Startup Telli Raises $15 Million to Replace Call Centers With AI Agents

telli raised $15 million in a seed round to develop its artificial intelligence (AI) agent builder focused on customer-facing AI agents.

This tool, Charlie, helps B2C companies create, test, optimize, maintain and run agents that talk to customers, the company said in a Thursday (July 23) blog post.

Agents created with Charlie are being used by companies ranging in size from small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to large enterprises, and these agents have handled millions of conversations, according to the post.

The agents can answer calls, qualify leads, book appointments, run follow-ups and resolve customer requests, per the post.

Charlie also helps companies analyze conversations, spot issues, run experiments and improve customer communication, per the post.

“We believe voice is only the beginning,” telli said in the post. “As customer communication spreads across more channels and personal AI agents become part of everyday life, companies will need AI on their side of the conversation too.”

telli’s seed round was led by redalpine, according to the post.

redalpine said in a Thursday post on LinkedIn that telli provides B2C companies with an alternative to the customer relationship management (CRM) systems, call centers, tickets, queues and manual work that those companies have been using for 20 years to run their customer operations.

“They’re building AI voice agents that can run customer-facing operations end to end,” redalpine said of telli. “Their agents already handle millions of conversations for companies including Sky, Enpal and Vaillant Group.”

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Financial Services Pulls Ahead in the Enterprise AI Race” found that AI-powered customer service chatbots and virtual agents are being used by 60% of organizations in the healthcare and medical sector, 50% of those in the financial services and insurance sector, and 45% of those in the media and advertising sector.

Among healthcare organizations, customer service chatbots is the leading use case for AI investments, according to the report.

“That number reveals more about the workforce than about technology,” the report said. “Healthcare is using AI where the pressure is most acute, and right now, that means anywhere it can take duties off the plates of overburdened staff.”