News
The Gist
- Simulation capability launch. NiCE introduced Cognigy Simulator for enterprise AI agent testing.
- Continuous performance evaluation. Tool enables ongoing, large-scale testing with quantitative scoring criteria.
- CX operations impact. Customer experience leaders gain safer, data-driven deployment and refinement of AI agents.
NiCE launched Cognigy Simulator on Jan. 20, giving enterprises a new way to stress-test AI agents before they touch real customers.
According to company officials, the tool uses digital twins and synthetic customers to simulate thousands of interactions simultaneously. Every simulation run is scored against criteria including task completion, guardrail adherence, integration reliability and experience quality.
"Simulator provides data-informed testing and reporting to help organizations understand AI Agent performance and compliance alignment, so organizations can make deployment decisions with confidence," said Philipp Heltewig, general manager, NiCE Cognigy and chief AI officer.
Table of Contents
- Testing for Better Agent Experience
- Cognigy Simulator Capabilities
- NiCE-Cognigy: Conversational AI, Agentic AI Meets Customer Service
- The Grind of Agentic Customer Experience
- NICE Background
Testing for Better Agent Experience
Simulator integrates continuous testing directly into CX operations, ensuring AI Agents are routinely exercised, measured and improved across build, deploy and optimization cycles.
- Philipp Heltewig, general manager, chief AI officer
NICE Cognigy
Cognigy Simulator Capabilities
NiCE asserts the tool addresses the need for continuous AI agent refinement in production environments.
| Capability | Description |
|---|---|
| Scalable Testing | Thousands of synthetic conversations via on-demand or automated tests |
| Automated Scenario Generation | Auto-builds scenarios with personas and success criteria from transcripts |
| Quantitative Evaluation | Scores runs on task completion, guardrails and experience quality |
| Safe Integration Simulation | Emulates third-party API responses including error conditions |
| A/B & Variant Comparison | Compares prompt strategies, guardrails and foundation models |
NiCE-Cognigy: Conversational AI, Agentic AI Meets Customer Service
In July 2025, NICE entered a definitive agreement to acquire Cognigy for approximately $955 million, with the deal closing in September 2025 ahead of the original Q4 target. The company integrated Cognigy's conversational AI and agentic AI capabilities into its CXone Mpower platform. In October 2025, NiCE launched the AI Ops Center, an operational control layer designed to ensure AI agent performance and reliability.
NiCE strengthened its ecosystem through several strategic partnerships in 2025. In June, the company partnered with Snowflake to unify customer experience data. In August, NiCE renewed and expanded its partnership with RingCentral and strengthened its Salesforce partnership.
Related Article: Can NiCE Hit the Jackpot With Agentic AI and New Brand Vision?
The Grind of Agentic Customer Experience
Deploying production-grade AI agents in customer experience demands systematic evaluation, continuous monitoring and adaptive learning at scale.
AI in CX requires ongoing calibration rather than set-and-forget deployment. Organizations should monitor AI logic bi-weekly, test against live customer data and adjust based on observed patterns.
Effective AI agent management also demands breaking down organizational silos. Best practices include building cross-functional oversight teams, tracking outcomes and user feedback to refine existing processes and establishing clear governance models before scaling.
PwC research found only 35% of companies have achieved broad AI agent adoption, signaling significant opportunity for organizations that properly prepare their workforce through training, responsible AI education and positioning agents as AI collaborators.
NICE Background
NiCE, founded in 1986, provides enterprise software aimed at customer experience leaders and IT decision-makers. The company's CXone Mpower platform combines AI-driven automation, conversational AI, workflow orchestration and workforce engagement tools. NiCE serves mid-market and large enterprises across financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, insurance, retail and government.
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