Twilio launches AI conversation platform to fix fragmented customer engagement experiences

Next-generation customer experience in focus - SiliconANGLE

9 themes defining the future of AI-driven customer engagement: Insights from the Twilio Signal event Customer engagement is shifting from disconnected interactions to continuous, AI-driven experiences that span channels and adapt in real time -- and unified data, orchestration and AI agents are rapidly becoming the foundation of that next-generation customer experience. As AI becomes more involved, enterprises are increasingly focused on identity, compliance and how to actually regulate and trust these systems -- questions that need clear answers before they can move with confidence into production, according to Paul Nashawaty, principal analyst at theCUBE Research. That backdrop set the stage for Twilio Inc.'s annual Signal event, where the cloud communications platform unveiled a new conversation layer for AI-driven customer engagement designed to bring continuity to fragmented customer interactions. "I view 2025 as the year of innovation, 2026 the year of execution. Model switching is not equal to simple. Prompt tuning, data alignment [and] governance layers are all areas that need to be looked at," Nashawaty said, during theCUBE's keynote analysis. "What I liked about the messaging here is Twilio abstracts this conversational layer and the communication layer -- it abstracts the complexity." During the Twilio Signal event, theCUBE's Nashawaty and Sam Weston spoke with industry professionals about how Twilio is aiming to position its platform as the communications and data layer for AI-driven customer engagement. They highlighted the shift toward unified orchestration, the role of identity and compliance in building trusted AI infrastructure, and what's coming next when it comes to next-generation customer experience. (* Disclosure below.) Here are nine themes showing how the future of AI-driven customer engagement is being defined: The timing couldn't be better for a platform play, Weston noted. Twilio is positioning its approach as the connective tissue for more unified customer engagement experiences, moving organizations beyond the limitations of standalone SMS and point solutions. At the same time, the company is betting that AI will deliver measurable ROI through more personalized, seamless and efficient customer interactions, she added. Catch the full segment on theCUBE. Historically, customer engagement across channels was highly siloed, forcing users to repeat information as conversations moved between systems and touchpoints. New orchestration and data layers are designed to create more seamless, context-aware experiences while enabling personalized content to scale across channels such as SMS and WhatsApp, said Kevin Zellmer, senior vice president of alliances at Apply Digital Ltd. Here's theCUBE's complete interview. The industry is moving toward unified platforms that can manage human-to-agent and agent-to-agent interactions seamlessly at scale. At the same time, identity, permissions and managing rogue behavior are becoming essential to building trusted infrastructure for the future of communication, according to Rikki Singh (pictured), vice president of Twilio Forward, the company's emerging technologies and innovation team focused on what's coming in the next three to five years. Central to that vision is solving what may be the defining challenge of the agentic era: As AI agents take on higher-risk, more autonomous tasks, the infrastructure beneath them needs to enforce predictable, codified behavior -- or the promise of agentic AI falls apart entirely. Catch the entire segment on theCUBE. Consumers increasingly expect AI interactions to deliver seamless, personalized experiences that carry across their entire buying journey, from asking questions to completing transactions. But at the same time, many industries still lack those capabilities, creating a major opportunity for businesses and developers to transform customer experiences across sectors such as healthcare, banking, real estate and automotive, noted Andy O'Dower, vice president and field chief technology officer at Twilio Inc. Don't miss the full segment on theCUBE. When it comes to next-generation customer experience, customers increasingly want communication channels to work together seamlessly and retain context across interactions instead of starting every conversation from scratch, according to Kathryn Murphy, senior vice president of product at Twilio Inc. Brands that can't meet that expectation are increasingly losing the thread -- and the customer. Watch theCUBE's full exclusive. Only 19% of people answer calls from unknown numbers, a reality that sits at the heart of how Meera.ai is rethinking next-generation customer experience for complex sales cycles, explained the conversations platform's CEO Vivek Zaveri. Meera.ai helps businesses engage prospects the way people naturally communicate with each other, starting asynchronously via text before transitioning to voice, rather than bombarding them with repeated calls. For complex sales cycles in industries like insurance, lending and home services, that shift from sync to async outreach is proving to be the difference between annoying a prospect and actually converting one. Check out the entire interview on theCUBE. The Professional Golfers' Association of America has expanded its use of Twilio from basic messaging into a broader platform spanning email, contact centers, payments and customer data, explained PGA of America Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott. The organization also uses Twilio's communications infrastructure to coordinate behind-the-scenes operations at major golf events, including real-time staff updates during weather incidents and other disruptions. For the full story, check out the segment on theCUBE. Twilio has spent the last two years sharpening its focus, moving from a sprawling set of individual products to a cohesive platform built around what customers actually need, according to Inbal Shani, chief product officer and head of research and development at Twilio. With several major capabilities announced at Signal now generally available, the company is pushing hard to close the gap between AI experimentation and production, collapsing the "time to magic" -- the moment a business creates its first meaningful customer engagement on the platform. Watch the full segment on theCUBE. Developers are increasingly looking for unified platforms that bring orchestration, memory, collaboration and communications into a single environment instead of relying on fragmented integrations, said Evan Mendenhall, founder of Professional AI Agents LLC. Consolidating AI and voice infrastructure into one platform can also reduce complexity, simplify management and improve latency for real-time customer interactions.

Today's topic of conversation - Twilio's pitch for next-generation customer engagement in the agentic era

Customer engagement has always had its challenges, but with rising customer expectations for more personalized experiences and the growing use of AI to deliver them, organizations need help. Enter, Twilio. The enterprise customer engagement platform provider today launches several new capabilities to enable consistent, intelligent conversations among humans, systems, and AI. Omar Paul, VP of Product for Twilio, starts from a premise that modern customer engagement is broken. Organizations are dealing with siloed data, fragmented channels, and integration complexity, when the reality is that every interaction builds on the last one. AI was supposed to be the answer to these challenges, but instead, says Paul, it's just added a new layer of complexity. Organizations are pouring millions and more into AI, hoping it's the answer to their engagement problems, but what happens all too often is that they build AI agents that start cold every time they interact with a customer. Now this is something humans struggle with as well, but AI was supposed to change things. The problem across both humans and AI is that there is no persistent memory or context of previous interactions. According to Paul, AI is failing on broken infrastructure on several levels: The answer for Twilio was to build a stronger foundation for conversations to close these gaps. Twilio has created four new products within its engagement platform to ensure every customer conversation doesn't start from scratch: Along with these new products, Twilio has introduced a new front door to the platform - the Twilio Console. The new console brings everything under one login, so customers can explore products, manage compliance, view billing, and perform day-to-day work. The new conversation products build on the promises Twilio made at its Signal Conference last year, including fusing AI into products to enhance workflows and giving brands the flexibility to use the AI tools they want. During that conference, conversation AI was the primary focus, and the company announced ConversationRelay, which makes it easier for developers to create and deploy human-like voice agents. This year, Twilio has added native integration with Deepgram Flux, Payment Card Industry (PCI)- compliant Voice workflows, and voice activity detection for natural conversations. The new Conversation Intelligence product builds on ConversationRelay and Conversational Intelligence (also announced last year). According to Paul Nashawaty, Principal Analyst, theCUBE Research: Twilio's latest platform capabilities deliver a trusted infrastructure layer for conversations; one that makes them contextual, persistent, and personal across every channel and participant, human or AI. That foundation is increasingly critical as conversational AI scales, with 85% of consumers already interacting with AI agents in recent months and 68% expecting seamless, consistent experiences across channels, forcing enterprises to unify communications, data, and intelligence into a single, interoperable engagement layer. If you pay heed to research, most AI projects fail. But are they failing because of the AI or because they aren't built on the critical infrastructure that brings together the data, context, and connections needed? Twilio customers who want to deliver better experiences for their customers will look at these new products and start developing new use cases that support customer conversations across channels, leveraging AI in new and innovative ways. I checked out Twilio's demonstration of the Conversation products, and it was impressive to see interactions work smoothly across channels, even when the interactions were dropped and re-created. For example, a customer support call was accidentally dropped, and the AI understood and took initiative to reconnect with the customer and perform other necessary activities. This is the kind of engagement customers want today - consistent, contextual, and personalized, regardless of whether it's an AI agent or a human.

Twilio launches conversation platform for AI agent era By Investing.com

SAN FRANCISCO - Twilio Inc. (NYSE:TWLO) announced Tuesday the general availability of four platform capabilities designed to enable persistent, context-aware conversations across multiple communication channels for both human and AI agents. The company unveiled Conversation Memory, Conversation Orchestrator, Conversation Intelligence, and Agent Connect at its SIGNAL user conference in San Francisco. The capabilities are intended to maintain conversation history and context across different channels and interactions, according to a press release statement. Conversation Memory extracts and maintains customer history, preferences, and conversation state across channels. Conversation Orchestrator provides routing, escalation, and handoffs between humans and AI agents. Conversation Intelligence uses generative AI to turn conversations into real-time intelligence across voice and messaging. Agent Connect is an open-source framework that connects AI agents and models to Twilio's voice and messaging channels. "The agentic era is here. Agents are joining conversations alongside the people they represent, and modern customer engagement requires an infrastructure that serves both equally," said Khozema Shipchandler, Chief Executive Officer at Twilio.Investors have responded enthusiastically to the company's strategic direction, with the stock surging 38.8% over the past week and trading near its 52-week high of $196.37. The $29.68 billion company has delivered a remarkable 93.87% return over the past year. According to InvestingPro data, 14 analysts have revised their earnings upwards for the upcoming period, with net income expected to grow this year. The company also released a redesigned console that includes Workbench, a workspace for developers, and an integrated AI assistant. The new interface allows customers to try Twilio products directly within the console. Additional announcements include the general availability of Twilio Email, built on SendGrid technology, and updates to Conversation Relay with Payment Card Industry compliant voice workflows. The company launched a public beta for SMS data residency in the European Union and a private beta for Apple Messages for Business provider capabilities. Twilio also announced participation in Stripe Projects as a launch partner, enabling developers to provision Twilio services within Stripe's workflow. The platform capabilities have been in private beta with select customers since January 2026. Twilio operates in more than 180 countries and provides messaging, voice, and email infrastructure. In other recent news, Twilio Inc. reported strong financial results for the first quarter of 2026, exceeding analyst expectations. The company achieved an earnings per share (EPS) of $1.50, surpassing the forecasted $1.27, which represents an 18.11% surprise. Additionally, Twilio's revenue reached $1.41 billion, outperforming the anticipated $1.34 billion. These results highlight Twilio's robust performance in the early part of the year. The company's earnings and revenue figures were key highlights for investors, showcasing its financial strength. Analysts had projected lower figures, and Twilio's ability to exceed these expectations was noteworthy. The recent developments around Twilio's financial performance have caught the attention of investors and analysts alike. This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.