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The merger of Nasdaq-listed tech firm NICE with Germany’s Cognigy is pushing customer experience services further toward automation, combining agentic AI with conversational AI.
NICE specializes in agentic AI, while Cognigy adds conversational AI to the mix. Together, they form a more powerful platform for contact center service providers aiming to integrate AI into their operations.
NICE has agreed to pay $955 million for Cognigy, which is nine years old and employs about 300 professionals.
“They are buying Cognigy not for blunt automation tool but for a sophisticated AI-first collaboration engine,” said Wyatt Mayham, CEO of Northwest AI Consulting, a Portland, OR-based firm that helps companies integrate AI solutions.
“We all saw the backlash Klarna faced trying to go “full AI.” It showed that you can’t just remove humans from complex customer service without damaging the brand. NICE knows this.”
In 2024, Klarna, a Swedish payment company, laid off several customer service agents after automating its support operations, but the strategy backfired. It soon re-hired human staff, citing a decline in service quality and the irreplaceable value of human empathy.
Mayham said NICE’s aim is not to replace humans with machines entirely — but to shift human agents to roles that demand empathy, creativity and nuanced judgment.
The acquisition fuses three powerful tech platforms into one: NICE’s CXone Mpower, Orchestrator and Cognigy’s AI bots.
CXone, launched earlier in 2025, functions as control room for managing all types of customer service tasks — calls, chats, emails, support tickets and more. It gives companies real-time visibility into operations, helping them understand customer needs.
Wyatt Mayham, CEO of Northwest AI Consulting, a Portland, Oregon-based firm that helps companies integrate AI solutions.
Orchestrator, also developed by NICE, works like a traffic cop. It monitors customer interactions in real time and decides — moment by moment — who or what should handle the next step. Should a chatbot respond? Should a human step in? Should the request go to billing or technical support?
Cognigy’s conversational AI bots add a human-like touch to NICE’s platform. These bots do more than answer basic questions — they engage in full conversations, understand context, speak multiple languages and even connect to backend systems like payment gateways.
When combined, the three platforms deliver what many in the industry are calling a human-like AI engine for customer service.
This is why analysts have long predicted that conversational AI could be the key to handling not just basic queries, but even complex, high-value customer service tasks.
Cognigy already serves giants like Mercedes-Benz, Nestlé and Lufthansa Group. Its revenue is expected to hit $85 million in 2026, driven by a staggering 80% year-over-year growth.
AI CX Industry
The broader customer experience market is on the brink of transformation. Analysts estimate that AI in CX represents a $30 billion opportunity. And yet, AI-led self-service currently resolves just 5% of all customer interactions, according to NICE CEO Scott Russell.
That gap signals enormous growth potential for companies like NICE — and a growing risk for traditional contact center jobs.
The merger announcement had an immediate impact — NICE’s stock price surged on Nasdaq, as investors rushed to back the company’s AI play.
Philip Alberstat, Managing Director of DBD Investment Bank in New York.
“For NICE, spending nearly a billion dollars sends a powerful message to Wall Street: ‘We are a leader in CX AI,’” Mayham added.
“In today’s market AI deals are commanding premiums and the market is buying into their growth story,” said Philip Alberstat, Managing Director of DBD Investment Bank in New York.
“(NICE) also needed to show some sort of offensive move because companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google are pouring resources into this space and NICE needed a credible AI story to avoid being sidelined.”
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