News
The Gist
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Platform consolidation. SharpenCX and Ytel combine to form a unified CX platform.
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AI and infrastructure integration. Merger merges AI agent tools with carrier-grade voice and messaging.
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Enterprise impact. Enterprises gain a single platform for omnichannel, automated customer engagement.
SharpenCX and Ytel merged on Dec. 2 to combine AI-driven agent workflows with carrier-grade infrastructure, targeting the growing demand for unified, high-volume customer engagement platforms. The combined entity aims to deliver a single solution for inbound, outbound and automated engagement across voice, chat and text channels.
According to company officials, the deal pairs SharpenCX’s intelligent agent capabilities with Ytel’s outbound infrastructure. Ytel currently supports more than 91 million minutes of calls and 8 million texts.
The platform has helped businesses contact over 110 million unique people to date. Key sectors include finance, insurance and customer engagement.
Table of Contents
- Impacted Audiences for the Unified CX Platform
- Market Context: AI Transforms Contact Centers
- Unified Platforms & Integration
- Generative AI Functions
- Conversational AI Market Growth & Partnerships
- Implementation Hurdles
- AI Customer Experience Meets Voice and Messaging
- Platform Capabilities Breakdown
- SharpenCX Background
Impacted Audiences for the Unified CX Platform
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Mid-market and enterprise contact center leaders seeking AI-enhanced agent tools
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Sales and service teams managing high-volume outbound communications
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Organizations requiring omnichannel customer engagement across voice, chat and SMS
Market Context: AI Transforms Contact Centers
Contact centers are shedding their cost-center reputation. AI is transforming customer service into a strategic enterprise asset.
CMSWire has reported that contact centers are moving beyond their traditional cost-center reputation, with artificial intelligence transforming customer service operations into strategic business assets that drive loyalty and revenue growth.
AI is now orchestrating customer interactions, personalizing experiences and boosting operational efficiency. This means every customer touchpoint is an opportunity for loyalty building and competitive differentiation—not just a service obligation.
With AI-powered analytics and automation, organizations can extract insights from thousands of conversations in real time. This supports proactive service, smarter agent workflows and instant identification of trends or training gaps. The result? Contact centers are evolving into value hubs that drive revenue, innovation and competitive advantage.
The shift is clear: instead of just cutting costs, businesses are investing in AI to deliver better customer outcomes and measurable ROI. But successful transformation requires integrating multiple AI tools, addressing data privacy and aligning technology with business goals. Companies that move quickly will turn their contact centers into engines of loyalty and growth—while laggards risk falling behind.
Related Article: AI-Powered Contact Center as a Service Vendors Battle for Market Share in 2025
Unified Platforms & Integration
Platform convergence is accelerating as vendors merge contact center, UCaaS and CPaaS capabilities. This consolidation preserves context across phone, chat, SMS and video channels for faster resolution.
Organizations prioritizing AI for self-service are up to twice as likely to improve containment rates. The focus remains on augmentation rather than full replacement of human agents.
AI handles routine predictive engagement and workflow automation. This allows human agents to focus on complex, emotionally nuanced interactions that require empathy and judgment.
Generative AI Functions
Generative AI now powers some distinct functions within the contact center stack, including:
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Automation via chatbots for routine queries
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Real-time personalization using sentiment analysis
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AI copilots providing historical context to agents
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Dynamic responses that surpass scripted interactions
Conversational AI Market Growth & Partnerships
The conversational AI market is projected to grow from $17.05 billion in 2025 to $49.8 billion by 2031. Yet only 11% of companies currently report high effectiveness in deploying human-like AI conversations.
Amazon Connect recently expanded its generative AI features and WhatsApp integrations. LivePerson simultaneously partnered with AWS to deliver unified voice and digital customer experience platforms.
Salesforce introduced Agentforce to deploy autonomous AI agents alongside humans. Company officials described the platform as the most significant innovation in the vendor's history.
Implementation Hurdles
Industry experts caution that AI is not a universal fix. Tools like transcription and summarization can inadvertently create additional work if not aligned with specific business objectives.
Gartner predicted that by 2027, generative AI-powered third-party tools could resolve up to 40% of customer service issues. This shift may fundamentally reset expectations for service speed.
AI Customer Experience Meets Voice and Messaging
By combining SharpenCX's AI-driven customer-experience engine with Ytel's advanced voice and messaging infrastructure, we're giving companies the intelligence and infrastructure to engage customers seamlessly — inbound, outbound, or automated — in one powerful platform.
- Tom Fisher, chief operating officer
SharpenCX
Platform Capabilities Breakdown
The unified platform integrates capabilities from both companies:
| Capability | Description |
|---|---|
| AI-Driven Agent Intelligence | Real-time assistance and next-best-action guidance |
| Programmable Voice & Messaging | Carrier-grade network supporting high-volume communications |
| Predictive Dialing | Automated outbound calling for sales and service teams |
| Omnichannel Routing | Unified handling across voice, chat and SMS |
| CRM Integration | Connection with existing customer relationship systems |
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SharpenCX Background
SharpenCX offers a cloud-native Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platform. Founded in 2011, the company targets mid-market and enterprise leaders.
Platform Capabilities
The system integrates telephony, routing, digital engagement and analytics. It emphasizes "Usable AI" with features like real-time agent assistance and next-best-action guidance.
Market Focus
SharpenCX serves organizations with 50 to 200+ contact center employees. Key verticals include financial services, healthcare, retail and education.
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