AI assistants are capable of quite a bit more than their living room responsibilities, although we very much appreciate that they can order us pizza and play Spotify. In the workplace, they’re helping to fill the gaps that commonly plague customer service: miscommunications, uninformed support agents, and meeting customers’ expectations. As much as machine learning has been touted for providing better customer experiences, it can help drive better customer engagement as well.

Expectations for the speed of support have skyrocketed. With literal instant messaging available between loved ones, friends, and coworkers, it’s an unsurprising evolution to expect instant responses from the companies we buy from. The number of U.S. online shoppers who use live chat has increased from 38% to 58% over the last five years.

As customers and companies become more familiar and comfortable with artificial intelligence, the conversations around it have become less “pie in the sky” and more along the lines of “oh, that’s how it can be used”. The speculations into how we might work alongside our robot coworkers and the potential of machine learning won’t end anytime soon, but there’s a lot to be said about practical applications of AI technology.

Get excited! With September comes the start of fall, which means a range of new app integrations. Track feedback, trends, and growth more efficiently with apps like Ybug, DirectCall, and ScopeAI, just to name a few.

As customers trend towards becoming more self-sufficient, they’re becoming more accustomed to interacting with AI-powered tools for the support they need (especially with 75 percent of executives looking to actively implement AI in the next three years). The benefit of customers engaging with these tools means that agents can get involved with fewer support requests and focus their attention on the ones that truly need a human touch.

SAN FRANCISCO – November 13, 2018 – Zendesk, Inc. (NYSE: ZEN) today launched Zendesk Sell, a sales force automation (SFA) tool to enhance productivity, processes, and pipeline visibility for sales teams. Sell stems from Zendesk’s acquisition of FutureSimple Inc., the company behind Base, in September 2018, and marks the first step in integrating the sales force automation software into the Zendesk family of products.

SAN FRANCISCO — September 10, 2018 — Zendesk, Inc. (NYSE: ZEN) today announced it has acquired FutureSimple Inc., the company behind Base. Base is known for building modern, easy-to-use sales force automation software designed to help salespeople do their jobs more effectively.

Happy agents, happy customers, right? That’s the premise that Zendesk was founded on, and over a decade later, our ease of use is still one of the top reasons that businesses love our customer service and engagement platform. Today we have news: We’re sharing that love with another—related—part of your business: the sales team. Zendesk announced today that we are acquiring Base.

SAN FRANCISCO – September 19, 2018 – Zendesk, Inc. (NYSE: ZEN) today announced that qualifying startups can now get The Zendesk Suite free for one year, giving growing companies the ability to build the best customer experiences into their businesses from the beginning.