Twilio Adds a New Data Layer and Copilot to Flex, Aims to Build Momentum In CCaaS

Twilio has launched two innovations for its Flex CCaaS platform: Unified Profiles and an Agent Copilot.

Announced at Enterprise Connect 2024, the Unified Profiles solution adds a native data layer to Flex, powered by Segment, Twilio’s customer data platform (CDP).

That data layer pulls together CRM, warehouse, and real-time tracking data for a “complete view” of every customer.

Such a view may include the customer’s conversation history, preference data, sentiment, predicted actions, possible products of interest, and more.

The Unified Profiles offering also feeds Twilio’s second innovation: Agent Copilot. The virtual assistant aims to make “every interaction smarter” through intelligent routing, delivering real-time context to agents, and generative AI-powered contact summaries.

The summaries include automated disposition codes and sentiment insights – as evident in the introductory video below.

Commenting on the new solutions, Meera Vaidyanathan, VP of Product at Twilio, said:

These new products fill the missing piece for businesses looking to leverage data and AI to deliver consistent customer value across different touchpoints.

“This capability has the potential to transform every customer interaction for brands and empower businesses to enhance customer satisfaction, reduce handle time, and increase employee productivity.”

In addition, the launch of Unified Profiles reaffirms the importance of Segment in driving Twilio’s roadmap forward – with this the first of three products Twilio will bring to market this year that embed Segment’s data into its Communications offerings.

That plan came to the fore shortly after an activist investor implored Twilio to sell its Segment business – which includes Twilio Engage alongside its namesake CDP – earlier this year in a push for profitability. Twilio then held a formal review of its future.

The review acknowledged that Segment continues to underwhelm from a revenue perspective, contributing just seven percent to Twilio’s overall earnings.

Yet, the review also endorsed the role Segment could play in adding value to Twilio’s somewhat disjointed portfolio, helping to pull it all together.

The Unified Profiles solution underlines this potential, and early-adopters have spoken positively about its impact on customer, agent, and business outcomes.

For example, Iván Cantú, COO of Universidad Uk, shared his team’s experiences with the new technologies, stating:

We’ve seen significant improvements in our support operations and student interaction since integrating Twilio’s Unified Profiles and Agent Copilot.

“In just two months, we’ve reduced the average handling time for academic inquiries by 30 percent and, by deploying an AI bot informed by Unified Profiles in real-time to handle a majority of student queries, deflected 70 percent of our support cases.

“By combining real-time data from various sources into Flex, we’ve streamlined our communication processes and proactively supported students in need, furthering our mission to enhance education access in Latin America and Spanish speakers in the US.”

Additional benefits reported by early-adopters include quicker time to resolution, more contextualized interactions, higher CSAT scores, and reduced operational inefficiencies.

A New Lease of Life for Flex

In recent years, analysts have labeled Segment a distraction from what it had originally tried to achieve in the CCaaS space – as a recent CX Today panel discussion underlined.

Launching in 2018, Twilio framed Flex as a developer’s paradise, serving up building blocks that allow businesses to piece together the solution that works best for them.

That came only months after AWS introduced a similar proposition with Amazon Connect.

Since then, Connect has gained much more market traction. Why? Because AWS recognized that some businesses prefer to have elements pre-built and adapted its strategy. Twilio didn’t.

However, Twilio has signaled that it’s ready to evolve its CCaaS proposition this year. First, it pulled Flex into its more profitable Communications business, and now, it is launching these innovations.

The Unified Profiles offering is perhaps the more eye-catching – as contact centers still struggle to create the “complete” view of each customer that Twilio promises.

Mila D’Antonio, Principal Analyst at Omdia, takes this point further. “Businesses struggle to piece together a comprehensive view of the customer due to siloed data and complex system integrations, hindering their ability to leverage AI and deliver personalized customer experiences,” she said.

Twilio’s launch of Unified Profiles and Agent Copilot provides real-time data to agents, helping them better understand customer activities, preferences, and traits, streamlining operations and enhancing customer interactions.

Moreover, as the Universidad Uk example highlights, the Unified Profiles may feed other contact center solutions – such as a virtual agent – and maximize their value.

Yet, will such moves be enough to keep Twilio amongst the star names in an increasingly crowded CCaaS space? That’s the billion-dollar question.