Dialpad, an AI-powered communications intelligence platform has comenced the strategic acquisition of Surfboard, a workforce management company, the appointment of longtime board member Jen Grant as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), and the addition of veteran Security leader Atit Shah as the company’s first Chief Security Officer (CSO).
As it enters a new phase of growth, Dialpad is strengthening its position in the contact center market with the acquisition of Surfboard, a modern workforce management (WFM) platform that simplifies every step of the customer journey. The company, founded in 2021, is a modern disruptor to the otherwise antiquated workforce management industry, combining powerful technology with an intuitive user experience to turn customer service teams into profit centers and sources of delight for customers.
“We at Surfboard believe that the future of customer service is going to be a hybrid of AI-enabled work powered by humans,” said Natasha Ratanshi-Stein, Founder at Surfboard. “Over the last couple of years, Dialpad has propelled the industry forward in evolving how customer service teams integrate AI. Surfboard and Dialpad share the philosophy that technology can improve customer outcomes and team efficiency – together, we’re excited to continue building products that allow our customers to do just that.”
“One of the most time-consuming tasks for any modern team is scheduling meetings and managing a workforce. In our hybrid and platform-powered workforce, enterprises want a single place for all business communications and organization,” said Vincent Paquet, Chief Product Officer, Dialpad. “The team at Surfboard has created an exceptional product for workforce management and we’re excited to combine our capabilities to bring customers the very best, AI-native WFM on the market.”
Dialpad’s ascent to over $300 million of ARR underscores the company’s visionary decision to invest early in AI in 2018 – an investment that is now delivering measurable results to enterprises. Dialpad’s Ai transcribes every word of every customer conversation in real-time, then delivers guidance during each call to sales and support personnel. This database of invaluable customer data can then alert the business to issues in real-time and deliver actionable insights to optimize team performance, address issues faster, and more quickly adjust to market shifts.
In a Forrester Total Economic Impact report from November 2023, enterprises using Dialpad saw an improved customer experience with a 20% reduction in average handle time, major cost savings with a 75% reduction of manual work for managers, and, by almost eliminating abandoned calls, delivered an average of quarter million in additional revenue through increased upsell opportunities over a three year period.
Dialpad can achieve this value as the only platform with a truly native Large Language Model (LLM), the proprietary DialpadGPT, which is powered by over seven billion minutes of business conversations, making it highly relevant to enterprises and able to deliver the most accurate speech to text (Automatic Speech Recognition, or ASR) in tests against the leading publicly available LLMs on the market. Not only does Dialpad Ai deliver business-focused accuracy, it also allows for AI capabilities to happen in real-time, with actionable guidance, coaching, and insights delivered in seconds as conversations are happening.
“Surpassing $300 million in ARR is a testament to our team’s visionary approach and relentless dedication to making business better,” said Craig Walker, Founder and CEO, Dialpad. “Our fully integrated, modern cloud approach allows us to innovate much faster than any of our competitors, and our early investment in real-time AI, has positioned us at the forefront of understanding every business conversation.
This milestone not only validates our strategy of harnessing AI to transform how businesses interact with their customers, but also lays the foundation for our next phase of growth as we continue to help every business make smarter decisions. With our strong market position and the increasing demand for our AI-powered solutions, we believe we’ll grow to over $1 billion in annual revenue in the next few years, underscoring the value and effectiveness of our integrated, human-centric, AI-native approach.
To further accelerate its market leadership, Dialpad has welcomed Jen Grant as its new Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Atit Shah as its first Chief Security Officer (CSO).
Grant, who has served on Dialpad’s Board of Directors since 2020, brings a wealth of experience in scaling high-growth technology companies in various leadership roles. She has held CMO roles at Looker and Elastic, in addition to senior marketing positions at companies like Box, and Google, contributing significantly to their exponential customer and revenue growth.
While at Looker, Jen drove the brand, messaging and positioning for the company while it grew from $15m to $150M, eventually being acquired by Google in 2020 for $2.6 billion. As SVP of Marketing at Box, Jen oversaw its growth from a small start-up to an IPO-ready and industry-leading enterprise content company used by the majority of Fortune 500 companies. She also held the position of COO of Cube Dev where she doubled revenue in just one year, and CEO of Appify where she drove the company’s first million in revenue.
As CMO, Grant will oversee Dialpad’s global marketing strategy, focusing on accelerating growth, enhancing brand visibility, and solidifying the company’s position as an industry leading AI and communications intelligence provider.
“I couldn’t sit on the sidelines any longer,” said Jen Grant, CMO, Dialpad. “The Dialpad team is delivering very real AI capabilities that measurably improve customer interactions and no other company can match them. I’m thrilled to join the team and help bring Dialpad to more enterprises around the world.”
“Our modern workforce requires next generation security in order to keep up with the evolving threat landscape,” said Atit Shah, CSO, Dialpad. “Dialpad has always stayed ahead of emerging threats while offering the best in class platform for all business communications, and I’m excited to continue this legacy.”
