Five9 has agreed to acquire Level AI for approximately $325MN in cash, a deal that expands the cloud contact center provider’s capabilities in customer interaction analytics, agent assistance, quality management and AI automation.
Level AI develops AI-native software for analyzing customer conversations, supporting contact center agents and automating interactions across voice and digital channels. Its products are already integrated with Five9’s cloud contact center-as-a-service (CCaaS) platform, following a partnership between the companies that began in 2022.
The transaction is expected to close by the end of this year, subject to customary conditions. Five9 said it will fund the deal from its balance sheet.
A Standalone AI Route to Market
The acquisition is designed to strengthen Five9’s AI application layer while giving the company a route into enterprises that are not yet ready to replace their existing contact center infrastructure. Rather than requiring customers to adopt Five9’s CCaaS platform first, Five9 plans to sell Level AI’s capabilities as standalone products to organizations using rival cloud platforms or on-premises systems.
Amit Mathradas, Five9’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), outlined that strategy during the company’s third-quarter earnings call following the announcement.
“The next step is expanding the AI customers and use cases we can serve,” Mathradas said.
“Level AI adds another starting point, addressing a customer’s immediate AI needs while its existing contact center stays in place,” Mathradas said.
“That expands the customers we serve today. Standalone AI is an attractive business in its own right, whether or not those customers eventually adopt Five9 CCaaS.”
Targeting Enterprises Beyond CCaaS Migration
The deal reflects an increasingly important distinction in the contact center market, as vendors are seeking to sell AI capabilities independently of their core communications platforms. For suppliers historically focused on routing calls and managing agent interactions, standalone AI applications can open new customer relationships, especially among enterprises that are modernizing customer service operations in stages.
Mathradas pointed to "the opportunity to bring stand-alone AI capabilities to enterprises using other contact center platforms, both in the cloud and on-prem.”
For Five9 customers, the company intends to link Level AI’s conversation intelligence and automation tools more closely to its voice routing and orchestration technology. The intended result is a system in which conversation data can inform coaching, quality management, workflow improvements and decisions on which interactions may be suitable for automation.
Mathradas framed the strategy as one of selecting appropriate use cases rather than pursuing automation indiscriminately. “Our view is that winners in customer experience will not be companies that automate the most, rather, they will be the ones that automate the right things,” he said during the call.
Michael Fauscette, Founder and Chief Analyst at Arion Research, told CX Today that the acquisition gives Five9 a way to expand its AI reach before a customer is ready to make a broader platform change.