ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,348,675, issued on July 1, was assigned to Verint Americas Inc. (Alpharetta, Ga.).
"Partial automation of text chat conversations" was invented by Ian Beaver (Spokane, Wash.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "To allow the human customer service agents to specialize in the instances where human service is preferred, but to scale to the volume of large call centers, systems and methods are provided in which human agents and intelligent virtual assistants (IVAs) co-handle a conversation with a customer. IVAs handle simple or moderate tasks, and human agents are used for those tasks that require or would benefit from human compassion or special h...