Vonage Launches Chatbot Integration for Workplace by Facebook

Vonage, a business cloud communications leader, has announced the launch of its newest chatbot, Vee for Workplace by Facebook. An exciting development within the cloud communications industry, Vonage has partnered with Facebook to provide Workplace users with virtual assistant capabilities to create and manage AI-enabled conferencing.

Vee for Workplace uses simple bot commands to leverage cloud-based APIs via Nexmo, the Vonage API Platform, and Vonage’s Unified Communications APIs, to integrate cloud communications features directly into the Workplace collaboration platform, including the ability to initiate and manage conferencing and calling. In addition, Vonage Business Cloud customers receive real-time interactive call alerts, can respond to calls with SMS quick replies, and redial callers at their convenience, all from within Workplace.

“Business communications should focus on improving internal collaboration and connection for employees beyond phone system capabilities,” said Omar Javaid, Chief Product Officer for Vonage. “Partnering with Workplace to deliver innovative, advanced communications capabilities to enhance productivity and the user experience within the collaboration platform is a natural extension of Vonage’s communications offering. By providing the tools businesses need to empower their workforce to more easily and efficiently connect with each other, we are helping them to drive better business outcomes.”

Vonage is uniquely positioned to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into specific real-time conversational use cases for employees to connect within collaboration platforms like Workplace, enabling enhanced productivity. Nexmo’s Voice API and proprietary websocket technology opens up these capabilities and audio streams to control the conversation and analyze it in real-time.

For Workplace, through a partnership with voice-centric AI pioneer Voicera, Vonage allows users to mention Vee in a post, which enables them to start an AI-powered conference bridge. Vee then offers quick reply buttons to highlight or add comments to the meeting transcription and recording. At the conclusion of the call, users will receive highlights, actions, meeting analytics, and the ability to share with the Workplace group.

To further enhance the Workplace experience, Vonage has partnered with BOT providers, such as Converse.AI (acquired by SmartSheet), that have embedded Vonage building blocks into their framework. This allows further customization of the collaboration ecosystem to suit a business’ unique needs for real-time communications, such as SMS, voice, number insight and personalized workflows.

“This integration is a great example of ingenuity in technology driving direct benefits for customers and in turn, supporting better business operations,” said Anand Dass, Partnerships at Workplace by Facebook.

In addition to the integration of chatbots within Workplace by Facebook, Vonage is embracing chatbot technology for its own customer experience via the Vonage Business Cloud platform. Vonage’s Vee virtual assistantbot augments the customer experience, helping businesses to streamline management and monitoring of their account in real-time, as well as access support, all via simple, natural language text commands.

Check out a demo of Vee for Workplace at the F8 2018 Facebook Developer Conference in the Workplace Stand in Festival Hall, or download Vee directly from the Workplace integration directory.