In a move to expand its strategic footprint, employee experience platform Simpplr acquired Socrates.ai, a generative AI-based virtual employee assistant. The company intends to integrate Socrates.ai into its suite of digital workplace solutions.
Simpplr believes that bringing together solutions for employee engagement, enablement and AI-based services will result in a more effective solution for “work journeys,” regardless of employee location. Its product is essentially an internal social network that allows employees to create profiles, share content, follow users and engage in polls or surveys. Managers can create employee directories and workspaces that can be tailored to different teams and departments.
Dhiraj Sharma, Simpplr’s founder and CEO, said the company wants to improve the employee experience, support communication teams and alleviate pressures on IT and HR departments. All of that, he said, will increase employee productivity. “This acquisition underscores our commitment to innovation and unwavering focus on applying AI to solve tangible employee experience problems.”
Integrated Content, Unified Approach
Simpplr believes system and information overload are the top impediments to employee productivity, with desk workers toggling between applications and websites an average of 1,200 times each day. By adopting virtual assistants like Socrates.ai, employers can streamline self-service, provide intelligence and in general help IT and HR to establish and maintain efficient, optimized resources.
Socrates.ai integrates content sources, chatbots, enterprise applications and employee tools that help centralize HR and IT information. Using its conversational interface, employees can accomplish tasks or answer questions without having to switch between multiple applications.
In August, Simpplr launched Simpplr Employee Recognition, a customizable recognition and awards tool within the Simpplr platform. The product put recognition front and center in the employees’ digital work experience by integrating directly into their workflow, the company said.
Employee Recognition also provides analytics for the use of grant administrators and people managers, all in a single location.
Simpplr secured $70 million in Series D funding in May. The investment was earmarked for hiring and product R&D, Sharma said at the time.
Image: Socrates.ai
