NiCE is an American technology company specializing in customer relations management software (NiCE CXone), artificial intelligence, and digital and workforce engagement management.
The company was first listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 1996.[4]
History
NiCE was founded in 1986 as Neptune Intelligence Computer Engineering (NICE) in Israel; later, on October 14, 1991, the Company was renamed NICE Systems Ltd with the acronym no longer in active use.
Much of the early technology developed by NiCE was for contact centers, financial services and business intelligence markets.[5] The computer engineers that founded NiCE created a telephony voice recording system in the early 90s, followed by ATM software under the subsidiary NICECom.[6] The ATM vendor quickly grew its operations in the 90s and NiCE sold its subsidiary to 3Com
The company developed risk management software for various markets.[8]
In 2011, NiCE acquired UK-based Fizzback with the value of the deal said to be $80 million.[9] The UK company specialized in customer feedback, collecting real-time customer experience information.At the time of acquisition, Fizzback processed 150 million individual feedback reports; many of these reports were taken from social media platforms.[9] During the same year, NiCE announced the acquisition of analytics firm, Merced Systems for $150 million.Merced was a provider of performance management services, offered predominantly as software as a service with additional analytics and workforce optimization.[10]
In 2014, Zeevi Bregman left his role as CEO, to be replaced by Barak Eilam who previously served as President, a role he had held for 18 months before becoming CEO.[11][12][13]
NiCE relocated its headquarters to a new 60,000 square foot office building on the Hudson River waterfront in 2015.[1]
The physical security business unit (NICE Security) was sold to private equity firm Battery Ventures in September 2015 and changed its name to Qognify.[14] Qognify has since been acquired by Hexagon AB in 2023.[15]
On June 6, 2016, the company was renamed NiCE Ltd and acquired inContact for a reported $960 million. Paul Jarman of inContact would continue as CEO to lead the inContact division once integrated into NiCE.[16]
In 2018, NiCE acquired The Mattersight Corporation that was founded as a behavioral analytics software company in 1994, before expanding into cloud analytics and its SaaS offering. The agreed deal was $90 million, which made the total acquisition price 25% above share value. Mattersight's service offering was integrated into NiCE.[17]
In April 2021, it was announced that NiCE would be acquiring MindTouch, a San Diego–based knowledge management company founded in 2005.NICE rebranded the platform as CXone Expert.[19] In 2021, growth in numerous tech sectors led to NiCE receiving a valuation of $17 billion, making it the most valuable company in Israel.[20] During the same period, the company partnered with Google Cloud.[21]
In June 2023, NiCE was recognized by Frost & Sullivan with its 2023 Best Practices Company of the Year Award for Conversational AI.[22]
In June 2024, it was announced that its CEO Barak Eilam would be stepping down from his role as chief executive officer at the end of 2024.Eilam would continue to be involved with NiCE during the first half of 2025, serving in a strategic consulting role for the software company.[23] Just over a month after the announcement of Eilam's departure, former SAP executive Scott Russell was announced as his replacement.Russell would begin is role as CEO effective January 1, 2025.[24] In Q3, NiCE announced a 13% year-on-year growth cloud service revenue.[25]
NiCE updated CXone Mpower in late 2024, after which the company was described to be "well positioned" for growth in the CCaaS market.[26] This included analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald, who had NiCE as one of their picks to benefit from the rise of AI use by corporations.[27] The company completed the year by reporting strong financial results, with $2.7 billion total revenue from the Q4 2024 earnings.
In January 2025, NiCE announced plans to expand its anti–money laundering (AML) strategy globally, while market capitalization for the software firm had reached $10.49 billion.NiCE was in the media again later that month when its CXone Mpower platform helped Great Southern Bank dramatically cut waiting times.In early 2025, NiCE experienced a 6.16% single day rise in its share price.[28] After starting his role as CEO, Scott Russell spoke about his plans and future expectations for NiCE.He stated in his first official interview as CEO with CX Today that the focus will remain on expansion and AI.[29] During 2025, NiCE formed several partnerships with other technology firms.This included the May announcement with AWS, which made NiCE’s CXone Mpower CCaaS platform available on the AWS Marketplace.[30] With a continued effort to grow its reach in AI, NiCE partnered with ServiceNow to provide an integrated platform.[31] Other partnerships included Snowflake Inc. and RingCentral, with both expected to strengthen its enterprise monitoring capabilities.[32]
In July 2025, NiCE announced that it would acquire the Düsseldorf-based provider of conversational and agentic AI software, Cognigy.NiCE announced the transaction was finalized in September.[33] Cognigy develops automation tools used in customer service operations, including its Cognigy.AI platform, which supports multilingual voice and chat interactions.NiCE stated that the technology would be integrated into its CXone platform while continuing to be offered as a standalone product.[34] It also completed a rebrand around the same period, introducing a lower case "i" in its name.[35] At the Interactions 2025 conference, CXone Mpower Agents were showcased for the first time as the corporation’s inaugural AI agent.[36]
Products and services
NiCE specializes in AI and customer experience (CX) software.[37]
CXone
CXone is part of NiCE's product offering.[21] In 2021, NiCE surpassed $1 billion in cloud revenue.[38] In March 2023, the platform reached the milestone of having one million users.[39]
In early 2023, NiCE announced conversational CX with ChatGPT-enabled CXone.CX Network magazine stated the offering would be ideal for contact centres where customers were unable to wait for callbacks due to the nature of their inquiry.[40] After working with various regulatory bodies in the European Union, data centers, and also cloud providers, NiCE delivered a CX platform where all data passing through it would remain within the EU.[41]
CXone Mpower
CXone Mpower was launched in 2024. The platform provides customer service automation.[42] In September 2024, it was announced NiCE was part of a $578 million deal to transform Services Australia.[43] CXone Mpower received a significant update in October 2024.[44]
In March 2025, NiCE announced the launch of CXone Mpower Orchestrator.[45] It uses an AI agent to perform and assist in automating customer service tasks, and won Overall Best and Best Innovation in Customer Experience at Enterprise Connect 2025.[46] In 2025, it secured a major deal with the UK’s Department for Work & Pensions, under which CXone Mpower would be deployed in a 40,000-seat agreement.[47]
Enlighten
Enlighten is NiCE's artificial intelligence engine.[48] NICE launched Enlighten Copilot, Enlighten Autopilot and Enlighten Actions at NiCE's Interactions 2023 event.It was considered by some within the CX industry as an AI for large enterprises.[49]
Livevox
On December 26, 2023, NiCE finalized the acquisition of LiveVox Inc. This acquisition significantly expanded the feature set of NiCE's CXone platform, particularly within the Outbound Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) market. LiveVox's offerings include notable products like Human Call Initiator (HCI), which facilitates semi-automated outbound call campaigns while ensuring adherence to U.S. regulations. Additionally, LiveVox offers capabilities like Human Text Intiator (HTI), the SMS counterpart to HCI.
VoApps DirectDrop Voicemail
VoApps DirectDrop Voicemail announced on October 13 that it became part of NiCE inContact within the CX Division.[50] The acquisition was completed the previous month.[51] DirectDrop Voicemail is a patented technology that delivers pre-recorded messages directly to a mobile user's mailbox without ringing the phone, allowing for scalable, compliant, and non-intrusive communication. It helps businesses, particularly in credit unions, online lending, and collections increase ROI and efficiency by bypassing traditional and invasive outbound contact methods to their members, borrowers, and consumers.
Media
In 2019, NiCE released a study on internal business performance and how that effected customer experience, with the main finding that companies in Australia and the United States both over estimate the quality of their customer experience.[52]
NiCE's 2022 Digital-First Customer Experience Report revealed that there are major gaps between what customers think about the support they receive and how seriously business leaders are taking their expectations.[53]
In February 2025, NiCE published a report into AI's ability to identify vulnerable customers. Aging populations are less likely to self identify as vulnerable when dealing with financial service providers.Without both customer and provider identifying vulnerable customers, it can lead to higher levels of fraud or identity theft.The study showed that AI when added to existing customer service offerings provided better identification of vulnerable customers than human identification alone.[54]
NiCE’s 2025 Global Happiness Index,[55] based on a survey of over 12,000 consumers and 270 C‑suite leaders, reveals that while overall global happiness has fallen, satisfaction with customer service is rising.[56]
References
1.SJP Properties Signs 60,000-Square-Foot Office Lease with NICE Systems at Waterfront Corporate Center III New Jersey Business magazine, November 9, 2015^
