Gartner defines the CRM customer engagement center (CEC) as a cohesive set of software built around core case management tools, dedicated to providing customer service and support by engaging with customers, and intelligently orchestrating the processes, data, systems, and resources of an organization. CRM CEC is a key software platform used in delivering end-to-end customer service and support experiences. It enables customers to engage and interact with an organization as well as for the organization to orchestrate its internal and external processes and resources to fulfill the customer’s expected outcome.
Gartner defines contact center as a service (CCaaS) as solutions offering SaaS-based applications that enable customer service departments to manage multichannel customer interactions holistically from both a customer-experience and employee-experience perspective. CCaaS is a key technology platform used to support the customer service experience, whether it be self-service or assisted by customer service representatives. All organizations need to offer customer assistance. The preference is for remote support via voice and digital channels over physical presence in offices and stores, though it is common for organizations to offer multiple options. The ambition is for customers to self-serve assistance, through web portals or chatbots. But it is also recognized that complex issues still need the support of employees. CCaaS technology is instrumental in orchestrating both self- and assisted-service engagement with customers. The technology can also manage the quality of engagement between the customer and the customer service representative, recognizing that premium customer experiences are achieved through premium employee experiences.
Gartner defines content marketing platforms (CMPs) as software solutions that support the end-to-end content production process. These solutions facilitate creating and curating text, video, images, graphics, audio, e-books, white papers and interactive content assets that are distributed through paid and owned channels. These assets are used to tell connected stories that help brands engage with and nurture multiple audiences with content that drives awareness, demand, purchases and loyalty. CMPs enable the fundamentals of content marketing — specifically, content strategy, editorial planning, creative workflow, distribution and performance measurement — to drive a coordinated approach and standardized production process at scale. CMPs collect and analyze data to inform content creation and reuse, streamline operations and iterate on content to improve marketing effectiveness. These platforms can also generate branded iterations of content for different audiences using artificial intelligence and human creators. They enable internal teams, external contributors and agencies involved in content creation to coordinate efforts across projects and campaigns.
Gartner defines conversational AI platforms (CAIPs) as platforms primarily used for developing applications simulating human conversation across multiple channels and on a mix of modalities such as text, voice and visual content. CAIPs leverage a composition of AI techniques, including classic natural language processing (NLP), and generative AI (GenAI) and agentic AI architectures. To support the building of conversational applications, CAIPs principally provide low-code and no-code coding options. Application areas include AI assistants and conversational AI agents. Conversational AI platforms are designed to address the increasing demand for organizations to efficiently build, deploy and manage AI-driven conversational systems at scale, addressing the requirements of both employee experience and customer experience use cases. While they may offer some predefined AI assistants or AI agents that can be modified, the primary focus of a CAIP is to equip organizations with tools for building customized conversational AI applications. CAIPs typically embed specialized, dedicated and feature-rich tooling for language-specific NLP and multimodal interactions, as well as conversational flow building and analytics. By offering a unified environment that supports low-code and no-code development — and, in some cases, extends to pro-code and GenAI-assisted options — CAIPs empower technically savvy business users, including citizen developers, to create and orchestrate both customer-facing and internal AI assistants and conversational agents. Unlike AI engineering environments, which primarily serve AI engineers, software developers and data scientists, CAIPs are purpose-built for broad enterprise adoption, enabling strategic, scalable and organizationwide conversational AI initiatives.
Customer escalation management solutions are systems and processes designed to handle situations where customer issues cannot be resolved at the first point of contact. These solutions ensure that such issues are prioritized and addressed efficiently by escalating them to more experienced or higher-level personnel within the organization. They often integrate with customer relationship management (CRM) systems to provide a seamless experience and maintain a comprehensive record of customer interactions. Typical users include customer support teams, IT service management teams, and operations managers who use these systems to route issues based on predefined criteria, support multi-channel handling from email, chat, phone, and social media, and offer robust analytics and reporting tools to track performance and improve processes. These solutions also help reduce resolution time by facilitating hierarchical escalation and enabling team members to collaborate effectively.
Social analytics is the process of collecting, measuring, analyzing and interpreting the results of interactions and associations among people, topics and ideas from social media sources. This market examines social analytics solutions covering social filtering, text analytics, sentiment analysis, image analysis and public-facing social media analytics. It focuses on solutions that derive at least 60% of their revenue from software versus solutions that are mainly based on consulting services.
Social marketing management (SMM) tools equip organizations with the ability to orchestrate and manage a wide range of social communication efforts across various marketing teams and social platforms within a single tool. These software solutions help marketing leaders monitor, collect and analyze social data; develop, publish and promote content; identify and engage with their audience; and track the performance and impact of these communications.
Gartner defines Social Monitoring and Analytics as the process of collecting, measuring, analyzing and interpreting the results of interactions and associations among people, topics and ideas from social media sources. These solutions are different from social marketing management tools that may include social analytics capabilities as part of a broader platform, which also include capabilities for content publishing, distribution, and engagement and customer service capabilities. Social Monitoring and Analytics vendors enable users to monitor and analyze conversations happening on social media about their brand, competition industry, and topics relevant to their target customer segments. These tools collect data from various online sources and help users analyze themes, sentiment and perceptions
Gartner defines a voice of the customer (VoC) platform as one that integrates feedback collection, analysis and action into a single interconnected platform that helps understand and improve the customer experience. Sources of feedback extend beyond direct surveying to include other, more indirect and inferred sources. VoC platforms enable leaders responsible for functions such as customer service, marketing, or sales to better manage the customer experience (CX) through a deep understanding of customer needs, motivations, goals and behaviors. The resulting insights trigger recommendations and actions across the enterprise.