LocaliQ Launches Voice AI Agent to Transform Prospect Conversations

June 24, 2025 at 09:00 AM EDT

AI-powered voice agent reduces friction, driving faster conversions and improved customer engagement

LocaliQ, the Digital Marketing Solutions (DMS) business of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), today unveiled its next-generation conversational AI Voice Agent—a powerful new feature within Dash™ by LocaliQ. Dash is an AI-powered prospect and lead management software solution that helps businesses attract, engage, and convert potential customers through automated, intelligent conversations. This AI Voice Agent builds on the success of Dash’s AI-powered SMS agent—adding voice capabilities to create an innovative and seamless, omnichannel customer engagement experience.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250624514560/en/

“AI-driven customer engagement is one of the fastest-growing frontiers in marketing,” said Bill Scanlon, General Manager of LocaliQ. “Every unanswered phone call represents not just lost revenue, but a missed relationship. By extending Dash from SMS to voice, we're giving businesses—from single-location shops to national brands— a straightforward way to turn every call into a live conversation that becomes a qualified lead, leading to scalable revenue growth.”

Powered by advanced natural language processing, the Dash AI Voice Agent engages prospects in real time with lifelike, two-way conversations — answering questions, qualifying intent, and even overcoming common objections. The agents actively guide prospects through the sales funnel with responses that mirror the tone and pace of a skilled human representative.

With around-the-clock availability, Dash helps businesses capture every opportunity—even outside of business hours. This addresses a common challenge: missing high-intent calls from prospective customers. A recent analysis of LocaliQ customer data has shown a recurring pattern: roughly 1 in 4 calls go unanswered, representing a significant loss in potential revenue. Unlike traditional systems that simply track leads, Dash can empower businesses to automatically engage, nurture, and convert inbound calls—bridging the gap between initial interest and new customer acquisition.

“Businesses miss one in four inbound calls, creating an invisible tax on growth,” said Alex Hunsucker, Chief Product Officer at LocaliQ. “Dash’s AI Voice Agent applies best-in-class conversational intelligence to reclaim those moments—listening the instant a call comes in, understanding intent in milliseconds, and guiding customers from curiosity to commitment without friction. We combine smart AI that understands what callers say with instant call insights, giving businesses a reliable 24/7 assistant that turns missed calls into new customers and real sales.”

Dash by LocaliQ is available in flexible plans tailored to businesses of all sizes—from single-location operations to national enterprises, as well as franchised businesses. With AI Agents integrated into every step of the journey, businesses can prioritize high-intent prospects, engage them at the right moment, and reduce manual sales effort.

Key capabilities include:

Omnichannel Conversational AI that never sleeps—voice and SMS agents 24/7.
Instant lead triage—always-on tech that auto-responds, qualifies, and routes prospects that competitors miss or send to voicemail.
AI insight engine—real-time AI analysis plus automated summaries slash call-review time by 90%.
Single command center—lead activity and reporting with roll-up dashboards for multi-location businesses.

Dash by LocaliQ has been recognized with the 2025 Business Intelligence Group (BIG) Innovation Award and the AI Excellence Award for using artificial intelligence that drives real-world impact.

“These awards validate our mission to build solutions that don’t just collect leads—they close them,” said George Schoenstein, Chief Marketing Officer at LocaliQ. “The Dash AI Voice Agent is more than a feature release; it’s a glimpse of where customer engagement is headed—always on, truly conversational, and powered by intelligence that learns with every interaction. By converging intent data, natural language understanding, and real‑time analytics, we’re empowering businesses of every size to create friction‑free buying journeys at the exact moment customers are ready to act. That’s the future we’re building toward, and today’s launch moves us one giant step closer.”

For more information, visit https://localiq.com/dash.

ABOUT GANNETT

Gannett Co., Inc. is a diversified media company with expansive reach at the national and local level dedicated to empowering and enriching communities. We seek to inspire, inform, and connect audiences as a sustainable, growth focused media and digital marketing solutions company. Through our trusted brands, including the USA TODAY NETWORK, comprised of the national publication, USA TODAY, and local media organizations, including our network of local properties, in the United States, and Newsquest, a wholly-owned subsidiary operating in the United Kingdom, we provide essential journalism, local content, and digital experiences to audiences and businesses. We deliver high-quality, trusted content with a commitment to balanced, unbiased journalism, where and when consumers want to engage. Our digital marketing solutions brand, LocaliQ, supports small and medium-sized businesses with innovative digital marketing products and solutions.

ABOUT LOCALIQ

LocaliQ is an end-to-end, AI-powered marketing platform used by local businesses across the country to attract, convert and retain customers. A subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc (NYSE: GCI), LocaliQ has the local trust to evolve the way business owners reach the audiences that matter most. LocaliQ's proprietary AI technology leverages data and insights to optimize cross-channel marketing and deliver relevant messages to consumers with a robust suite that incorporates AI lead management and digital agents, marketing automation, omnichannel campaign management, advanced reporting and insight tools. In this digital world, we're on a mission to keep businesses thriving to empower the communities we serve. For more information, visit www.localiq.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, that relate to our current expectations and views of future events. All statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this press release, including statements relating to whether this initiative will enable Gannett to increase sales or revenues, beliefs, intentions, estimates or strategies regarding the future, which may not be realized. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as “believe,” “may,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “should,” “plan,” “expect,” “predict,” “potential,” “could,” “will,” “would,” “ongoing,” “future” or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions that are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. Forward-looking statements are based largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, short-term and long-term business operations and objectives and financial needs. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, contingencies, changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially and/or significantly different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statement. For a discussion of some of the risks and important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations, see the risks and other factors detailed in “Item 3. Key Information - Risk Factors” in Gannett’s 2024 Annual Report on Form 10-K and Gannett’s quarterly reports on Form 10-Q and Gannett’s other filings with the SEC, in each case as such factors may be updated from time to time. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date hereof and accordingly undue reliance should not be placed on such statements. Gannett disclaims any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than to the extent required by applicable law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250624514560/en/

Contacts

MEDIA CONTACTS

Lark-Marie Antón

Chief Communications Officer

(646) 906-4087

lark@gannett.com

Heather Gidaly

Senior Director, Communications

(845) 304-3282

hgidaly@gannett.com

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LocaliQ Launches Voice AI Agent to Transform Prospect Conversations

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