New data shows 86% of Gen Z ditches digital-first for phone supportNEW YORK and LONDON, Feb. 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- PolyAI, a global leader in voice AI solutions for customer experience and service, reveals that 65% of Americans prefer a phone call as their primary method of contacting customer service for retail and travel brands. Perhaps more surprising, 86% of Gen Z and younger Millennial participants prefer the voice channel for support, breaking the stereotype that young people don't like to talk on the phone.A recent survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers, commissioned by PolyAI and conducted by Dynata, indicated a general openness to engage conversational AI, as long as it offers accurate and efficient support, especially during high-demand periods. While 55% of respondents are likely to immediately ask for a representative if they hear a robotic IVR (interactive voice response), 71% of consumers are willing to speak to an intelligent voice assistant if it could accurately fulfill their customer service needs (process a return, perform a price match, answer questions, etc)."The survey's findings echo what we're hearing from brands we work with: their customers don't like being on hold nor do they trust the ability of old school IVRs to solve their issue. This sentiment was born from decades of stagnation in contact center technology, which has historically been about operational efficiency over the customer experience," said Nikola Mrkšić, co-founder and CEO of PolyAI

The CEO and co-founder of Nvidia-backed AI-powered voice assistant startup PolyAI says the London startup’s future is “predominantly American” but it will retain its UK office.Nikola Mrkšić, the co-founder of PolyAI, was speaking on the Tech.eu podcast, where he discussed the history of the startup, the rise of generative AI, and its impact on the workforce, DeepSeek, among other topics. The CEO said questions about the location of a startup's HQ, in a post-Covid world, were superfluous.Nikola MrkšićPolyAI was founded in 2017 by Mrkšić, (formerly of Apple’s Siri), Tsung-Hslen Wen (formerly of Google) , and Pei-Hao Su (formerly of Meta) who met at the University of Cambridge. The startup develops AI-powered automated voices for enterprise clients. Last year, it closed a $50m (£39.4m) funding round led by Hedosophia and NVentures,  the VC arm of Nvidia, valuing it close to $500m. The startup, which employs over 200 people, has offices in London (its biggest office), New York, San Francisco, and also an office in Belgrade, Serbia, where Mrkšić hails from. Over recent years, there has been much chatter about the merits and downsides of London as an HQ for startups. Mrkšić said the reason the startup’s future was largely in the US was because over 70 per cent of its revenues now came from the US market

PolyAI, a leader in conversational voice AI, secured $50 million in Series C funding, raising its total funding to over $120 million. Key investors include Hedosophia, Nvidia’s NVentures, and Zendesk. The funds will support product development and global expansion. PolyAI also partnered with AWS to enhance the scalability and reach of its technology, offering more secure and reliable solutions for enterprise clients.