Nuance praised by Forrester and nears exit of mobile subscription business

Nuance Communications has been identified as a leader in voice biometrics and “mission-critical, enterprise-grade, conversational AI” by Forrester, and has moved forward with selling off its Subscription Revenue Services (SRS) business, according to a pair of company announcements.

According to “The Forrester New Wave: Conversational AI for Customer Service, Q2 2019” report, Nuance customers collectively agree that deploying the company’s voice technology has significantly improved their customers’ experiences, and Nuance scored well in comparison to 13 other vendors in artificial intelligence, voice and speech, human/AI blending, omnichannel, and security and authentication criteria. The evaluation suggested that no area of Nuance’s offering “Needs Improvement.”

“The market continues to evolve when it comes to conversational AI for customer service and we have been focused on delivering technology that meets the dynamic needs of today’s enterprise,” says Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager, Nuance Enterprise Division. “We believe being named a leader in this report is a testament to the dogged focus the Nuance team has had in not only focusing on advancing our NLU technology but adding to that the necessary puzzle pieces like biometrics, conversational design and agent AI to help organizations truly redefine the customer experience.”

Nuance has planned to exit from its non-core SRS business, which provides services to mobile consumers, and has completed the sale of its Brazil SRS operations, and signed a definitive agreement for the sale of its India SRS operations. The company updated its Q3 and full-year 2019 revenue guidance on the news, which had minimal impact of a $4 million reduction in revenue, and $0.01 reduction in diluted EPS range.

“In our ongoing effort to drive transformation and simplification, we continue to execute on our strategic initiatives announced at the beginning of our fiscal year,” comments Nuance CEO Mark Benjamin. “These transactions are a great outcome for everyone as they enable us to exit this non-core business faster than a wind-down, while ensuring continuous support and services for our customers. We remain sharply focused on cloud-based, intelligence-driven solutions, capable of sustainable long-term revenue and earnings growth.”

Nuance recently formed partnerships with platforms for voice and automotive systems.

Article Topics

artificial intelligence  |  biometrics  |  Forrester Research  |  Nuance Communications  |  voice