Highlights:

  • Decagon claims to have built a robust generative AI platform for creating customer service agents that closely emulate human interactions.
  • Decagon explains that its advanced customer service chatbots are created by blending various third-party large language models with its own meticulously tuned AI algorithms

Recently, a startup specializing in generative artificial intelligence chatbots, Decagon AI Inc., has raised USD 35 million in an early-stage funding round to revolutionize emerging AI-powered customer support.

Recently announced, the Series A funding round was spearheaded by Accel, with participation from a16z and numerous esteemed angel investors. Among them are Aaron Levie, CEO of Box Inc., Howie Liu, CEO of Airtable Inc., Frederic Kerrest, Co-founder of Okta Inc., Ed Hallen, Co-founder of Klaviyo Inc., alongside prominent venture capitalists such as Aaref Hilaly from BCV Ventures and Mike Vernal from Sequoia.

Decagon has developed an advanced generative AI platform tailored to create customer service agents that emulate human-like capabilities, surpassing mere conversational responses. The company asserts its chatbots excel in managing a range of intricate tasks crucial for effective customer support, facilitating more contextual and engaging interactions with customers. Simultaneously, the platform enhances customer support team leaders’ visibility over their automated customer experience operations.

Decagon Co-founder and CEO Jesse Zhang states that the company’s chatbots are uniquely equipped to handle the entire customer support lifecycle, extending beyond the basic conversational layer. These chatbots can navigate complex business logic to perform actions for agents, analyze trends, write new knowledge base articles, and more. According to Zhang, the chatbots also enhance their performance over time by learning from customer feedback.

Zhang acknowledged that chatbots are already widely used in the customer service sector. Still, he claimed that many of them are only able to provide “fancy demos” that capitalize on the generative AI hype. However, Decagon has developed an AI agent that can understand an enterprise’s business complexity and offer assistance that is similar to that of a human.

He said, “Just like a human support agent, our AI agents can do more than just answer customer queries. By integrating with our customers’ existing workflows, we can take tangible action on behalf of the customer, such as processing a refund request or postponing an upcoming shipment.”

The startup reports that its chatbots have already made a significant impact at Eventbrite Inc., Ballarpur Industries Ltd. (Bilt), Webflow Inc., Rippling People Center Inc., Substack Inc., and various other Fortune 1000 companies since launching its technology in beta less than a year ago.

These companies also value the enhanced visibility Decagon provides for their customer experience operations. The startup’s platform includes an extensive analytics dashboard that automatically reviews and categorizes each customer conversation to identify themes and trends. It also suggests and writes new additions to the company’s knowledge base based on customer interactions, allowing it to improve its ability to address customer inquiries continuously.

Decagon attributes its advanced customer service chatbots to a blend of third-party large language models and its proprietary, fine-tuned AI algorithms. This approach allows the company to customize and combine different models to address various customer service tasks effectively. Routine testing of typical scenarios guarantees that the chatbots maintain their helpfulness, friendliness, accuracy, and avoid any toxic or inaccurate responses.

Accel Partner Ivan Zhou said he believes Decagon’s team has fixed a critical pain point in the customer support business, having realized that most AI chatbots aren’t delivering the value they claim to provide. “We’ve been excited by the customers they’ve onboarded, and also impressed by how thrilled each customer has been with the Decagon experience,” Zhou said.

Moving forward, Decagon plans to use the funds from the current round to enhance its chatbots further and grow its business.