India’s Gupshup Acquires AI Firm AskSid

Gupshup, which provides conversational messaging to help businesses speak to customers, has acquired AskSid, a conversational artificial intelligence (AI) provider for eCommerce and retail brands.

The acquisition, announced in a news release Wednesday (April 20), marks Gupshup’s second purchase of a conversational AI firm in the last two weeks.

“AskSid’s full-stack AI solution including the Retail AI brain, strengthens Gupshup’s customer experience (CX) offerings and will help make the entire shopping journey — across pre-purchase, purchase and post-purchase phases — fully conversational,” the release said.

Based in Bengaluru, India, AskSid works with brands like AkzoNobel, Danone, Wolford, Akris and Himalaya Wellness, helping them improve shopping experiences through AI-powered conversations. The startup has operations in more than 25 countries and supports more than 100 languages.

By automating 92% of support conversations using a self-service model, AskSid customers have reported an average 25% decrease in operational expenditure, while increasing order conversion rate by 30%. The company also cited a report by McKinsey that projected eCommerce could grow up to five times faster compared to pre-pandemic times.

“This presents a huge opportunity for retail and eCommerce brands — but only if they are able to provide expert guidance anytime, anywhere to their consumers, which is exactly what AskSid delivers,” said Sanjoy Roy, AskSid’s co-founder and CEO. “Together with Gupshup, we will help businesses drive richer conversational experiences.”

Earlier this month, Gupshup announced that it was acquiring Active.Ai, which provides conversational AI-powered digital financial services in the banking, financial services and insurance sector, including in voice, video and messaging.

See also: B2C Provider Gupshup Acquires Active.Ai

At the time, Gupshup said the acquisition will help it in its work in retail banking, business banking, credit unions, capital markets and insurance.

“Using Conversational AI, Gupshup is focused on helping businesses … engage with consumers in a natural and contextual manner,” said Beerud Sheth, co-founder and CEO of Gupshup. “Active.Ai’s robust CBaaS platform adds more vertical depth to our product stack.”