VirtuOz, Inc., the leading provider of intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) for online marketing, sales, and support, today announced the company has been selected as a winner of the Best in Biz Awards, taking gold in the Best New Service of the Year category.  Hundreds of entries were received in this year’s awards program from an impressive array of public and private companies across multiple industries, sectors and regions.  The winning companies represent the best in American business.

“We are honored to win gold in the ‘Best New Service of the Year’ category,” said Steve L. Adams, president and CEO of VirtuOz.  “Virtual agents represent the next generation of customer engagement channels, re-defining how businesses and consumers interact in today’s online digital world.  This award further validates not only growing market demand for these types of applications, but also the innovative use of virtual agents by our progressive customers who use IVAs to engage, converse, respond, and listen to their customers and to forge digital customer relationships.”

Since IBM’s Watson, defeated its two human competitors on the game show “Jeopardy,” the use of natural language processing in commercial applications has continued to attract growing market interest.  The Best in Biz awards; last month’s announcement of Siri, a voice-enabled personal assistant built into Apple’s iOS5; and Gartner’s recent Magic Quadrant that named virtual assistants as a primary building block to CRM Web Customer Service are among the latest indicators that the market demand for IVAs is reaching a “tipping point.”

Winners of Best in Biz Awards 2011, were determined by scores from a panel of high-caliber judges from top-tier business and technology publications, as well as analyst firms, including: Accounting Today, AllBusiness.com, ECT News Network, eWeek Channel Insider, Financial Times, Fox News, Hartford Business Journal, Insight Media, Kelsey Group, King Features Syndicate, Lab Reviews, Network World, PC Magazine, Portfolio, Puget Sound Business Journal, Tech.Blorge, Tech-Gaming, Techtalk and Wired. The 20 judges on this year’s panel boast more than 470 years of combined experience and have written for a combined total of more than 180 consumer, business, financial, trade and technology publications nationwide.

For a full list of gold, silver and bronze winners in Best in Biz Awards 2011, visit: .