This week on the EU-Startups podcast, we sit down with Philipp Heltewig, Chief AI Officer at NiCE and General Manager of NiCE Cognigy, an enterprise AI platform that helps companies automate customer and employee service operations through conversational and agentic AI systems that can understand requests, access internal systems, and resolve tasks across multiple digital and voice channels.
Founded in 2016, Cognigy set out to transform how enterprises interact with customers and employees. Instead of relying on simple rule-based chatbots, the company developed AI-driven automation capable of handling complex interactions at scale, integrating with enterprise software and enabling organisations to streamline support operations while maintaining high-quality service.
In this episode, Philipp reflects on the journey from building Cognigy as a startup to leading a global conversational AI platform that was ultimately acquired by NiCE Ltd. for $1 billion in 2025. We discuss key milestones along the way, including the company’s ~€36 million Series B round in 2021 and its €93 million Series C in 2024, as well as the rapid evolution of enterprise AI adoption. The conversation also explores the rise of agentic AI systems, which can understand intent, take actions within enterprise workflows, and much more!
Key Points:
- Cognigy was founded in 2016 and acquired by NiCE Ltd. for $1 billion in September 2025.
- Philipp explains the shift from basic chatbots to agentic AI, capable of acting autonomously within enterprise systems.
- Enterprises increasingly use AI to augment human agents, handling routine interactions while humans focus on complex cases.
- The interview explores how the founder role evolves after a major acquisition, and how AI strategy is shaped within a larger global company.
