Shortlist by channel
What is the best AI customer service agent for SMS?
No independent source establishes any agent in this catalogue as answering customers over SMS. Crescendo, Decagon and Fin document it in their own material, which is where a shortlist starts rather than where it ends. 11 of the 22 agents reviewed have any published evidence for SMS; for the rest it is unknown, which means nobody has published it, not that the product cannot do it. Nothing here has been tested by this portal, so treat every name below as a shortlist to validate, not a winner.
An outside source reports it serving this segment
External report0 of 22A customer, analyst or journalist with no stake in the sale describes the product working here. This is the strongest evidence the portal holds, and it is still somebody else's deployment, not yours.
No agent in the catalogue is in this group.
The vendor documents this segment, and nobody else has written about it
Vendor-documented11 of 22The vendor says it serves this segment. That is a reasonable place to start a shortlist and it is not confirmation, because no independent source has reported on it either way.
Listed alphabetically. Position inside a group carries no meaning: these agents are not ranked against each other.
| Agent | What puts it here | Customer workflows with evidence |
|---|---|---|
| CrescendoCrescendo | 2 externally reported, 1 vendor-documented, of 7 | |
| DecagonDecagon | 1 externally reported, 6 vendor-documented, of 7 | |
| FinIntercom | 0 externally reported, 7 vendor-documented, of 7 | |
| ForethoughtForethought (Zendesk) | 3 externally reported, 0 vendor-documented, of 7 | |
| Gorgias AI AgentGorgias | 1 externally reported, 3 vendor-documented, of 7 | |
| Kore.aiKore.ai | 1 externally reported, 1 vendor-documented, of 7 | |
| LivePersonLivePerson | 0 externally reported, 2 vendor-documented, of 7 | |
| NiCE CognigyNiCE | 1 externally reported, 1 vendor-documented, of 7 | |
| PolyAIPolyAI | 2 externally reported, 1 vendor-documented, of 7 | |
| SierraSierra | 0 externally reported, 7 vendor-documented, of 7 | |
| Yellow.aiYellow.ai | 0 externally reported, 2 vendor-documented, of 7 |
A limitation is documented for this segment
Caveat documented0 of 22A cited source describes a limit or a bad experience here. It sits below vendor documentation because it is not evidence of fit, and above the agents nobody has written about because somebody at least looked. Read the condition: it may not apply to you at all.
No agent in the catalogue is in this group.
Nothing published for this segment
Not established11 of 22No reviewed source places these agents here, by the vendor's own documentation or otherwise. That is a gap in the public record, not a finding against the products, and several of them may suit you.
Listed alphabetically. Position inside a group carries no meaning: these agents are not ranked against each other.
Every claim behind these groups
Each agent above with evidence for SMS, and the claims that placed it, with the source type and the date it was checked.
Crescendo
Vendor-documentedCrescendo states its Concierge agent handles "Voice, chat, email, SMS, WhatsApp" from a single AI layer, with a website chat widget, mobile apps and API access also documented.Vendor-reported
- Source
- Crescendo — Concierge Agent
- Checked
- History
- First published
- Correct this
- Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID
crescendo-cmp-channels
Decagon
Vendor-documentedDecagon’s homepage lists chat, email and voice. SMS appears in its Curology customer story; confirm whether that channel is available for your proposed deployment.Vendor-reported
- Source
- Decagon homepage and linked customer examples
- Checked
- History
- First published
- Correct this
- Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID
decagon-channels
Fin
Vendor-documentedThe FAQ lists web and mobile Messenger, email, WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook, and Instagram. Confirm separate voice or other channel access and feature coverage for the intended deployment.Vendor-reported
- Source
- Fin AI Agent FAQs (Intercom Help)
- Checked
- History
- First published
- Correct this
- Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID
fin-channels
Forethought
Vendor-documentedThe vendor lists chat, email, voice, SMS, Slack, mobile apps and a headless API as supported channels.Vendor-reported
- Source
- Forethought Solve
- Checked
- History
- First published
- Correct this
- Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID
forethought-channels
Gorgias AI Agent
Vendor-documentedGorgias states the AI Agent operates in its omnichannel inbox covering email, chat, SMS, WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook.Vendor-reported
- Source
- Gorgias — AI teammate for customer experience
- Checked
- History
- First published
- Correct this
- Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID
gorgias-cmp-channels
Kore.ai
Vendor-documentedKore.ai's channel documentation lists digital channels (Slack, LINE, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Messenger, Twilio SMS, Telegram, Zendesk, Instagram, Genesys, Genesys Open Messaging, Email), voice channels (Realtime LLM Voice, Pipeline Voice, VXML IVR, Genesys Audio Connector, AudioCodes), SDK channels (Web SDK, API, Mobile SDK), webhooks, and the AG-UI and Agent-to-Agent protocols.Vendor-reported
- Source
- Channels - Kore.ai Agent Platform documentation
- Checked
- History
- First published
- Correct this
- Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID
kore-ai-cmp-channels
LivePerson
Vendor-documentedLivePerson states its AI agents can be built and launched with LLMs 'across messaging and voice', and its Conversational Cloud page names SMS, WhatsApp and voice among supported channels.Vendor-reported
- Source
- Generative AI Tools — LivePerson
- Checked
- History
- First published
- Correct this
- Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID
liveperson-cmp-channels
NiCE Cognigy
Vendor-documentedDocumented endpoints cover web chat, telephony via Cognigy Voice Gateway, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Microsoft Teams, Slack, LINE Messenger, Twilio and Twilio SMS, Intercom, Userlike, Zendesk Sunshine Conversations, Genesys, 8x8, NiCE CXone, RingCentral Engage, Zoom, Azure Bot Services, plus REST, Socket and Webhook endpoints.Vendor-reported
- Source
- Endpoint Reference - Overview | Cognigy Documentation
- Checked
- History
- First published
- Correct this
- Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID
nice-cognigy-cmp-channels
PolyAI
Vendor-documentedPolyAI is voice-first — its documentation calls it an "enterprise platform for building voice and chat agents" and its pricing is per minute of voice-agent use — with secondary documented channels covering web chat, SMS and RCS, email, and iOS/Android SDKs (including in-app voice calling).Vendor-reported
- Source
- PolyAI Docs — documentation index (llms.txt)
- Checked
- History
- First published
- Correct this
- Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID
polyai-cmp-channels
Sierra
Vendor-documentedVendor-listed channels include phone, website and app chat, WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, SMS and email. Live Assist supports staff, and Sierra also documents publishing selected agent journeys to ChatGPT.Vendor-reported
- Source
- Channels (Sierra)
- Checked
- History
- First published
- Correct this
- Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID
sierra-channels
Yellow.ai
Vendor-documentedDocumentation lists 24 configurable channels including WhatsApp, web widget, email, SMS, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Telegram, Viber, Line, Zalo, Apple Business Chat and Google Business Messages, while the pricing page markets 35 or more channels on paid tiers.Vendor-reported
- Source
- Channel configuration overview (Yellow.ai docs)
- Checked
- History
- First published
- Correct this
- Request a correction with a public source. Claim ID
yellow-ai-cmp-channels
How these groups are formed
- Agents are grouped by what the cited sources establish for this segment, not scored against each other.
- An outside source reporting the product in this segment comes first, then the vendor's own documentation, then a documented limitation, then silence.
- Within a group the order is alphabetical, because the evidence does not support ranking one against another.
- No agent is dropped: the ones with nothing published are named too.
Groups are derived from the cited claims at build time and describe the evidence, not the products. Nothing here has been tested, so a higher group means more has been established about an agent in this segment, not that it performs better. An agent can be well suited to you and sit in the last group simply because nobody has written about it. Published review-site ratings do not order these groups either: where a record carries one it is cited on the profile, but those ratings score whole products against each other — one vendor's bundled chat widget against another's full help desk — and none of them measures the AI agent on its own.
The methodology page explains why the portal groups evidence rather than scoring products.
Other shortlists
Facts last checked . No agent on this page has been tested by this portal.