Xoxoday acquires Amara.ai to bring real-time AI listening into HR

Xoxoday has acquired conversational AI platform Amara.ai, strengthening its push into real-time employee engagement and expanding its HR technology capabilities across India and Southeast Asia.

The Bengaluru-headquartered rewards and employee engagement technology company said the acquisition will integrate Amara.ai’s AI-powered conversational engine into its employee engagement platform, Empuls. The move is designed to replace traditional annual employee surveys with continuous pulse-based listening systems capable of triggering feedback and engagement actions in real time.

The company announced the acquisition through a public statement on LinkedIn.

The deal comes as organisations increasingly move away from static employee engagement models and towards continuous feedback systems that can respond faster to workforce sentiment, retention risks and workplace experience challenges.

Shift from annual surveys to continuous listening

According to Xoxoday, the acquisition aims to bridge what it described as the gap between employee sentiment and organisational action.

The company said Amara.ai’s technology enables automated conversational pulse checks at key employee experience moments, allowing HR teams to respond immediately through recognition, rewards and engagement interventions.

In a statement accompanying the announcement, Sumit Khandelwal, Co-Founder and CEO of Xoxoday, said many engagement platforms currently focus either on collecting feedback or enabling action, but not both simultaneously.

“With Amara.ai inside Empuls, HR teams can hear what employees are feeling at the right moment and respond with the right engagement lever, automatically,” he said.

The acquisition also brings Amara.ai’s enterprise customer base and team into Xoxoday’s operations.

AI becomes central to employee experience platforms

The acquisition reflects a broader shift underway across the HR technology sector, where companies are increasingly embedding AI into employee engagement, listening and workplace analytics tools.

Traditional annual engagement surveys have faced growing criticism for delayed insights and low responsiveness, particularly in fast-changing workplaces dealing with hybrid work models, burnout concerns and retention pressure.

Continuous listening platforms instead focus on:

• Real-time pulse surveys
• Conversational employee feedback
• Automated sentiment analysis
• AI-driven engagement recommendations
• Trigger-based recognition and rewards systems

Xoxoday said integrating Amara.ai into Empuls will allow HR teams to move from periodic measurement towards always-on engagement systems.

Expansion strengthens Southeast Asia footprint

The acquisition also deepens Xoxoday’s regional presence across India and Southeast Asia, areas where HR technology adoption and workforce digitisation continue to accelerate.

Founded as a rewards, incentives and loyalty technology company, Xoxoday has been expanding its presence in employee engagement and enterprise experience software.

Earlier this year, the company announced a Series C funding round backed by existing investors Apis Partners and 57 Stars as it prepared for further international expansion.

At the time, Xoxoday said it served more than 5,000 enterprise customers globally and engaged over 60 million users across its platform ecosystem.

According to company disclosures shared during the funding announcement:

• Xoxoday operates across nine global offices
• The platform supports rewards coverage in over 100 countries
• The business processes nearly 250,000 transactions daily
• Cumulative gross merchandise value on the platform has crossed approximately $1 billion

The company had also indicated plans to pursue acquisitions as part of its growth strategy.

Employee engagement market shifts towards automation

The acquisition highlights how HR technology vendors are increasingly positioning employee engagement as a continuous operational process rather than a periodic HR exercise.

Companies across sectors are facing rising pressure to improve:

• Employee retention
• Workforce experience
• Engagement visibility
• Organisational responsiveness
• Managerial accountability

At the same time, HR teams are seeking faster and more measurable ways to connect employee feedback with action.

Vikaas Kakkar, Founder and CEO of Amara.ai, said the integration would allow employee feedback to connect directly with organisational recognition and action systems.

“Xoxoday’s massive footprint in India and Southeast Asia provides the perfect launchpad to scale our conversational intelligence,” he said.

The acquisition also reflects the growing convergence between rewards technology, employee analytics and AI-driven workplace platforms as enterprise software companies compete to build integrated employee experience ecosystems.

Forward outlook

As organisations place greater emphasis on workforce engagement, retention and culture measurement, demand is increasing for AI-enabled platforms capable of combining listening, analytics and action within a single system.

For Xoxoday, the acquisition signals a deeper move into HR technology infrastructure beyond rewards and incentives alone.

The integration of Amara.ai into Empuls also positions the company to compete more directly in the expanding market for AI-led employee experience platforms, where continuous feedback and real-time engagement tools are becoming central to workforce management strategies.