Cresta

What is Cresta?

Cresta is a contact-center AI company spun out of Stanford AI Lab in 2017 by Sebastian Thrun, Zayd Enam and Tim Shi. It sells a unified platform combining an autonomous AI Agent, real-time Agent Assist for human reps, and Conversation Intelligence analytics on one shared conversation record, rather than treating AI automation and human-agent tooling as separate products. Cresta has raised $280M+ across a $125M Series D (November 2024, co-led by World Innovation Lab and Qatar Investment Authority), employs 500+ people, and counts United Airlines, Marriott, CVS, Cox Communications and Snap Finance among its enterprise customers.

What does Cresta do?

Cresta AI Agent resolves complete customer interactions end to end across voice, chat and SMS in 30+ languages — authentication, account lookups, task completion — via API-based function calls into a company's CRM, billing and scheduling systems, then hands off to a human when it can't finish the job. When it does escalate, Cresta Agent Assist keeps supporting that human rep with real-time guidance and full handoff context, so the customer never has to repeat themselves. Knowledge Agent, launched March 2026, extends this further: it works alongside reps proactively — listening to live calls and reading on-screen context (account status, order history) — to surface cited answers inside a persistent browser sidebar without being asked. Non-technical CX/Ops teams configure and govern agent behavior through Opera, Cresta's no-code orchestration engine, while engineering teams have a separate tool, Conductor: describe a use case in natural language and it generates a blueprint, prompt logic, subagent orchestration and code for a developer to review. Supervisors watch hundreds of simultaneous AI conversations plus human agents from one Agent Operations Center. Cresta publishes named customer outcomes: Snap Finance saw a 5.5x increase in containment and a 23-point CSAT lift, Xanterra reached a 74% containment rate worth $3.3M in recovered revenue, and Propel Holdings reached a 58% containment rate.

Key features

• AI Agent: Autonomous, omnichannel resolution (voice/chat/SMS, 30+ languages) with API-based function calls into CRM, billing and scheduling systems.
• Agent Assist: Real-time guidance to human reps, including full context continuity when an AI Agent escalates a conversation.
• Knowledge Agent: Launched March 2026 — proactively listens to calls and reads on-screen context to surface cited answers in a browser sidebar, unprompted.
• Opera: A no-code AI orchestration engine for non-technical CX/Ops teams to build, configure, test and govern agent behavior with clicks, not code.
• Conductor: A separate, developer-first tool launched June 2026: describe a use case in natural language and it generates a blueprint, prompt logic, subagent orchestration and code for a developer to review.
• Agent Operations Center: Supervises hundreds of simultaneous AI conversations alongside human agents from one monitoring surface.

What are Cresta's use cases?

• Blended AI + human contact-center operations: A high-volume enterprise contact center routes routine interactions to the AI Agent while keeping human reps in the loop for complex cases, with Agent Assist and Knowledge Agent supporting those reps in real time rather than replacing them outright.
• Regulated, multi-channel support: A financial-services or travel brand (e.g. Snap Finance, Xanterra) needs voice, chat and SMS resolution under compliance-sensitive conditions, with a single Agent Operations Center giving supervisors visibility into every AI and human conversation.

What does Cresta integrate with?

• CRM, billing and scheduling systems (API-based function calling)
• Model Context Protocol (MCP) for standardized tool access
• AWS Marketplace procurement (Agent Assist only)

Why use Cresta?

• Unifies AI Agent, Agent Assist and Conversation Intelligence on one shared conversation record, instead of stitching together separate automation, assist and analytics point tools.
• Well-capitalized and established: a 2017 Stanford AI Lab spinout with $280M+ raised, 500+ employees, and enterprise customers including United Airlines, Marriott and CVS.
• Publishes named, numeric customer outcomes, Snap Finance's 5.5x containment increase, Xanterra's 74% containment rate and $3.3M revenue lift, Propel Holdings' 58% containment rate.
• One of the only vendors in this category with ANY publicly disclosed price point, an AWS Marketplace listing, even though its full product suite is otherwise fully custom-quoted.

Pros & cons

Cresta pricing

• Agent Assist (AWS Marketplace)$150,000 / /year (12-month contract)
• Full platform (custom)Custom

See current pricing on cresta.com ↗Compare Cresta alternatives →

Cresta review

Cresta's real differentiator among this category's four existing enterprise support-agent listings is scope: instead of selling an AI Agent that replaces a human conversation, it unifies an AI Agent, real-time Agent Assist for the humans still in the loop, and Conversation Intelligence analytics on one shared record, a genuine "augment, don't just replace" position, backed by real scale ($280M+ raised, 500+ employees, named case studies like Xanterra's $3.3M revenue lift). The honest catch: pricing is almost entirely opaque, the only public number anywhere is an AWS Marketplace listing for the narrower Agent Assist product alone, starting at $150,000/year for one channel, while the full AI Agent/Conversation Intelligence suite is custom-quoted with no self-serve tier or free trial. Pick Cresta if a blended AI-plus-human operation is the actual goal and you can run an enterprise sales cycle; skip it if you want transparent self-serve pricing or a fast trial, which none of this category's enterprise players (Cresta, Sierra, Decagon) currently offer.

The one support-agent listing in this category built around augmenting human agents (not just replacing them), but budget for an opaque, sales-led enterprise quote; the only public price anywhere covers a narrower Agent Assist SKU, not the full platform.

Frequently asked questions