Avnet, a leading global technology distributor, today announced that its “Ask Avnet” intelligent agent has moved into open beta, providing access to anyone in the Americas who visits Avnet.com to the diverse engineering knowledge base across the Avnet ecosystem, including Avnet, Hackster.io and element14. The first platform of its kind in electronics distribution, Ask Avnet is a tool that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and human expertise to streamline the online customer experience. Customers ranging from professional engineers to procurement specialists to makers can use Ask Avnet to find the critical insights and information they need to bring their technology solutions to market.

“Ask Avnet underscores our commitment to leveraging emerging technologies, such as AI, to continuously improve the experience of our customers,” said Kevin Yapp, senior vice president, digital transformation, Avnet. “After months of closed beta testing, we’re bringing the next phase of Ask Avnet to our customers to help them find the products and insights they need to more efficiently move their technology ideas forward. This platform is proven to shorten the amount of time it takes for Avnet customers to access information, therefore enabling them to deliver more projects faster.”

Ask Avnet encompasses a range of tools and services, including an intelligent agent, customer service, technical support and a new Engineer on Demand service. The automated assistant provides users with 24/7 support and a single point of entry for basic inquiries regarding product search and order status, and seamlessly connects customers to relevant content on Hackster.io and the element14 community. If a question is more complex, Ask Avnet can leverage the information from its interactions to connect the user to the appropriate support channel -- customer service, technical support, or an Engineer on Demand, depending on the nature of the query. The Engineer on Demand service also enables customers to request one-on-one virtual appointments with application engineers.

Since it is built on AI technology, Ask Avnet is constantly learning to improve the user experience. Through this continued open beta testing on Avnet.com, interactions with customers and visitors will have the effect of building further intelligence into the system. In addition to responding to customer inquiries, Ask Avnet proactively engages visitors to Avnet.com with helpful prompts and relevant information.

Closed beta testing of Ask Avnet began in July. Since then, customer interactions have built greater intelligence into the system, enabling it to better anticipate customer needs to improve the overall user experience. In the coming months, Ask Avnet will be expanded to other regions and additional Avnet communities will be added.

For more information on Ask Avnet or to use the platform, please visit Avnet.com.