Google acquires Onward, a customer service automation company

Customer service is a massive global industry that is worth tens of billions of dollars. Corporations constantly strive to improve the quality of their customer service apparatus, to cater to a changing market and a burgeoning base of existing and potential customers. A startup called Onward has developed techniques for companies to automate customer services. What’s more is that this ambitious startup has been acquired by the internet behemoth Google. It was founded by Remi Cossart and Pramod Thammaiah, who will be joining Google, along with CTO Aaron Podolny. However, the exact nature and terms of the deal with Google have not been disclosed.

Onward’s technology allows companies to have an artificial intelligence (AI) powered chat to make optimum use of their resources. The AI module will certainly pave the way for service providers to give their customers tailor-made services, to suit specific needs. But, for the time being, humans cannot be completely replaced by machines, especially when it comes to customer service. The technology developed by Onward will also pass on the control to human operators when the customer request gets too complex for AI to independently complete the task.

The customer services industry employs millions of people all across the globe and it is too early as of now to know if all those jobs might be lost to automation.