Five9 to Acquire Level AI for $325 Million to Boost AI Agents in CX

Five9, the cloud contact centre software company, agreed on November 5, 2026 to buy Level AI for about $325 million in cash. The deal gives Five9 a set of AI agents and in-house AI models built specifically for customer conversations. It is Five9’s latest move to keep its platform relevant as AI handles a growing share of the calls and chats that human agents used to answer.

What happened?

Five9, based in San Ramon, California, announced the agreement alongside its third-quarter 2026 results. Its board unanimously approved the deal, which values Level AI at roughly $325 million, to be paid from Five9’s own cash and marketable investments rather than new debt or shares.

According to Five9’s merger filing, Level AI’s legal name is Ujwal, Inc. A Five9 subsidiary will merge into it, and Level AI will become a wholly owned part of Five9. Level AI shareholders holding enough votes to approve the deal have already signed support agreements, so no further shareholder vote is needed.

In its quarterly report, Five9 said it expects the deal to close by the end of its 2026 fiscal year, subject to the usual closing conditions.

What does Level AI do?

Level AI makes AI software for customer experience (CX) teams. Its platform brings several tools together on one layer that understands customer conversations:

• AI agents that handle customer requests on their own.
• Agent assist, which guides human agents during live calls and chats.
• Quality management and coaching, which reviews conversations and helps supervisors train staff.
• Voice of the Customer analytics that turn conversations into insights.
• AI Workers for research, analysis and planning tasks.

The platform runs on Level AI Latitude, the company’s own family of AI models built for customer conversations. Five9 says Latitude delivers lower costs and faster responses than general frontier models and gives businesses direct control over data privacy.

Level AI’s customers include Gusto, Chime, Empyrean and VistaPrint, and it processes more than one billion customer interactions a year.

Why is Five9 buying Level AI?

The two companies already know each other well. They have worked together since 2022, and Level AI’s apps are already available through the Five9 CX Marketplace and integrated with Five9’s platform.

Five9 said it will offer Level AI’s applications in two ways after the deal: as stand-alone products for businesses that already rely on Level AI, and as part of the AI application layer inside its broader Genius CX Platform. That gives customers more choice in how they adopt AI, from adding a single tool to moving their whole contact centre onto Five9.

The deal also brings Five9 a team of engineers who build AI-native products, which Five9 highlighted as a key benefit.

Why it matters

The contact centre is one of the first places where AI agents are replacing real work at scale. That is a threat as well as an opportunity for companies like Five9, which have traditionally charged per human agent seat. In its results release, Five9 warned investors that as AI handles more interactions, it must replace any lost seat-based subscription revenue with sales of AI products.

Owning Level AI’s models and agents is one way to do that. Instead of reselling a partner’s tools, Five9 will control the technology and the margin. The deal adds to a string of Five9 acquisitions, including Acqueon in 2024, as it builds out its platform.

The purchase is part of a wider rush to put AI agents into everyday business work. For another example of companies testing whether AI agents can handle real customer demand, see our report on Uber’s early AI agent ride bookings. Investors are also backing startups that build custom AI models for companies, such as Applied Compute’s $350 million round.

What happens next?

Until the deal closes, Five9 and Level AI remain separate companies. Five9 has said Level AI customers will be able to keep using its products as stand-alone tools, so existing users should not need to switch platforms. Investors will be watching Five9’s fourth-quarter results for early signs of how quickly it can sell Level AI’s tools to its own large customer base and whether AI revenue starts to offset slower seat growth.