People online are raving about this AI concierge

People online are raving about this AI concierge

If you’re planning to deal with a customer service issue later today, you’re probably already bracing for the pain: Long hold times. Endless ticket numbers. Copy-paste replies that don’t answer your question. Repeat.

But recently, people online are suddenly raving about an AI concierge experience that’s popping up everywhere, from their banks to their rental cars to their Oura Ring.

So what’s going on? And when will all of us get to experience this magic?

The company behind the technology is trying to make sure that it’s very soon. 

“Since the beginning, we’ve been focused on flipping the script to make the kind of concierge experience that was once thought impossible at scale, to be an expected part of everyday life,” says Jesse Zhang, CEO and cofounder of Decagon, the company that provides the conversational AI platform that’s turning heads, in his recent viral LinkedIn note.

“If you’re a customer of something, it should just feel like you’re the only one – like it’s a personal concierge,” adds Ashwin Sreenivas, Zhang’s cofounder and president of the company.

The world’s top VCs agree…to the tune of $4.5 billion

As of this week, the same investors who have backed companies powering other areas of everyday life, like DoorDash, Airbnb, Spotify, Robinhood, Figma, and Chime have now poured an additional $250 million into Decagon, tripling the company’s valuation to $4.5 billion in less than six months as the company grows rapidly and is rumored to be eyeing a massive lease in downtown San Francisco. The funding round was led by new investors Coatue Management and Index Ventures, alongside existing backers like a16z, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, and Forerunner, and many others.

Their bet is simple: Decagon is becoming essential infrastructure for businesses who take customer experience seriously, and who believe that the company’s AI concierge will not only be the new standard for CSAT (customer satisfaction) in the industry, but also a crucial “unlock” for increased trust, loyalty, and revenue  – and overall “economic alignment,” according to the funding blog post.

Coatue crunched the numbers and concluded that the opportunity is massive. Lucas Swisher notes, “Companies spend ~$600B globally each year on customer support, primarily on in-house and outsourced call center services. While software is a tiny fraction of the broader spend, our view is that AI should turn this upside down. Enterprises agree.” He describes Decagon as finally making “concierge interactions at scale” possible, especially “as AI unlocks hyperscale commerce.”

Index Ventures partner Sofia Dolfe frames it as the next paradigm shift: “We’re investing in Jesse and Ashwin because they’re reimagining customer experience from first principles — treating it as something to be designed with taste, intention, and delight. Once again, what seems like the foregone conclusion isn’t.”

Forerunner’s Kirsten Green adds, “We've always believed that exceptional customer experiences are the foundation of enduring businesses. Decagon is fundamentally reimagining how enterprises engage with their single most valuable asset: their customers.”

Aaren Hilaly, partner at BCV and repeat Decagon investor, even posted an impassioned video highlighting Decagon’s energy and ambition.

The “renaissance” of customer service

For the past 15 years, we’ve grown accustomed to being relegated to a chatbot, only to spend just as much time trying to get help from it as we would have waiting for a customer service rep.

Decagon knows there’s baggage from those darker ages. “Configuration killed the customer experience, but Concierge will be its renaissance,” Zhang says.

Just ask Janet, a Hertz car rental customer.

Decagon’s pitch is simple: that customer support shouldn’t feel like a last resort. It should feel like having a concierge. And if the company’s meteoric rise and the recent $250 million vote of confidence is any signal…the customer service experience you’ve hated for years may finally be replaced by something a lot better.