Yext, the leader in Digital Knowledge Management, today announced it is adding the ability to manage an entirely new set of rich data in its platform and helping companies begin their own intelligent transformations, with three pivotal updates to its platform. The new features, shown for the first time at ONWARD 17, are Yext for Events, Yext Knowledge Assistant and Yext's WeChat Mini-Programs integration. Together, the updates will allow businesses to manage an entirely new type of knowledge, update their knowledge faster than ever and expand the places their knowledge gets published.
These updates unlock new ways for businesses around the world to engage with — and be discovered by — consumers using intelligent services powered by AI and machine learning, like voice search and smart assistants.
"We are in the middle of an intelligent transformation, where services powered by AI and machine learning are fundamentally changing the way consumers interact with the world around them," said Howard Lerman, Yext CEO & Founder. "Gone are web pages made up of strings, replaced by smart answers made up of things. Companies today can take control of what intelligent services say about them by making their own Knowledge Graph with Digital Knowledge Management and the Yext Knowledge Engine. It's time for every company to start its own intelligent transformation."
At ONWARD 17, Yext revealed three major advancements in the field of Digital Knowledge Management:
Yext for Events: businesses can now manage the public knowledge about their events across the marketing team with a single source of truth and get their events discovered by publishing to top event-discovery sites like Google, Facebook, Eventbrite, Eventful and more and through their own intelligent events calendar.
Yext Knowledge Assistant: a breakthrough conversational UI designed to help companies manage all the public data about their businesses. Now they can text or message updates directly to the Yext Knowledge Manager — without having to log in or download an app.
WeChat Mini-Programs integration: Businesses can now use Yext to reach consumers in China on their platform of choice.
"Intelligent services require new types of digital knowledge, which means there's an opportunity for businesses to highlight things like events for the very first time," said Marc Ferrentino, Chief Strategy Officer of Yext. "We've seen that businesses need powerful tools to control this dynamic information across the web and to deliver it to consumers around the world. Yext for Events is a first-of-its-kind solution, purpose-built for events."
Yext for Events centralises the event facts in the Yext Knowledge Manager and is the single source of truth for marketing teams. It enables customers to discover events across the web, publishing event details on major sites like Google and Facebook and on event-specific sites consumers use to find things to do, like EventBrite and Eventful. Finally, Yext for Eventsmakes it possible to create optimised event pages and intelligent calendars synced with the Yext Knowledge Manager,so key details, like what time an event starts and how to get there, show up directly in knowledge cards and voice search answers to get attendees the last mile to the door.
"Digital knowledge is changing constantly, so to unlock its full power, businesses need a way for their teams to easily and conveniently update their knowledge," continued Ferrentino. "Knowledge Assistant lets you simply text Yext updates using a smart, conversational interface and will fundamentally improve a business's ability to manage its digital knowledge."
The Yext Knowledge Assistant lets businesses text or message updates into Yext Knowledge Manager without having to log in or download an app. With Knowledge Assistant,businesses can send updates through Facebook Messenger or text message to make crucial updates like uploading a photo, changing store hours or responding to reviews in real time using a simple, conversational interface. The Yext Knowledge Assistant is smart and can even text the user to remind them of an upcoming holiday that might warrant updated store hours, so customers do not show up to a closed storefront.
The Yext Knowledge Enginecan now power WeChat Location Mini-Programs linked to the Yext platform. As one of the most popular platforms for Chinese consumers to find information, interact with friends, pay for purchases, order taxis, claim digital coupons and more, WeChat is a crucial avenue for businesses serving customers around the world. With this new integration, businesses can manage and push out digital knowledge about their Chinese stores in Mandarin on WeChat via Yext, making sure WeChat users in China can find their business locations.
"No one can predict the UI or AI of the future, but companies can control what intelligent services know about them by making their own Knowledge Graph," added Lerman. "The Yext Knowledge Engine serves as the foundation for any business to begin its own intelligent transformation."
Tune in to ONWARD to hear what experts from today's leading brands and tech companies have to say about the Intelligent Future. Streaming starts Wednesday, 1 November at 2pm ET/11am PT, register at Yext.com/Onward.