SAN FRANCISCO, June 18 (Reuters) - - Decagon, a startup

that sells artificial intelligence-powered customer support

solutions, said on Tuesday it had raised $35 million in Series A

and seed funding. Accel led the series A round with

participation from Andreessen Horowitz.

Decagon uses generative AI to replace or augment a company's

customer support workforce.

Generative AI, which came to prominence when Microsoft ( MSFT )

-backed OpenAI launched the viral ChatGPT chatbot in

late 2022, is seen as a game-changer for the customer-service

industry, as the technology excels at imitating human

communication and providing personalized interactions.

The funding round puts Decagon in competition with other

well-capitalized customer support AI startups like Forethought,

which has raised over $90 million from New Enterprise Associates

and other venture capital funds.

Accel partner Ivan Zhou told Reuters that Decagon's product

is differentiated because in addition to powering a

customer-support chatbot, it also functions as a company's

internal customer support liaison and provides services like

creating software bug reports, analyzing customer emails to

suggest product improvements or writing internal documentation.