Tag: customer support

  • PayU Unveils AI Agent Store to Help Indian SMBs Automate Commerce and Payments

    PayU Unveils AI Agent Store to Help Indian SMBs Automate Commerce and Payments

    PayU has launched Agent HQ, a dedicated AI agent store designed specifically for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in India. The platform enables merchants to deploy specialized AI agents across various stages of commerce, from improving product discoverability on AI shopping platforms to simplifying payment operations and creating conversational AI experiences.

    According to PayU, the platform helps SMBs adapt to shifting consumer behavior, noting that nearly 50% of search traffic is moving to AI agents. Shoppers referred by AI can also achieve conversion rates up to three times higher than traditional channels.

    What Agent HQ Offers

    Agent HQ is built on over a decade of PayU’s commerce intelligence, covering more than 450,000 merchants, over 700 million shopper journeys, and Rs. 7,800 billion in processed transactions.

    Through the platform, merchants can make their products and services discoverable and transactable on AI platforms such as Claude and ChatGPT, as well as messaging channels including WhatsApp. Businesses can also create custom conversational AI assistants for their websites, apps, and customer journeys. These assistants provide real-time shopper support and handle post-purchase queries.

    AI Agents for Payments and Operations

    Agent HQ includes AI agents designed to automate operational tasks such as transaction follow-ups, chargeback reconciliations, refund escalations, and settlements. The agents use merchant transaction data—including success and failure patterns, chargeback histories, and shopper behavior—to suggest targeted sales and marketing campaigns while helping merchants reduce fraud, disputes, and operational effort.

    Integration with PayU Merchant Dashboard

    Agent HQ is integrated directly into the PayU merchant dashboard. Merchants can hire an AI agent in a few clicks, choose its frequency, monitor its activity, and receive outputs through email and WhatsApp. PayU emphasizes that all agents operate strictly within boundaries defined by merchants.

    Manas Mishra, Chief Product Officer at PayU & Wibmo, said Agent HQ expands PayU’s value-added offerings by providing merchants with a personalized team of AI agents to improve discoverability, drive growth, and manage payment operations.

    Merchants including Policybazaar, Daily Objects, and Pinq Polka are already using Agent HQ to enhance their commerce workflows.

  • Top Laptop Brands Offering the Longest Warranty and Best Customer Support in 2026

    Top Laptop Brands Offering the Longest Warranty and Best Customer Support in 2026

    Choosing a laptop involves more than comparing specifications and prices. Warranty coverage and customer support play a major role in the ownership experience. The leading laptop brands in 2026 stand out with reliable service, extended protection, and trusted after-sales care.

    Overview

    • ASUS and Lenovo offer the longest possible total coverage, reaching up to five years on select models.
    • Apple wins on consistency, with the same repair process and pricing in most countries.
    • Business laptop lines from Lenovo, Dell, and HP usually get faster, better support than consumer models from the same brand.

    A laptop’s real worth shows up the moment something breaks. That’s when a weak warranty turns a small fix into a costly, stressful mess. Most brands only offer the bare minimum: one year, nothing more, but there are a few who go further. They offer longer coverage, protection against drops and spills, faster repairs, and support staff who actually help. These details can make a huge difference over the lifespan of a laptop. They cut maintenance expenses, minimize downtime, and streamline maintenance. The best laptop brands of 2026 are not just about the hardware anymore but also about the warranty coverage and customer support provided after purchase.

    What Makes a Laptop Warranty and Customer Support Plan Worth It?

    A good plan does more than add extra months to a calendar. Look for five things:

    • Warranty Duration: Check how long the standard and extended warranty coverage last.
    • Accidental Damage Protection: See if the plan covers drops, spills, and other accidental damage.
    • Battery Coverage: Confirm whether battery repairs or replacements are included during the warranty period.
    • Repair Turnaround Time: Look for brands known for fast and efficient repair services.
    • Customer Support Accessibility: Choose brands that provide quick access to knowledgeable support through phone, chat, or service centers.

    A three-year warranty means little if spare parts take weeks to arrive. Business laptop lines often get better support than consumer models from the same brand, so check which line you are buying before you compare numbers.

    Best Laptop Brands with the Longest Warranty and Customer Support in 2026

    ASUS

    ASUS includes one year of accidental damage protection with many laptops, plus the option to extend total coverage to three years on consumer and gaming notebooks or five years on commercial models. This makes ASUS one of the few brands that protect against drops and spills without forcing you to buy a separate plan right away.

    Apple

    Apple keeps things simple. AppleCare+ stretches Mac coverage to three years total and covers unlimited accidental damage incidents, though each repair carries a service fee. The real strength here is consistency. Apple’s repair process and pricing stay the same no matter where you live, which matters if you travel often.

    Lenovo

    Lenovo stands out for ThinkPad buyers. Premium Care Plus adds accidental damage protection, a three-year sealed battery warranty, and on-site repair in many markets. Total coverage can stretch to five years, which is longer than most rivals offer.

    HP and Dell

    HP and Dell both lean on flexible add-on plans rather than one fixed number. HP’s Care Packs let you choose the exact coverage length and damage protection you want. Dell is known for dependable business support, especially through its enterprise service lines, even though its base consumer warranty is standard.

    Razer

    Razer takes a different angle. Its Blade laptops ship with a battery warranty of up to two years built in, which is rare in this category. RazerCare then extends full coverage to three years, though accidental damage only comes with the higher Elite tier.

    Why Business Laptops Usually Offer Better Warranty and Customer Support

    Not all laptops are offered the same level of after-sales support. Warranty plans and repair times may be faster on business laptops as compared to consumer models. Leading brands such as Lenovo, Dell, and HP often provide on-site repairs, next-business-day services, and quicker waiting times for business devices. These advantages are more beneficial to freelancers, remote workers, and small business owners than the slightly improved hardware specifications.

    The most expensive part of the repair is frequently the downtime of the laptop. Missing a project deadline can cost far more than replacing a broken screen. This is the reason why warranties and support plans are considered an investment for a business laptop.

    Which Laptop Brand Should You Choose in 2026?

    • Choose ASUS or Apple for enhanced protection against accidental damage.
    • Choose Lenovo or HP for longer warranty options and business-grade support.
    • Choose Dell for trusted enterprise-level service and responsive customer support.
    • Choose Razer for gaming laptops backed by extended battery protection.

    Final Thoughts

    A laptop warranty is more than just a piece of paper in the box. It reflects the value that a brand places on its customers post-sales. When things go wrong, the extended coverage, quick repairs, convenient service, and flexible protection options can make all the difference. Each of the five brands has its own distinct strengths, and it all comes down to the intended use of the laptop.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    1. Which laptop brand offers the longest warranty in 2026?

    Brands such as Lenovo, ASUS, HP, and Dell offer extended warranty options of up to three to five years on select laptops. The exact coverage depends on the model and any additional protection plans purchased.

    2. Which laptop brand has the best customer support in 2026?

    Apple, Dell, Lenovo, and HP are widely recognized for reliable customer support, offering multiple service channels, efficient repair networks, and premium support plans for both consumer and business users.

    3. Is an extended laptop warranty worth buying?

    An extended warranty is worthwhile if you use your laptop for work, travel frequently, or plan to keep it for several years. It can help reduce unexpected repair costs and provide faster service.

    4. Do gaming laptops come with accidental damage protection?

    Some gaming laptop brands, including ASUS and Razer, offer accidental damage protection through select models or optional protection plans. Coverage varies by region and warranty package.

    5. What should I consider besides warranty when choosing a laptop brand?

    Look beyond warranty length and evaluate customer support quality, repair turnaround time, service center availability, international warranty coverage, and the ease of accessing replacement parts and technical assistance.

  • How EaseMyTrip’s AI Assistant Is Evolving into a Travel Companion: CEO Rikant Pittie Shares Insights

    How EaseMyTrip’s AI Assistant Is Evolving into a Travel Companion: CEO Rikant Pittie Shares Insights

    Artificial intelligence is reshaping how travelers discover destinations, book trips, and seek customer support. As conversational AI becomes more intuitive, consumers are moving away from keyword-based searches and traditional support channels, expecting faster, more contextual, and personalized assistance throughout their travel journey.

    EaseMyTrip has witnessed this shift firsthand through its AI-powered assistant, EVA, which has handled over 2.5 million interactions across WhatsApp and the company’s web chatbot. The growing adoption highlights increasing consumer trust in AI for everything from travel discovery and bookings to itinerary changes and post-booking support.

    Rikant Pittie, CEO and Co-Founder of EaseMyTrip, believes the next phase of AI will move beyond answering questions to becoming an intelligent travel companion that understands user preferences, intent, and context, while working alongside human support teams.

    What EVA’s 2.5 Million AI-Led Interactions Reveal

    According to Pittie, the biggest insight from EVA’s interactions is that Indian consumers have moved beyond experimenting with AI and are increasingly relying on it to accomplish real travel-related tasks. Whether discovering flight and hotel options, clarifying booking details, understanding cancellation policies, accessing offers, or resolving service-related queries, customers are turning to AI for speed, convenience, and accuracy.

    Users are demonstrating outcome-driven trust: they care less about whether they interact with a human or an AI system and more about receiving the right answer quickly and reliably. Travelers are increasingly asking complete questions rather than typing fragmented keywords, signaling that they view AI as a travel companion that simplifies planning and decision-making.

    Why Conversational AI Outpaces Traditional Search

    Conversational AI accelerates the customer journey by helping users find information faster and complete tasks more efficiently. Human interaction remains critical for situations requiring empathy, nuanced decision-making, or complex problem-solving. Pittie emphasizes that the real value lies in reducing friction and enhancing existing customer journeys, positioning AI as an extension of human support rather than a replacement.

    Building Domain-Specific AI Assistants: Challenges and Lessons

    Pittie notes that deploying a large language model does not automatically create a successful customer-facing AI assistant. Building a domain-specific solution requires deep understanding of customer journeys, business rules, operational processes, and countless edge cases. For EVA, the real challenge is ensuring the assistant understands travel-specific contexts and responds accurately to a wide range of needs—from discovery and bookings to cancellations and post-booking support.

    Success depends on high-quality data, continuous model refinement, robust guardrails, and strong integration with existing systems. Customer expectations evolve rapidly, so AI systems must continuously improve to remain relevant.

    Improving Engagement, Efficiency, and Resolution Speed

    The most successful organizations approach AI as an augmentation layer. At EaseMyTrip, EVA is embedded into existing customer journeys to make travel discovery and support faster, simpler, and more intuitive. By helping customers find relevant information, access travel options, understand offers, and resolve common queries quickly, AI reduces friction while allowing service teams to focus on complex cases.

    Deep integration with real travel use cases and customer touchpoints enables a more contextual and meaningful experience. Early indicators point toward stronger engagement, faster query resolution, and growing acceptance of AI-led travel assistance.

    The Next Evolution: Proactive, Voice-Enabled, and Multilingual AI

    Pittie envisions the next evolution not as a better chatbot but as a more intelligent travel assistant that understands context, preferences, and intent across the entire customer journey. Travelers expect seamless, connected experiences where they do not have to repeat information at every step—whether planning, booking, or seeking support.

    Through EVA and ChatGPT integration, EaseMyTrip enables customers to receive faster, more contextual assistance for routine requests, while support teams continue handling complex situations that require human judgment, empathy, and personalized intervention. Multilingual interactions, voice-enabled assistance, smarter recommendations, and contextual support will help create more intuitive travel experiences by complementing—not replacing—human expertise.

  • How AI-Powered Voice Workflows Are Reshaping Enterprise Communication

    How AI-Powered Voice Workflows Are Reshaping Enterprise Communication

    AI-powered voice workflows are transforming enterprise communication by improving consistency, scalability and operational efficiency. While empathy remains a human strength, businesses adopting AI with strong governance are expected to gain a long-term competitive advantage.

    Authored by Subhash Kalluri, Founder, FreJun

    Having spent close to a decade building telephony products, the questions enterprises asked were predictable for most of that time. Uptime. Integrations. Per-minute pricing. Somewhere in the last year, the first question changed. Now the person across the table wants to know whether a voice agent can handle their customers without embarrassing the brand. That single shift is enough to tell where this industry is going.

    So let’s be straight about both sides of this. Where voice agents are genuinely pulling ahead and where they still fall short. The second part matters more than most vendors are willing to say out loud.

    Why the shift is happening

    The first reason is accuracy. A trained voice agent gives the same correct answer at 2 in the afternoon and at 2 in the morning. It does not have a bad day, it does not forget the new refund policy that was rolled out last week, and it does not give a customer in Pune one version of the truth and a customer in Coimbatore another. For any enterprise that has struggled to keep a distributed support team consistent, this alone is a big deal.

    Then there is the question of improvement. When a human agent has a difficult call and finds a clever way to resolve it, that learning usually stays with that one person. Maybe it gets shared in a team huddle, maybe it does not. With a voice workflow, studying what worked and feeding it back into the system means every conversation after that benefits. The service quietly gets better month on month instead of resetting every time someone resigns.

    The factor that gets the most attention in the boardroom, though, is cost, and rightly so. Demand in most Indian businesses is not flat. It spikes during a festive sale, during a product launch, and during the days after a billing cycle. With human teams, enterprises are forced to either be overstaffed for the peak and carry that cost through the lean months or understaff and let customers wait. Voice workflows let capacity scale up and down with actual demand. The cost reflects what is used, not what might be needed.

    There is also a less glamorous benefit that operations leaders will immediately recognise. Human error in handoffs. So much breaks in the gap between Tier 1 and Tier 2, between the day shift and the night shift, and between the person who took the complaint and the person expected to close it. Information gets dropped, context gets lost, and the customer repeats themselves three times. A well-designed voice workflow carries the full context through every step, so far less falls through the cracks.

    And finally, ramp-up time. Anyone who has hired customer-facing executives in this country knows the real cost is not just the salary. It is the weeks of training, shadowing, and quality checks before that person is actually productive. A voice agent is ready on day one. When demand jumps suddenly, there is no waiting a month to be effective.

    Where it still falls short

    Now the honest part is that the industry is not there yet on the things that actually make customers loyal.

    The human-like experience is still missing. One can feel, within a few seconds, when they are not talking to a person, and that gap has not closed. Empathy is the bigger one. When a customer is angry or anxious or genuinely upset, an agent today cannot read that emotion and respond to it the way a good human executive can. And there is a kind of magic that happens when a frontline employee decides to go above and beyond, breaks a small rule to make things right, and takes ownership of a problem that was never theirs to own. That moment, the one a customer remembers and tells their friends about, cannot yet be manufactured by software.

    An honest acknowledgement of existing gaps is a strength rather than a weakness. By addressing these realities transparently, organisations can build deeper trust with customers and create stronger alignment within their teams.

    Where the industry is headed

    The honest read is that voice agents will take over the majority of conversations in the enterprise. Not all of them, and not overnight. Humans will stay very much in the loop. What seems likely is a gradual handover, where step by step the number of routine conversations handled by people comes down and voice workflows pick up more of the volume, freeing humans to handle the complex, emotional, high-value moments that actually need them.

    But this only works with proper checks and balances. Wherever these workflows touch enterprise data and decision-making, there has to be a clear, well-governed way to handle that data and those steps. The goal is that the technology improves overall performance without ever quietly damaging the outcomes the organisation cares about. Get that governance right, and voice workflows do not just cut cost. They make the whole operation better.

    That is the future this industry is building towards, and the enterprises that move thoughtfully, rather than either rushing in or sitting it out, are the ones who will come out ahead.

  • How AI Is Reshaping Key Careers: From Customer Support to Healthcare

    How AI Is Reshaping Key Careers: From Customer Support to Healthcare

    As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, its impact on the workforce is undeniable. While some fear job displacement, AI is actually transforming roles rather than eliminating them entirely. Here’s a look at ten careers experiencing the most significant changes as AI becomes a workplace collaborator.

    Customer Support

    AI chatbots now handle routine inquiries, freeing up human agents to tackle complex, high-emotion issues that require empathy and nuanced judgment.

    Content Writing

    AI accelerates content creation by generating drafts and data-driven pieces, but human creativity, storytelling, and brand voice remain irreplaceable.

    Software Development

    Developers leverage AI-powered coding assistants (like GitHub Copilot) to write code faster, debug efficiently, and automate repetitive tasks, boosting overall productivity.

    Graphic Design

    AI tools can generate visuals in seconds, allowing designers to focus on strategy, concept development, and creative direction rather than manual execution.

    Accounting

    Automation handles data entry, invoicing, and reconciliation, shifting accountants’ work toward analysis, advisory, and strategic financial planning.

    Marketing

    AI enhances targeting by analyzing consumer behavior, yet human marketers still drive campaigns with creative intuition and ethical decision-making.

    Healthcare

    AI assists in diagnosing diseases, analyzing medical images, and managing patient data, while physicians retain final authority and patient interaction.

    Human Resources

    Recruiters use AI screening tools to filter resumes and identify candidates, but human evaluation ensures cultural fit and fair assessment.

    AI isn’t replacing humans—it’s augmenting our abilities. The careers that adapt will see workers focus on higher-value tasks that demand emotional intelligence, creativity, and strategic thinking.