Kustomer is a SaaS provider of an AI powered customer service CRM system that has changed the way businesses interact with their customers via omnichannel support and automated customer experience solutions. Founded by innovators and pioneers in the space, Kustomer was acquired by Meta in 2020 and then spun-out in 2023, allowing the company to continue on its mission. The company specializes in creating innovative customer service solutions for enterprise brands.
eShare Technologies was co-founded by Brad Birnbaum and Jeremy Suriel and provided large-scale chat technology for customer support to major brand names such as Dell and Microsoft.
Birnbaum and Suriel founded Assistly which was later adopted by Twitter and Spotify, sold to Salesforce and within 18 months was Desk.com.
Kustomer was created in stealth mode by Birnbaum and Suriel to provide an omnichannel customer service CRM solution.
Kustomer emerged from stealth with $12.5M funding provided by Canaan Partners, Boldstart Ventures.
Acquired by Facebook (Meta) to develop and expand business communication capabilities.
Spun out from Meta to allow Kustomer to continue on its own, independently, to continue revolutionizing customer service.
Cloud-based SaaS platform
AI-powered platform with core building blocks that orchestrate intelligent customer service automations and real-time insights
Inferred from product descriptions on official site and company positioning
Kustomer’s AI utilizes proprietary KIQ (Knowledge Integration & Quality) technology developed utilizing large language models (LLMs) which powers SMART AI Agents to perform routine tasks, provide 24/7 support and augment human representatives. These AI Agents can also be tailored by users in the AI Agent Studio with specific routing logic, tone, and knowledge bases to create consistent brand aligned interactions.
Kustomer provides a unique pay-for-what-you-use pricing model. AI Voice is included as part of the telephony usage charge. Specific pricing details are available upon request from sales contacts.
Kustomer is the first fully AI-native platform to have AI agents natively integrated into every function of the platform, as opposed to Zendesk who offers a traditional CRM solution that includes AI as a feature. Kustomer provides native AI Voice capabilities without the need for third party integrations and unifies all relevant customer data to allow for proactive servicing.
Yes, Kustomer’s AI-native architecture enables all AI-based actions to be audited based on customer data with human oversight. All AI related activity is logged and the platform automatically enforces all applicable policies while ensuring regulatory compliance.
Yes, Kustomer currently supports over 75 turn-key applications and open APIs to enable seamless integrations. Kustomer seamlessly integrates conversations, context, and actions across systems to create unified workflows.
Kustomer’s AI agents work in conjunction with human representatives with seamless handoff processes. AI agents can perform routine tasks, escalate complex issues and provide context to human representatives to facilitate resolution.
Kustomer offers demo/trial opportunities via sales contact. Additionally, Kustomer’s simple setup process makes it possible to quickly test AI agent functionality and other omnichannel functionalities.
Kustomer’s AI functionality is exclusive to the Kustomer CRM Platform; therefore, migration will be required to utilize these features. Features such as AI Agents for Representatives and Leaders are under development and will be released at a future date.
Customer Service Platform Kustomer Leads As First AI-Native Solution; Embedding Intelligent AI Agents Throughout For Proactive, Omnichannel Support And Instant Resolution Of Issues At Scale
Kustomer Exceeds In Scaling AI Driven Customer Service Where Traditional Platforms Fail in Intelligence and Seamlessness
Kustomer is Pioneering as The First Fully AI Native CX Platform With SMART AI Agents for 24/7 Omnichannel Support, Native AI Voice and Embedded Intelligence Across Workflows; Disruptive Pay-For-Use Pricing and Easy Customization Through AI Agent Studio Enables Rapid Scaling and Strong Focus on Unifying Data for Proactive Service and Human/AI Collaboration
Good - detailed info from official announcements, product pages, and industry articles. Pricing and exact support SLAs require sales contact; some features upcoming.
Kustomer Introduced The Industry's First AI-Native Platform in 2024 Using Proprietary KIQ Technology. SMART AI Agents Automate Tickets, Refunds and Compliance Under Human Supervision
The pay-for-what-you-use model removes fixed costs associated with a seat of an employee. A.I. Voice was provided at no additional cost for use by our clients over and above the standard telephone charges so that we could scale easily.
One single timeline is available for all interactions – email, chat, phone, social media and SMS – allowing you to have all of the necessary information and history for each interaction. A.I. allows for continued conversation to provide for a personalized experience.
Featured in CMS Wire and Business Wire, Kustomer is positioned as a leader in the development of A.I.-native Customer Experience technology. It has transformed how companies think about support from a cost center into an opportunity.
In addition to customer service AI, Kustomer is also developing AI for its representatives and leaders (to be released soon), for both the purpose of providing support and real-time insight. We will continue to develop and advance the capabilities of conversational A.I.
Kustomer’s Workspaces feature enables non-technical users to build and customize special AI agents with routing rules, tone guidelines, knowledge bases, pre-built personas, and API integrations without writing code.
Kustomer’s sentiment analysis capability can read email, chat message, call transcript, support ticket, social post content and determine the emotional tone (e.g., frustrated, satisfied, angry, neutral, confused) to determine whether to prioritize a ticket, initiate escalation, or influence the response to a ticket.
A centralized command center where specialized AI agents handle tickets, refund requests, compliance tasks etc. and have human oversight. The context is preserved completely.
A real time AI assistant for agents, which gives them a suggestion for responses, ticket summary, knowledge retrieval and optimized insights into their workflows.
Conversations across e-mail, chat, SMS, social media and voice are unified and there is seamless AI agent engagement across all channels.
One single, continually updated customer record that combines the conversations, orders, payments, subscription, events and historical behaviors of a customer.
Enhanced search and knowledge management, utilizing embedded intelligence, with an answer-bot that intercepts tickets with relevant help articles.
Directs inquiries to the correct team or agent using intent, context, sentiment and priority signals.
AI is integrated across search, workflows, analytics and customer data; therefore AI can provide contextual assistance throughout the entire platform.
Data explorer monitors service organization performance, revenue impact, customer satisfaction trends and optimization opportunities.
Advanced AI agents autonomously resolve customer complaints across e-mail, chat, SMS, social media and voice, with human-like accuracy.
Analyzes intent, sentiment and context to send inquiries to the most suitable agents or teams, while also giving a recommendation for a knowledge article.
Provides real time AI support to agents with response suggestions, ticket summaries, knowledge retrieval and workflow optimization.
The complete 360 degree customer view, including conversation history, orders, payments, subscriptions and behavioral data, in a real time timeline.
Identifies frustrated or high-priority customers in real time by analyzing the emotional tone and automatically escalates/prioritizes accordingly.
AI agents and human representatives can trigger refunds, cancellations and order actions directly from the customer timeline with the complete context.
Analyze customer behaviors and data to anticipate customer needs and prevent issues before they occur.
Data Explorer identifies workflow inefficiencies, automation opportunities and revenue impact from support interactions
| GDPR Requirement | Implementation Mechanism | Penalty for Non-Compliance |
|---|---|---|
| Explicit User Consent | Clear opt-in mechanisms before processing personal data through conversations; document consent basis across unified customer timeline | Up to €20 million or 4% global annual revenue |
| Data Minimization | Unified data model collects only conversationally relevant information; AI processes limit data to resolution requirements | Up to €20 million or 4% global annual revenue |
| Transparency | Clear disclosure of AI-powered interactions; explain data usage across channels; accessible privacy notices in customer profiles | Up to €10 million or 2% global annual revenue |
| User Rights (Access/Modify/Delete) | Customer timeline provides complete data access; support mechanisms fulfill data subject requests within regulatory timelines | Up to €20 million or 4% global annual revenue |
| Data Security | End-to-end encryption across omnichannel communications; role-based access controls; regular security audits of AI systems | Up to €20 million or 4% global annual revenue |
| Accountability & Audit Trails | Complete logging of all AI agent actions grounded in customer data; auditable decision trails across unified platform | Up to €20 million or 4% global annual revenue |
| Data Protection Impact Assessment | Risk assessments for AI deployment across customer channels; documented mitigation strategies in enterprise implementations | Up to €20 million or 4% global annual revenue |
| Data Processor Agreements | Standard contractual clauses for international data transfers; defined retention policies across customer service interactions | Up to €20 million or 4% global annual revenue |
| Evaluation Criterion | Importance Level | Assessment Method |
|---|---|---|
| AI Agent Autonomy & Accuracy | Critical | Test AI Agent Studio across real customer scenarios measuring resolution rates, escalation frequency and action accuracy |
| Omnichannel Coverage | Critical | Verify seamless AI agent operation across email, chat, SMS, social and voice channels with context preservation |
| Unified Customer Data Model | Critical | Assess completeness of customer timeline integrating conversations, orders, payments and behavioral history |
| Agent Productivity Impact | Critical | Measure time savings from AI copilot features including response suggestions, summarization and knowledge retrieval |
| Sentiment Analysis Performance | High | Validate emotion detection accuracy across conversation channels and escalation decision quality |
| Scalability & Performance | High | Load test platform handling peak conversation volumes across all channels without degradation |
| Integration Capabilities | High | Test native e-commerce, CRM and business system integrations plus API extensibility for custom workflows |
| Analytics & Optimization | High | Evaluate Data Explorer insights quality for workflow optimization and business impact measurement |
| Customization Flexibility | High | Assess no-code AI Agent Studio capabilities for business-specific personas, prompts and automation logic |
| Data Security & Compliance | Critical | Review encryption implementation, audit logging, GDPR mechanisms and enterprise security certifications |
| Implementation Experience | High | Calculate time from deployment to production value; assess migration path from legacy systems |
| ROI Measurement | High | Project cost savings from containment rates, productivity gains and revenue protection against platform investment |
