San Francisco, Aug 27 (IANS): Leading SaaS (software-as-a-service) company Zendesk has acquired Cleverly.ai, a Portugal-based AI automation platform, for an undisclosed sum.

Cleverly provides AI-powered solutions with insight-driven automation that makes support teams more productive.

In a statement released on Thursday, Zendesk said it will integrate Cleverly's technology across its platform, enhancing the trusted Zendesk AI solutions already enabling teams to automate more of their processes, reduce costs, and keep up with customer demand.

With conversation volume increasing by more than 20 percent year over year, over a growing number of channels, support teams are struggling to keep up.

As a result, businesses increasingly turn to AI to provide faster and more reliable service and make teams more efficient.

An IDC survey has revealed that automated customer service agents are a top priority for companies with over 5,000 employees.

"Cleverly and Zendesk share a vision of democratising AI, as well as a passion for creating practical applications that make it possible for businesses to get started with AI right out of the box -- without a team of data scientists required," the company said.

While Zendesk has invested in AI to help our customers achieve better, faster, and more reliable customer service, "we believe there is still so much untapped potential".

The AI-enabled capabilities offered by the company are helping businesses automate the conversations they have with customers, boost agent productivity, and increase operational efficiency with features like Answer Bot, macro suggestions, and Content Cues.

"With Cleverly, we will deliver a range of capabilities that automate key insights, further reduce manual tasks and improve workflows, and overall lead to happier, more productive support teams," Zendesk added.