By Martina Pansze

In April, digital conversation company Quiq announced their acquisition of New York based Conversational AI platform Snaps. 

Founded in 2015 in Bozeman, Mont., Quiq develops Saas software that modernizes conversations between companies and their customers. Acquiring Snaps, which specializes in e-commerce Conversational AI, will create a combined platform with advanced artificial intelligence and asynchronous - or not necessarily live with immediate response - messaging capabilities.

Today, Quiq’s Digital Conversation platform supports a dozen different channels that consumers use in their personal lives, including SMS text, Apple Chat, Google Business Messages, Webchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and call-to-text platforms.

Quiq’s client base is primarily large business-to-consumer (B2C) organizations that have hundreds or thousands of representatives servicing millions of consumers, such as Brinks Home Security, Office Depot, and Overstock.

The platform is designed for pre-sales conversations (when, for example, a customer might need advice choosing a product), promotions with existing customers, and customer service. 

Last year, Quiq saw a 100% increase in conversation volume due to the pandemic-induced spike of online purchases. Quiq is headquartered in Bozeman, Montana with 45 employees prior to the acquisition. Snaps’ 25 employees will join the team from a new office in New York City.

CEO Mike Myer moved to Montana in 1998 to become CTO for RightNow Technologies, where he stayed through Oracle’s acquisition in 2011. He founded Quiq in 2015 with the observation that when he wanted to get something done with family and friends, text messaging was the most efficient choice. 

Myer described the Quiq and Snaps combination as a ‘perfect fit’. On a customer’s website or messaging channel, Snaps resolves questions through natural language in a conversational interface that is backed up with AI and machine learning. The two companies have partnered before to collaborate with Quiq’s messaging contact center platform that enables an agent to text with a number of customers simultaneously. 

With the Snaps team’s ability to develop great conversational AI, Myer plans to integrate the machine learning model with human communication to create the next generation of digital customer engagement. Snaps’ software will automate simple interactions by dipping into back-end knowledge bases to check the status or modify an existing order. Myer estimates the automation level for interactions to be between 30% and 80% depending on the types of inquiries that a business receives.

If a customer question escalates beyond machine capabilities, however, the conversation is transferred to a human agent within the Quiq platform.

“You can think of what we do together as a full suite digital solution for conversations,” said Myer. “It’s a very exciting strategic combination for us.”

About the Publisher: Launched in 2014, the Montana High Tech Business Alliance is an nonpartisan nonprofit association of highly-engaged high tech and manufacturing companies and affiliates creating high-paying jobs in Montana. For more information, visit MTHighTech.org or subscribe to our biweekly newsletter.

About the Author: Martina Pansze is the Communications Director for the Montana High Tech Business Alliance. She graduated from Whitman College with a degree in Film and Media Studies.