Market Expected to Grow to $700M by 2016, Fueled by Consumer Preferences for More Human Interactions with Service, Support, Sales

BURLINGTON, Mass., - January 23, 2014 - Nuance Communications, Inc., today announced that it has been named the industry leader in enterprise virtual assistants (EVAs) in a new report from Opus Research titled "Intelliview: Evaluating Enterprise Virtual Assistants." In this new research, Opus predicts this emerging market will grow to $700M by 2016, as organizations increasingly turn to virtual assistants to reduce costs associated with customer service and support, improve sales within mobile apps and Web sites, and further strengthen brand engagement and loyalty through more personalized interactions.

Nuance's Nina surpassed several other offerings assessed by Opus due to its multi-channel capabilities, the quality of the conversational interactions that it delivers, and the breadth of its real-world deployments. Nina leverages Nuance's natural language understanding (NLU) to provide human-like virtual assistant interactions, delivering personalized, effortless customer service. Nina was the first solution to bring speech-based personal assistant capabilities to mobile customer service apps and, since that time, leading brands such as Coca-Cola, Jetstar, USAA, and Windstream have chosen Nina to significantly enhance the experience of both their mobile and Web consumer interactions. With Nina, consumers can simply ask for what they want, through speech or text, to more easily get information or support, make purchases or check on transactions.

"Our research shows that smartphone owners already expect their devices to be Intelligent Assistants that help them carry out daily tasks that include search, scheduling, e-commerce and communications, by speaking in their own words," explains Dan Miller, senior analyst and founder, Opus Research. "Their expectations now extend to businesses as well, and this is where Nuance's Nina distinguishes itself by enabling some of the largest brands to engage with customers through a consistent, highly personalized virtual assistant."

"We are honored to receive this distinction from Opus Research for Nina," said Robert Weideman. "Their research confirms the growth we're seeing in the market as organizations increasingly turn to virtual assistants to not only cut costs but deliver more engaging customer experiences."

More information regarding Opus Research's report, as well as more information about Nuance's Nina, can be found on Nuance's Customer Experts blog. A copy of the report can be purchased here.

About Nuance Communications, Inc

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance Communications, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States of America and/or other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Nuance Contact:
Erica Hill
Nuance Communications
781-888-5518
erica.hill@nuance.com


distributed by