Problems at Verint Systems (VRNT)
Verint Systems (NASDAQ: VRNT — $1.62 billion) describes itself as a “pure play contact center company.” The company makes workforce management software for large call centers and also has dozens of specialized bots that help improve human performance in call centers with work like call transcription and sentiment analysis. Verint’s management insists Verint will be an AI beneficiary as customers use Verint’s AI-powered bots to improve their call centers. The Bear Cave sees things differently.
The Bear Cave believes AI will hurt Verint in two ways. First, new AI-powered competitors will take share from Verint’s automated bot offerings. Second, in the coming years AI agents will largely replace human agents, reducing the need for both Verint’s bots and workforce management solutions. In short, as call centers transition away from humans, Verint will suffer significantly.
Founded in 1994 as a phone call recording company, Melville, New York-based Verint now provides call center software and bot offerings to 85 of the Fortune 100 companies including the 10 largest banks and 9 of the 10 largest insurance companies. Verint has over 3,700 employees and is still led by its founding CEO, 64-year-old Dan Bodner.
Below, Mr. Bodner talks about Verint’s business:
“Verint created a team of specialized bots. This team they are not humans and they can’t do what humans do. Each one of these specialized bots can do one thing very, very well… They are available at the fingertips of your workforce to help them and assist them and augment the workforce. Our philosophy is that bots are not replacing people, bots are augmenting people to assist them.”
The Bear Cave believes Verint’s bot offerings are ripe for disruption from newer AI-powered competitors. Some more examples of Verint’s call center bots include: