SmartAction Company, a subsidiary of Adaptive A.I. Inc., and a company specializing in call automation and hosted speech IVR services announced the completion of its independently-evaluated PCI (News - Alert) DSS certification.

Tevora Business Solutions, a Qualified Security Assessor, one of the nation's premier security consulting firms specializing in information assurance, governance and compliance services and solutions, conducted the evaluation.

PCI DSS is the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. It is an information security standard specifically created for those organizations that handle cardholder information for the major debit, credit, prepaid, e-purse, ATM, and POS cards. Defined by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, the standard is aimed at increasing controls around cardholder data to reduce credit card fraud via its exposure.

The most stringent requirements of PCI standards safeguard customers' personal information, including credit card and banking information. The process to become PCI compliant requires thousands of man hours of work to make sure that each of the security requirements is adequately addressed. All aspects of the company are affected, including data center security, employee training and hiring, as well as software development, to ensure compliance.

"Our customers can rest assured that their data is secure with us," Peter Voss, founder and CEO of SmartAction, said in a press release.

"We are determined to provide the best service available anywhere, and this PCI certification is just another way of validating our commitment to our customers," Voss added.

As indicated, a Qualified Security Assessor has verified that the company meets all Payment Card Industry security requirements (PCI DSS 2.0) as a service provider. The company's flagship products, Smart Call Agents, have revolutionized the self-serve interactive voice response industry, and usage has more than doubled in the past year. The artificial intelligence-powered system handles order processing, customer service, scheduling and billing-related calls in natural speech at a fraction of the cost of live agents, all within the industry-recognized security guidelines established by PCI.

SmartAction also said that the company understands the importance of customer confidence in the security of data entrusted to its care. 

Back in 2010, TMC (News - Alert) reported that that David Kirsh, professor of cognitive science at UC San Diego, then working with a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chose SmartAction Virtual Agents to capture and report on student illness symptoms at an elementary school in 4S Ranch.