The News: Pegasystems Inc. this week announced at its PegaWorld iNspire annual conference the latest edition of its Pega Infinity ‘23 software suite, with new features that are designed to accelerate low-code development, continuously optimize existing processes, and create effortless experiences for employees and customers. Pega Infinity ‘23 will also include updates to Pega Platform, Pega Customer Decision Hub, and Pega Customer Service, which will incorporate previously announced generative AI tools within Pega GenAI.
Pega Infinity ‘23 will be available in Q3 2023. You can read the full Press Release here describing the platform’s new features and benefits.
Pegasystems Announces Updates to Infinity Software Suite
Analyst Take: Pegasystems announced its latest release of its Infinity software suite at its annual PegaWorld iNspire conference, highlighting the inclusion of several previously announced generative AI tools, as well as new features that enable low-code development, process optimizations, and reduced friction for customers and employees.
Taking a unified, holistic approach to incorporating generative AI and other workflow enhancement features and tools, Pega is introducing or updating several development tools designed to work seamlessly across the enterprise, while speeding time to value via a low-code environment. This is the company’s value proposition: make it easier for enterprise organizations to roll out customized applications and workflows without incurring massive developer resources, time, and cost.
Pega’s focus on a low-code environment to integrate generative AI tools, analytics functions, and process improvements may be welcome news to organizations that are unwilling to purchase a dedicated, out-of-the-box customer experience software platform. These customers, many of which may have legacy systems or processes that would require significant development and integration work to function properly with a pre-built platform, often feel their needs and situation require custom-built software in order to ensure the platform is capable of optimizing existing processes.
The Infinity ’23 software also will include a series of updates to its Pega Platform, Pega Customer Decision Hub, and Pega Customer Service offerings, with a core focus of optimizing existing processes and workflows across the entire enterprise, which should help drive more timely and effective customer engagement.
Customer Service and Agent Experience Enhancements
Infinity ’23 will provide several agent-focused tools and enhancements designed to optimize existing processes and workflows. A revamped agent desktop will deliver an updated, visually compelling, guided agent experience. The platform also offers automated summarization of customer interactions, which can reduce manual notetaking and speed up post-interaction agent wrap-up efforts, saving time and money.
Like many enterprise-focused software providers, Pegasystems is providing tools and features that are specifically designed to improve existing processes by automating routine actions and incorporating intelligent AI tools so that customers can be served with the right message, at the right time, and across any channel. As customers are increasingly inundated with offers and messaging, organizations need to ensure that any communications or offers are as relevant as possible.
Infinity ’23 includes One-Time Actions, a feature which is designed to rapidly create new messages for specific audiences to address a distinct and immediate need, such as an emergency notification or a flash sale notification. The Persona Management tool also has been enhanced and will enable users to automatically create customer personas for more efficient testing and validation of next-best-action strategies.
Data Management Tools and Models Driving Greater Customer Insights
Conversion Modeling is a key Infinity ‘23 feature that is designed to help agents provide more relevant experiences. It incorporates adaptive models to better determine a customer’s propensity to take a specific action, such as making a purchase or finishing an onboarding journey. This feature can help agents focus on truly serving their customers, instead of randomly trying to upsell during every interaction, which can negatively impact the customer’s experience and view of the product, brand, or service.
Further, Infinity ’23 features an enhanced capability for testing and deploying machine learning (ML) models that will assist users with conducting field experiments with specific models for high-value use cases and complex interactions to determine success. Once approved, these models can be deployed with a single click. This likely will be helpful with determining the right engagement approach for high-value, luxury products and services that offer marketers a single shot at winning a customer.
Another interesting addition to the platform is Feature Finder, which permits users to continuously scan data to identify new predictors that may impact the customer’s propensity to act or respond. This can ensure that the correct message is delivered at the appropriate moment, based on new data in their customer profile. Furthermore, the inclusion of Enhanced Integrated Identity Management capabilities will allow clients to merge customer profiles and behavioral data across channels to create relevant and holistic one-to-one engagement while implementing data compliance strategies.
Agent Training Tools
A key element of providing an excellent customer experience is ensuring agents have both the tools and training to handle customer interactions efficiently and effectively. Pega is incorporating a simulated digital customer that will help agents roleplay with automatic performance feedback. The importance of this type of tool cannot be overstated; today’s contact center managers are left with little time to onboard and properly train new agents, and an automated tool can be extremely useful with handling this necessary task.
External Collaboration with Portals and Mobile Applications
Pega’s design system, Pega Constellation, offers more engaging, accessible, and intuitive user experiences all in a low-code, flexible architecture. With Constellation, users can seamlessly scale application designs with the latest built-in design components, templates, and patterns. Additionally, Pega clients will be able to leverage the latest Pega Constellation APIs to integrate Pega workflows and knowledge articles into portals or mobile apps built in any modern design system. This will provide the flexibility to use existing technology with Pega Customer Service for more consistent, end-to-end customer journeys across applications.
The incorporation of a new Reuse Library within Pega’s App Studio permits users to discover and share reusable components to accelerate professional developers’ projects while empowering citizen developers to make effective and governed use of pre-built business logic, integrations, AI models, and other features unique to any given enterprise.
Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.
Other insights from The Futurum Group:
The Six Five Insider with Alan Trefler, Pega Founder & CEO
The Cost of The Next Big Thing – Artificial Intelligence
NIST Launches the Trustworthy & Responsible Artificial Intelligence Resource Center
Author Information
Keith Kirkpatrick is VP & Research Director, Enterprise Software & Digital Workflows for The Futurum Group. Keith has over 25 years of experience in research, marketing, and consulting-based fields.
He has authored in-depth reports and market forecast studies covering artificial intelligence, biometrics, data analytics, robotics, high performance computing, and quantum computing, with a specific focus on the use of these technologies within large enterprise organizations and SMBs. He has also established strong working relationships with the international technology vendor community and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events.
In his career as a financial and technology journalist he has written for national and trade publications, including BusinessWeek, CNBC.com, Investment Dealers’ Digest, The Red Herring, The Communications of the ACM, and Mobile Computing & Communications, among others.
He is a member of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP).
Keith holds dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Magazine Journalism and Sociology from Syracuse University.
