We at Seller Accountant not only follow the E-Commerce market but look out for developments that may affect all of us. The following blog is to help understand how current market trends show where business is heading.
On June 25, some of the biggest tech giants, Amazon Alexa Fund, Comcast Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures, all played a part in a $27 million Series C investment for Tact.ai. The investment made the new investors strategic partners. Microsoft Ventures and other private VC firms have previously raised another $26 million–equalling a total investment of $53 million in Tact.ai.
What is Tact.ai?
Tact.ai is “a new system of workflow for sellers — powered by AI running on edge devices — to transform their everyday sales activities”. The product’s target demographic is sales teams that are looking to make their workplaces more efficient. The company’s product goal is to spend less time retrieving information from databases and more time accelerating revenue growth. Tact.ai claims a return on investment for sales teams to increase to a 13-month selling year, 5% increase in win rates, and a 35% faster sales cycle. This software is a virtual assistant that has two products: AI Sales Assistant and Intelligence workplace.
Sales Assistant is a product determined to become the ultimate tool for a business. The product integrates every part of your system (e.g contacts, events, tasks) and gives you what you need before you even know you need it. The system includes an integrated “sales assistant” that can log any call or message, answer questions, and much more.
Intelligence workplace integrates all your information into one office system for you, your customers, and employees. It is an ultimate group chat for business with an intergrated AI; giving you the ability to delete the office boundaries and to close sales with more fluidity than ever.
What the Investment Means?
The purpose of this article is not to focus on the product but what the investment means for the present and the future. It is unusual for three competing companies to be able to come together and invest in a product. Usually, companies go into bid wars until one comes out on top; the cooperation between the companies shows us that this technology is something that everyone sees to be the future. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and voice assistance are leading the way in technology innovation right now. Companies want to use this technology to not only to optimize their workplaces but to help generate extra revenue. Besides Task.ai, other Startup companies in this field have landed large investments; for example, a company called Conversica, an automated sales assistant software, received a $34 million Series B.
As seen through the constant developments of Alexa, Amazon wants to be the leader in sensory technology. Tact.ai was once one of the first apps on Alexa for Business and, with the influence of Amazon, is going to be introduced into cars. To eliminate wasted time, Tact.ai believes adding a hands-free personal assistant would optimize a normal car to an integrated business system. The chances are that the average person will use this product in their car is slim to none; on the other hand, it is important to view the whole picture of this investment. It will only be a matter of time until we see Alexa or Cortona in the average car.
Another notable section to take away from this deal is the investment in an Edge technology product. As seen in the graph below, Edge technology sits at the entrance for data entry. The innovating technology is able to cut out the data’s need to go to the cloud (the center for data storage). This product does not replace the cloud but performs tasks that the cloud is unable to perform. Edge technology is a data shortcut that is able to learn and process information faster than ever before. This increase in speed is due to Edge’s ability to cut out the data’s travel time to the central server. Edge is only beginning to show its capabilities and will soon enough take over a greater part of our world. Here is the first ever list of Edge 50: the biggest influencers for the growing technology.
