Broadband and telecoms giant BT Group has today highlighted how they’re using AI (Artificial Intelligence) based systems to “significantly” enhance the customer experience and streamline support processes across the Group. For example, EE’s (mobile) new virtual assistant, Aimee, now handles up to 60,000 customer conversations per week.
The group’s adoption of “advanced AI and generative AI technologies” is being conducted in collaboration with Sprinklr, which has supplied BT with their unified AI-Powered customer experience management platform. But Sprinklr’s capabilities will be re-used across the Group, not just for EE.
NOTE: BT says they remain agnostic about which Large Language Model (LLM) they use in generative AI, continuing to draw on different LLMs (they can select the optimal LLM for each use case) – this will integrate with their new GenAI Gateway in the future.
The platform is designed to draw on BT’s data to provide a more personalised, accurate response. For example, the customer contact platform, which powers EE’s virtual assistant Aimee, also provides the messaging capability for real-time online chat with customers.
However, consumer sentiment toward the use of AI chatbots tends to be quite mixed, with many viewing it as being more of a negative and just a way of reducing the number of actual humans that are available to provide support over the longer term. On the other hand, if systems like this do end up making it quicker and easier for customers to get their issues resolved, then that will be a positive change.
According to EE’s data, the automation success rates on several types of customer journey are now approaching 50%, freeing time for human staff to focus on more complex issues. Aimee’s use has risen 51% year-on-year, which BT says demonstrates “customer enthusiasm for the channel as its capabilities continue to be improved“, although it’s unclear how much of a choice end-users are getting in this context.
Harry Singh, MD of Consumer Digital at BT Group, said:
“The collaboration with Sprinklr marks a significant step forward in BT Group’s commitment to using cutting-edge technology to deliver exceptional customer experiences. With our customer contact platform, we have unlocked powerful AI-enhanced capabilities for our customer service, boosting satisfaction and creating exciting new opportunities for customer experience.”
Looking ahead, BT Group plans to expand its use of generative AI to further improve customer support. Upcoming features are expected to include AI-driven summaries of customer interactions and real-time support and guidance. With this, Aimee will be able to act as a virtual AI assistant for BT’s guides, helping to “improve efficiency, effectiveness, colleague and customer experience“.
BT has however had to implement ethical guardrails to ensure “robust data privacy and security measures“, which also helps to safeguard against “attempts to get the AI to misbehave” (we can’t image anybody ever doing that, ehumm..). The operator notes that its AI capabilities are hosted on a private cloud instance, ensuring compliance with data and privacy regulations, and data policies are set by BT Group’s internal data management platform, Data Fabric (i.e. BT maintains control over its own data).
