NiCE launched the next generation of NiCE Cognigy, its AI agent platform for customer service, on Nov. 12. The release adds AI Assist, a companion that guides setup, testing and improvement; skills that teams build once and reuse across every AI agent; and tracing, which records each step an agent takes, from the data and tools it uses to the decisions it makes.
Agents built on the platform can coordinate specialized sub-agents and connect with external agents, including customers’ personal AI agents, through open standards, NiCE said. The release adds native speech-to-speech models for voice and makes premium speech and language models from Deepgram, ElevenLabs and Anthropic available natively. Default AI models are included in the conversation price with no separate model contract. Premium third-party models carry usage-based billing, or teams can keep their own model contracts. Existing customers get the release as part of NiCE Cognigy, and what is already in production keeps running unchanged.
What it means for revenue and service leaders
“Skills built once work across every agent. Tracing shows every decision,” said Philipp Heltewig, Chief AI Officer at NiCE.
In our reading, the pricing terms deserve the closest look from whoever signs the contract. Bundling default models into the conversation price gives buyers one meter to forecast, while each premium model adds a second line billed on usage. That is the same pattern we tracked when Salesforce, Five9, SAP and Microsoft moved to sell contact-center AI as an add-on. Teams getting ready for buyers who send their own agents can read our case for a plan for buyers whose personal agents contact every vendor at once.
Source: NiCE
