Honeywell is Latest Investor in and a Major User of Tact.ai

Winning additional investment is an important endorsement for any startup, but it’s even sweeter when the investor is also a major user of the technology.

Honeywell is making the Tact platform and AI-powered voice assistant available to thousands of sales team members worldwide. Through Honeywell Ventures, this global industrial, engineering, and aerospace giant is also investing in the company.

“We believe that in order for sales teams to better prepare and serve customers for the future, they need to become more productive, data-driven and connected with their customers,” Kamal Vasagiri, director, Honeywell Ventures, said in a statement, “Tact.ai shares our view that AI should help employees become a better version of themselves, optimizing how they can help their customers.”

Internally, Honeywell’s leadership team is promoting Tact.ai as a way of making “the newest technologies for seamless interaction” available to its global sales team. For example, a salesperson headed to a meeting with a customer or potential customer can get a briefing distilled from email, collaboration, lead management, and content management systems right before it starts. After the meeting, the voice interface in the Tact AI Sales Assistant can document updates on the account in the “5 golden minutes” when the details are fresh in the rep’s mind — and enter them into Salesforce without the salesperson needing to touch a single key on the keyboard.

The goal is to proactively engage all the appropriate players across the sales, marketing, engineering and finance teams in maximizing the potential of every opportunity, and effectively connecting the data and correct people to appease the customer.

This marks the fifth time a global Fortune 500 organization has invested in Tact.ai, joining Amazon Alexa Fund, Comcast Ventures, M12 Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. Venture firm investors include Accel Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Upfront Ventures.

Tact.ai CEO Chuck Ganapathi said he was honored by the support of Honeywell, which shares the vision of using AI to help sales professionals get more work done in half the time. “Each day we’re thankful to have some of the largest organizations in the world as supporters and investors. Tact.ai couldn’t be prouder to help our customers’ employees plan better, move better and better connect with their customers,” he said.