SugarCRM Buys Business Prediction Specialist Node

In the US, 'time-aware' customer experience specialist SugarCRM has acquired AI platform Node, which uses customer relationship management (CRM) data and external sources to predict business use cases.

Founded in 2014 by former Google exec Falon Fatemi, Node's 'Artificial Intuition' platform is designed to help users better engage with, acquire and retain customers, employees, investors and partners. The firm, which earlier this year raised $6m in a funding round, is working on solutions to help businesses without much machine learning or coding experience use AI across contact centers, employee talent, and customer retention initiatives.

According to SugarCRM, the acquisition will offer a combined solution to identify customers most likely to churn, predict likelihood to convert, recommend add-on products during the right phase of the customer journey, and improve customer engagement models through predictive 'case routing' and contextual data. CEO Craig Charlton (pictured) comments: 'Sugar is democratizing AI, ushering in a new frontier in CX with its powerful combination of AI, time-aware and data enrichment, to drive business performance and enable predictability for companies of all sizes'.

Web sites: www.sugarcrm.com and www.node.io .