Observe.AI, PolyAI, Botpress, Forethought and a shrinking pack of rivals are racing to replace hold music with software that talks back. The funding says they are winning. The person still stuck on the line is not so sure.

A pack of well-funded startups - Decagon, Ada, Uniphore, Omilia - plus Amazon, Kore.ai, Capacity and Five9 are teaching software to resolve support tickets end to end. The prize is a customer service market worth hundreds of billions, and the humans who used to answer the phone.
The Cyprus garage startup bootstrapped for 18 years, countersued the giant that tried to crush it, and just raised $67 million to finally kill the phone tree.