# Five9 Buys Level AI for $325 Million

> Five9 acquires Level AI for $325 million in cash, signaling a shift toward vertical AI in contact centers.
- Title: Five9 Buys Level AI for $325 Million · Startup Fortune
- Summary: Five9 acquires Level AI for $325 million in cash, signaling a shift toward vertical AI in contact centers.
- Keywords: five9, level ai, ai contact center, vertical ai, ai models, contact center software, ai acquisition, data privacy, Startup Fortune
- Source: Startup Fortune — https://startupfortune.com/five9-agrees-to-buy-level-ai-for-325-million-in-cash
- Published: 2026-11-06T10:59:18+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: five9, level ai, ai contact center, vertical ai, ai models, contact center software, ai acquisition, data privacy, startups, business
## Five9 Acquires Level AI
Five9 agreed to buy Level AI for $325 million in cash, expected to close by the end of its fiscal year.
## Level AI's Funding History
Level AI raised $72.4 million across four funding rounds, most recently a $39.4 million Series C in July 2024.
## Level AI's Specialized Models
Level AI built its own family of models called Latitude, trained specifically on customer service conversations.
## Data Privacy Advantage
Enterprises get a data privacy story by running models without routing sensitive call transcripts through third parties.
## Five9's Partnership History
Five9 and Level AI first partnered through the Five9 CX Marketplace in 2022, integrating Level AI's technology since then.
## Five9's Strategic Shift
Five9 spent four years watching Level AI's technology work inside its customer base before acquiring it outright.
## Why Five9 Paid $325 Million
Five9 priced Level AI as infrastructure it couldn't afford to let a competitor buy instead of a contact-center add-on.
## Industry Context
The AI industry has focused on frontier labs and trillion-dollar chip bets, while Level AI built a smaller, specialized model for contact centers.
## Key takeaway

Five9 paid $325 million for Level AI, a contact center AI startup, to own its specialized models and data privacy benefits.