Artificial intelligence - Vodafone invests 140 million euros in AI customer support
Vodafone invests around 140 Million Euro in Microsoft and OpenAI systems this year to improve customer query handling with advanced AI. The chatbot "TOBi" reacts faster than before and effectively resolves customer issues, according to the company in Duesseldorf.
TOBi, introduced in Vodafone's customer service five years ago with the voice of a real Vodafone employee, handled eight million customer inquiries in Germany last year and resolved around 65% of them independently without human intervention.
Through the use of OpenAI technology in Microsoft's cloud environment Azure, these values are expected to be further improved. TOBi reacts faster and effectively resolves customer issues. This was shown in Portugal and Italy, where Microsoft Azure OpenAI is already in use.
The new system is expected to start in Germany in the coming weeks and will help customers, among other things, with hardware problem solving and setting up fixed-line routers.
AI replaces employees
Vodafone Germany announced in March that it intended to save 2,000 jobs and relocate them. At that time, the company had around 15,000 employees, about a third of whom were in the North Rhine-Westphalian state capital. Therefore, 13% of the employees are affected by these measures. In the context of cost-saving measures, it was also announced in March to focus more on AI. In addition, previously separate customer service systems for cable connections and mobile phone services are to be merged.
The technology used by Vodafone is a Microsoft product, but OpenAI's AI is a significant component. As a major investor in OpenAI, Microsoft can not only use ChatGPT in its own products, but also other OpenAI offerings such as the image generator DALL-E or the speech-to-text translation model Whisper, which can nearly error-free convert spoken language into written text.
- Vodafone's investment in Microsoft and OpenAI systems this year is part of their strategy to enhance their customer service in Düsseldorf, Germany, utilizing advanced artificial intelligence.
- Microsoft Azure, in conjunction with OpenAI technology, is expected to improve the performance of Vodafone's chatbot "TOBi," enabling it to resolve customer issues more effectively and rapidly.
- For companies like Vodafone, implementing telecommunications AI, such as the one developed by OpenAI, in conjunction with Internet technologies, can lead to substantial improvements in customer service, as demonstrated by TOBi's success in Portugal and Italy.
- Microsoft's investment in OpenAI has given them access to cutting-edge AI technologies like DALL-E, an image generator, and Whisper, a speech-to-text translation model, which could potentially benefit Vodafone as well.
- As Vodafone integrates Microsoft and OpenAI technologies into their customer service systems in Germany, other companies in the Information Technology sector might take notice of the potential benefits of such advanced AI technologies, including improved customer support and cost savings.
