Written byKelly O'Halloran
Chatbots are taking over the world. Not quite — but they are becoming more widely adopted in roles like customer service, helping companies manage client inquiries faster. And with more use cases comes more startups getting in on the action, like these six from Austin. Take a look at some of the local teams joining the bot revolution. After three years in development, OJO, the real estate AI assistant from OJO Labs , helps future buyers find the perfect home. OJO answers questions from interested buyers at any time of the day, while gaining valuable insights into the user’s property preferences to make recommendations. The startup, co-founded by John Berkowitz, CEO, and David Rubin, chief strategy officer, made news this May when it raised over $20 million from investors to expand its team. Cisco’s WebEx messaging services and Slack dominate the market for internal communication tools in the tech industry. While chat tools are convenient, utilizing multiple platforms at once can be counterproductive. That’s where M.io comes in. The Austin startup built a solution that allots for universal messaging across various chat platforms from one login. Plus, companies can approve external contacts as well to chat within M.io’s system. Since 2015, Howdy has established itself as a team of bot-building experts. The startup creates work chat systems, customer support bots, marketing automation bots, add ons for Slack and other custom projects by partnering with businesses in need. It also offers hosted solutions to help developers build their own applications, called Botkit and Botkit Studio. Auto Labs introduced its AI assistant, Ruby, to the auto industry last year. In her role at car dealerships, Ruby supports sales teams, service staff and managers in an effort to improve customer service, communication, retention and reviews. She does this by automating the processes of scheduling sales and service appointments, providing service quotes, giving real-time vehicle updates to clients and more. Conversable has stood out in a growing industry by providing customers with both voice and messaging machine learning services — as opposed to just one or the other. The company, led by CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm, launched in 2016 and offers a toolbox of automation solutions in addition to its messaging services on channels like Messenger, Twitter, We, SMS, Alexa and Google Assistant. Additional services include bot building kits, scheduled messaging notifications and deployment management controls.

6 Austin Chatbot Startups and Tech Companies You Should Know Observability Platform LogicMonitor Launches Edwin AI 68 Software C...

The Global Affective Computing Market size is expected to reach $123. 3 billion by 2026, rising at a market growth of 36. 4% CAGR during the forecast period. Affective computing is also termed as emotional artificial intelligence. | Source: ReportLinker
New York, Sept.  28, 2020  (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Global Affective Computing Market By Component, By Technology, By End User, By Region, Industry Analysis and Forecast, 2020 - 2026" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05975409/?utm_source=GNW
It predicts interactions between human beings and a computer, in which the computer recognizes the stimuli of the user and responds accordingly. For example, a computation device that is operated by emotional artificial intelligence can potentially examine the facial gestures of a student while he is studying a particular subject, and understand whether there is any problem in understanding a particular topic, and give directions to the student about the suitable resources that are helpful in understanding the topic. Several supportive devices, such as cameras and sensors, assist in collecting the inputs in various forms such as different physical and facial gestures. These inputs are further scanned by different algorithms for analysis to estimate the emotional state of the user. Other subtle or subconscious signs of the users can also be addressed by using suitable devices and appropriate IT systems to smooth effective interactions. As a result of this, Affective computing is finding and exploring its applications across various industries and industry verticals to estimate and examine subconscious feedbacks of the customers. The recent outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has prompted organizations to put up a break to the biometric participation for workers. This has given the opportunities to the technologies which are beyond the physical interactions. Lockdowns are now coming to an end in many of the geographies and organizations are step by step resuming activities from their premises. At this point, organizations stay excited about embracing gestures, speech, and facial acknowledgment programming for attendance purposes as well as for all the applications utilizing biometric boundaries. For example, a gesture-based or voice-based contactless biometrics framework could be actualized at air terminals for getting tickets. Ventures would be adopting Affective computing touchless cooperation on a priority basis and at a fast pace in the wake of the episode of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on Component, the market is segmented into Software and Hardware. Software segment is further classified across Speech Recognition, Enterprise Software, Face Recognition, Analytics Software and Others. Hardware segment is further segmented into Sensors, Storage Devices & Processors and Cameras & Others. Based on Technology, the market is segmented into Touch Based and Touchless. Based on End User, the market is segmented into Healthcare, Media & Entertainment, BFSI, Automotive, IT & Telecom, Retail & E-commerce and Others. Based on Regions, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Latin America, Middle East & Africa. The major strategies followed by the market participants are Partnerships and Product Launches. Based on the Analysis presented in the Cardinal matrix; Microsoft Corporation, Google, Inc. and Apple, Inc. are the forerunners in the Affective Computing Market. Companies such as IBM Corporation, Eyesight Technologies Ltd., and Vocalis Health, Cognitec Systems GmbH, Qualcomm, Inc., and Elliptic Laboratories A/S are some of the key innovators in the market. The market research report covers the analysis of key stake holders of the market. Key companies profiled in the report include IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, Google, Inc., Apple, Inc., Qualcomm, Inc., Elliptic Laboratories A/S, Congnitec Systems GmbH, GestureTek, Inc., Eyesight Technologies Ltd., and Vocalis Health. Recent strategies deployed in Affective Computing Market
Partnerships, Collaborations, and Agreements:
Jun-2020: Elliptic Labs collaborated with Qualcomm Platform Solutions Ecosystem. Following the collaboration, the former company’s AI Virtual Smart Sensor Platform would be available to OEMs designing devices based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Mobile Platform. This collaboration provided critical user experiences, such as contextual awareness with Elliptic’s INNER BEAUTY AI Virtual Proximity Sensor and AI Virtual Presence Sensor, and an intuitive user interface with AI Virtual Gesture Sensor, for the smartphone industry’s next growth phase with 5G’s expansion. Apr-2020: Elliptic Labs extended its collaboration with Xiaomi, the world’s third-largest smartphone manufacturer. Together, the companies launched the Mi 10 Youth and Mi 10 Lite smartphones, the latest Xiaomi smartphones to feature Elliptic Labs’ INNER BEAUTY AI Virtual Proximity Sensor. Mar-2020: Qualcomm announced its collaboration with Infineon, a semiconductor manufacturing company. The collaboration was aimed to develop a reference design for a new 3D authentication system. The system is built with Infineon’s REAL3 3D Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensor and is based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Mobile Platform. Together, the companies unveiled a new 3D image sensor with VGA resolution. Feb-2020: Qualcomm collaborated with TrinamiX GmbH, a leader in 3D imaging and infrared sensing technologies. The latter company joined Qualcomm Software Accelerator Program to enable its patented technology for "live skin" detection as the new gold-standard for facial recognition across mobile devices. Through this collaboration, the OEM customers will now be able to use the TrinamiX proprietary "Beam Profile Analysis" technology, which extracts 3 data streams from a single camera system: a 2D IR image, a 3D depth map, and material classification. Jan-2020: Elliptic Labs came into partnership with Texas Instruments, a technology company. Following the partnership, Elliptic launched the new ultrasonic sensing capabilities for next-generation smart devices based on audio amplifier technology from Texas Instruments (TI). When used with TI’s TAS5825M Class-D audio amplifier, Elliptic Labs’ AI Virtual Smart Sensor Platform software enabled designers to easily add new interactive features to their systems through the transmission of always-on, low-power ultrasonic tones from the amplifier. Jun-2019: Eyesight Technologies partnered with Ambarella, a fabless semiconductor design company. Under the partnership, the companies integrated its biometric facial -recognition-powered DriverSense driver monitoring system (DMS) with Ambarella CVflow automotive SoCs (system-on-chips) to enable OEMs and Tier-1 automotive manufactures to offer driver recognition and attentiveness monitoring. Acquisition and Mergers:
Jan-2020: Apple acquired Xnor.ai, a Seattle startup specializing in low-power, edge-based artificial intelligence tools. Following this acquisition, the company aimed to embed its AI-enabled image recognition tools as the standard features in future iPhones and webcams. May-2018: Microsoft signed an agreement to acquire XOXCO, a company with conversational AI, and bot development capabilities. The acquisition would amplify the company’s focus on conversational AI, as well as to develop tools for empowering people to create experiences that do more with speech and language. Jan-2016: Apple took over Emotient, a company that uses artificial intelligence to analyze the facial expression and detect emotion. The acquisition helped Apple in providing businesses with ’Emotient KPIs’ in three areas: attention, engagement, and sentiment. This enabled businesses to better understand the emotional connection and attention being given to their advertising and products. Product Launches and Product Expansions:
Apr-2020: Google announced an update for the Pixel 4. The feature requires users to have their eyes open when using face unlock to open the phone. The update introduces a “require eyes to be open” feature, which is enabled by default. It offers an extra security measure, but it can be disabled through the option in the Pixel 4’s face unlock settings. Jun-2019: Microsoft released four free “Eyes First” games for people with speech and mobility disabilities. They can play games, such as tile slide, match two, double up, and maze using the eye gaze input. Scope of the Study

Global Affective Computing Market By Component, By Technology, By End User, By Region, Industry Analysis and Forecast, 2020 - 2026

Microsoft Buys XOXCO
Microsoft said on Wednesday that it has acquired Austin, Texased-based XOXCO , a developer of conversational artificial intelligence (AI) technology used to power conversational "bots" for the Slack platform. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. XOXCO was founded in 2013, and is known for Howdy, the Slack bot which helps with meeting scheduling, and Botkit, a development tool for Github. Microsoft said the acquisition is part of a series of acquisition it has made over the last six months to accelerate its AI development pace.

Microsoft Buys XOXCO

Insights by Component (Platform, Service [Support & Maintenance, Training & Consulting, System Integration]), by Deployment (Cloud-Based, On-Premises), by Type (Chatbot, Intelligent Virtual Assistant {IVA}, Intelligent Interactive Voice Response {IVR} System), by Industry (BFSI, Retail & E-Commerce, Healthcare, Hospitality, Telecom, Media & Entertainment, Energy & Utilities, Oil & Gas, Government, Others), Technology (Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, Automated Speech Recognition, Computer Vision, Video Recognition, Others), by Application (Customer Support , Personal Assistant, Branding & Advertisement, Customer Engagement & Retention, Onboarding & Employee Engagement)
| Source: VynZ Research
NEW YORK, Nov.  22, 2019  (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global conversational AI market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 29.2% during the forecast period with its market size predicted to reach USD 16.2 billion by 2024. Globally, conversational AI industry players are leveraging market growth through product launches, partnerships, mergers & acquisitions, and geographic expansion. For example, in November 2018, Microsoft Corporation signed an agreement to acquire Xoxco Inc.
Get a free copy of sample report: https://www.vynzresearch.com/ict-media/conversational-ai-market/request-sample
Machine learning category is expected to witness fastest growth in the conversational AI market during the forecast period
On the basis of technology, the conversational AI market is segmented into natural language processing, machine learning, automatic speech recognition, computer vision, video recognition, and others. Of all, machine learning category is expected to witness fastest growth in the conversational AI market during the forecast period. The growth of this segment is attributed to the fact that with the help of machine learning, conversational AI solutions are able to learn from previous responses based on different queries, which in turn is growing the capability of the machine in answering questions. Based on application, the conversational AI market is categorized into customer support, personal assistant, branding & advertisement, customer engagement and retention, onboarding & employee engagement. Of all, personal assistant category is expected to witness fastest growth in the conversational AI market during the forecast period. Geography Insight
Geographically, North America has accounted for the largest share in conversational AI market, globally and is predicted to grow significantly during the forecast period. The growth of this market is attributed towards the existence of a large number of established players such as Google LLC, International Business Machines Corporation, Oracle Corporation, and Microsoft Corporation, increasing number of investments related to  integration of machine learning and NLP, rapid technological advancements, and continuous focus of government on spending in AI-based technologies in the region. Competitive Insight
Some of the key players operating in the global conversational AI market are Nuance Communications Inc., Haptik Inc., Oracle Corporation, Google LLC, Microsoft Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation, SAP SE, Baidu Inc., Conversica Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Solvvy Inc., Creative Virtual Ltd., Avaamo Inc., Inbenta Technologies Inc., Artificial Solutions International AB, and Kore.ai Inc.
Do you have any specific research requirement? Ask for customization: https://www.vynzresearch.com/ict-media/conversational-ai-market/customize-report
Key Takeaway from the Report:
Among all the components, platform category held larger share in the market in 2018. Of all service category, support and maintenance service category is expected to witness faster growth during the forecast period. Of all the deployment, cloud-based category held larger share in the market in 2018, and is also expected to exhibit faster growth during the forecast period. Of all the types, chatbot category held largest share in the market in 2018. Among all the technologies, the machine learning category is expected to witness fastest growth in the conversational AI market during the forecast period. Of all the application, personal assistant category is expected to witness fastest growth in the conversational AI market during the forecast period. Geographically, North America has accounted for the largest share in conversational AI market, globally and is predicted to grow significantly during the forecast period. The Report Offers:
Insight on current market trends, market dynamics, key opportunities and major challenges in the industry
Market insights by in-depth segmentation with industry dynamics. Competitive analysis and benchmarking of the industry leaders and their product offerings
Profiles of leading players and innovators, their financial overview and product portfolio
Analysis of key industry trends and recent developments
Value chain analysis and distribution channel analysis with opportunity assessment
Market share analysis of major players
Benefits of Report Purchase from VynZ:
Detailed Research
Robust Research Methodology
Analyst Support
24*7 analyst support – Pre and post purchase of the report as well as during the project tenure. Sales Support
24*7 sales support – Hassle free delivery of the report and quick response and support by sales team. Free Customization
Customer Satisfaction
Security
High level of data security and confidentiality of your information. The report provides the market value for the base year 2018 and a yearly forecast till 2024 in terms of revenue (USD Billion). The report segments the global conversational AI market on the basis of component, deployment, type, industry, technology, application, and region. Global Conversational AI Market Coverage
Component Insight and Forecast 2014-2024
Platform
Chatbot
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Global Conversational AI Market is Set to Reach USD 16.2 billion by 2024, Observing a CAGR of 29.2% during 2019–2024: VynZ Research

Global Conversational AI Market is Set to Reach USD 16.2 billion by 2024, Observing a CAGR of 29.2% during 2019-2024, #artificialintelligence
Insights by Component (Platform, Service [Support & Maintenance, Training & Consulting, System Integration]), by Deployment (Cloud-Based, On-Premises), by Type (Chatbot, Intelligent Virtual Assistant {IVA}, Intelligent Interactive Voice Response {IVR} System), by Industry (BFSI, Retail & E-Commerce, Healthcare, Hospitality, Telecom, Media & Entertainment, Energy & Utilities, Oil & Gas, Government, Others), Technology (Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, Automated Speech Recognition, Computer Vision, Video Recognition, Others), by Application (Customer Support , Personal Assistant, Branding & Advertisement, Customer Engagement & Retention, Onboarding & Employee Engagement)
 
NEW YORK - November 22, 2019 (Investorideas.com Newswire) The global conversational AI market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 29.2% during the forecast period with its market size predicted to reach USD 16.2 billion by 2024. Globally, conversational AI industry players are leveraging market growth through product launches, partnerships, mergers & acquisitions, and geographic expansion. For example, in November 2018, Microsoft Corporation signed an agreement to acquire Xoxco Inc.
Get a free copy of sample report: https://www.vynzresearch.com/ict-media/conversational-ai-market/request-sample
Machine learning category is expected to witness fastest growth in the conversational AI market during the forecast period
On the basis of technology, the conversational AI market is segmented into natural language processing, machine learning, automatic speech recognition, computer vision, video recognition, and others. Of all, machine learning category is expected to witness fastest growth in the conversational AI market during the forecast period. The growth of this segment is attributed to the fact that with the help of machine learning, conversational AI solutions are able to learn from previous responses based on different queries, which in turn is growing the capability of the machine in answering questions. Based on application, the conversational AI market is categorized into customer support, personal assistant, branding & advertisement, customer engagement and retention, onboarding & employee engagement. Of all, personal assistant category is expected to witness fastest growth in the conversational AI market during the forecast period. Explore key industry insights in  99 tables and 55  figures from the 179 pages of report, "Global Conversational AI Market Analysis and Forecast to 2024 - Insights by Component (Platform, Service [Support & Maintenance, Training & Consulting, System Integration]), by Deployment (Cloud-Based, On-Premises), by Type (Chatbot, Intelligent Virtual Assistant {IVA}, Intelligent Interactive Voice Response {IVR} System), by Industry (BFSI, Retail & E-Commerce, Healthcare, Hospitality, Telecom, Media & Entertainment, Energy & Utilities, Oil & Gas, Government, Others), Technology (Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, Automated Speech Recognition, Computer Vision, Video Recognition, Others), by Application (Customer Support , Personal Assistant, Branding & Advertisement, Customer Engagement & Retention, Onboarding & Employee Engagement)"
Geography Insight
Geographically, North America has accounted for the largest share in conversational AI market, globally and is predicted to grow significantly during the forecast period. The growth of this market is attributed towards the existence of a large number of established players such as Google LLC, International Business Machines Corporation, Oracle Corporation, and Microsoft Corporation, increasing number of investments related to  integration of machine learning and NLP, rapid technological advancements, and continuous focus of government on spending in AI-based technologies in the region. Competitive Insight
Some of the key players operating in the global conversational AI market are Nuance Communications Inc., Haptik Inc., Oracle Corporation, Google LLC, Microsoft Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation, SAP SE, Baidu Inc., Conversica Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Solvvy Inc., Creative Virtual Ltd., Avaamo Inc., Inbenta Technologies Inc., Artificial Solutions International AB, and Kore.ai Inc.
Do you have any specific research requirement? Ask for customization: https://www.vynzresearch.com/ict-media/conversational-ai-market/customize-report
Key Takeaway from the Report:
Among all the components, platform category held larger share in the market in 2018. Of all service category, support and maintenance service category is expected to witness faster growth during the forecast period. Of all the deployment, cloud-based category held larger share in the market in 2018, and is also expected to exhibit faster growth during the forecast period. Of all the types, chatbot category held largest share in the market in 2018. Among all the technologies, the machine learning category is expected to witness fastest growth in the conversational AI market during the forecast period. Of all the application, personal assistant category is expected to witness fastest growth in the conversational AI market during the forecast period. Geographically, North America has accounted for the largest share in conversational AI market, globally and is predicted to grow significantly during the forecast period
.

Global Conversational AI Market is Set to Reach USD 16.2 billion by 2024, Observing a CAGR of 29.2% during 2019-2024, #artificialintelligence

Botmetrics analyzes and improves customer satisfaction for chat and voice interfaces. It measures every user interaction, offers conversation-specific analytics, and has marketing automation. It was founded in 2016 and is based in San Francisco, California. Botmetrics was acquired By Microsoft.

Botmetrics

Early chatbot believers Howdy and Bot Metrics join forces to deliver on the promise of bots

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Acquired

Howdy AI focuses on task automation within teams, offering solutions for meeting management. The company provides a trainable bot that automates tasks, serving as a digital coworker to assist teams in their work. It was founded in 2015 and is based in Austin, Texas. In November 2018, Howdy AI was acquired by Microsoft.

Date	Round	Amount	Investors	Valuation Valuations are submitted by companies, mined from state filings or news, provided by VentureSource, or based on a comparables valuation model.	Revenue	Sources
11/14/2018	Acquired		Microsoft	$XXM	0 FY undefined	11
12/15/2015	Seed VC - II		Subscribe to see more	$XXM	0 FY undefined	10
10/20/2015	Seed VC	$XXM	Subscribe to see more	$XXM	0 FY undefined	10

Date	11/14/2018	12/15/2015	10/20/2015
Round	Acquired	Seed VC - II	Seed VC
Amount			$XXM
Investors	Microsoft	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more
Valuation	$XXM	$XXM	$XXM
Revenue	0 FY undefined	0 FY undefined	0 FY undefined
Sources	11	10	10

First funding	Last Funding	Investor	Rounds	Type	Location
11/14/2018	11/14/2018	Microsoft	1 Acquired	Corporation	Washington
00/00/0000	00/00/0000	Slack Fund	Subscribe to see more	Corporate Venture	California
00/00/0000	00/00/0000	True Ventures	Subscribe to see more	Venture Capital	California
00/00/0000	00/00/0000	Betaworks	Subscribe to see more	Venture Capital	New York
00/00/0000	00/00/0000	Bloomberg Beta	Subscribe to see more	Corporate Venture	California

First funding	11/14/2018	00/00/0000	00/00/0000	00/00/0000	00/00/0000
Last Funding	11/14/2018	00/00/0000	00/00/0000	00/00/0000	00/00/0000
Investor	Microsoft	Slack Fund	True Ventures	Betaworks	Bloomberg Beta
Rounds	1 Acquired	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more
Board Seats
Type	Corporation	Corporate Venture	Venture Capital	Venture Capital	Corporate Venture
Location	Washington	California	California	New York	California

How VCs Use CB Insights

Professional Services

Platform Overview

Howdy AI

Total Raised

Investors Count

Funding, Valuation & Revenue

Howdy AI Investors