined with Interactions’ other natural language understanding solutions to provide the most flexible solutions available. A host of delivery options, including cloud-based, on premise and embedded will be available to flexibly meet the varying needs of individual projects.
Interactions will announce specific product offerings throughout early 2015. Further information about the transaction is available at www.interactions.com.
About Interactions
Interactions Corporation develops and markets award-winning natural language understanding technology used by Fortune 500 companies worldwide. Built on its patented Adaptive-Understanding™ technology that seamlessly integrates both human and machine intelligence, Interactions provides highly conversational virtual assistant solutions. Companies such as Hyatt, Best Western, Humana, TXU Energy, Asurion and AllConnect deploy Interactions’ solutions,
The company’s sales, service and support solutions are delivered across any device with type, touch or talk capabilities, and have handled more than one billion transactions to date. Rooted in natural speech recognition and built to adapt to human conversation, Interactions’ solutions have delivered cost-savings and increased efficiencies in sales and support for some of the largest companies in the world. Interactions Corporation, founded in 2004, is headquartered in Franklin, Massachusetts and has additional offices located in Indianapolis, Indiana and Austin, Texas.
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