Zapier has announced the acquisition of the team behind Vowel, an AI-powered video conferencing tool, for an undisclosed amount. As part of the acquisition, Vowel's CEO, Andrew Berman, will assume the role of Director of AI at Zapier, focusing on enhancing the company's AI automation capabilities.
The acquisition comes alongside the launch of Zapier Central, a new AI workspace that allows users to build, teach, and work hand-in-hand with AI bots. These bots can be customized with user data to handle tasks across more than 6,000 apps, helping businesses accelerate their operations. Zapier Central is now available in public preview.
Sheryl Soo, Zapier's SVP of New Products and Head of Strategy, emphasized the company's commitment to democratizing AI and automation for businesses of all sizes. "With our New Products division, we're launching products that help put the power of AI and automation into the hands of everyone—from builders to non-technical employees, and from enterprise brands to SMBs," Soo stated in a press release.
Andrew Berman, the newly appointed Director of AI at Zapier, shared his perspective on the acquisition: "We were customers of Zapier, using them as our integration layer, and envisioned Vowel evolving into an AI command center for companies querying apps and initiating actions via natural language. It was then that we connected with the Zapier team, discussed what we were building, and saw the intersections with what they wanted to launch."
Zapier Central aims to merge AI intelligence with Zapier's trusted automation platform, creating bots that act more like team members than mere software. Users can teach bots specific behaviors without coding, link with over 6,000 apps, and collaborate directly with bots for task completion across connected apps. The platform enables users to access live data from various sources, such as spreadsheets or Google Docs, and issue commands like sending emails or updating spreadsheets through straightforward requests to their bots.
The acquisition of Vowel and the launch of Zapier Central reflect the company's belief in the critical role of AI in the future workplace and its commitment to enabling customers to automate more efficiently. Over 388,000 Zapier customers are already using the company's various AI products and integrations to delegate more than 50 million tasks to automation.
As part of the acquisition, the Vowel product has sunsetted its services as of December 27, 2023. The Vowel team will now focus on enhancing Zapier's AI automation capabilities, contributing to the development of Zapier Central and future AI-driven products.
With the introduction of Zapier Central and the acquisition of Vowel's team, Zapier continues to lead the evolution of AI automation, empowering businesses to work hand-in-hand with AI bots and streamline their operations across a vast ecosystem of apps.