Digital Transformation Consulting

VOXI mobile, a sub-brand of Vodafone targeting the 16-29 age group in the UK, faced the challenge of engaging with a Generation Z audience whose communication needs demanded a more relevant, youthful tone and seamless support. Traditional chatbots in telecom often struggled with understanding complex or multi-query questions and lacked the tone that resonated with young customers, which hindered customer engagement and increased reliance on human agents for routine inquiries.

To address these niche issues, Accenture collaborated with VOXI to develop a pioneering large language model (LLM) AI chatbot powered by Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI framework. The solution involved training the chatbot with varied customer scenarios, including different emotional tones like anger or happiness, and refining its ability to comprehend context and multi-query interactions. The chatbot's language and tone were carefully adjusted to balance youthfulness with professionalism, aligning with new brand guidelines. Additional features included an intent classifier to filter relevant inquiries, a kill switch for safety, and alert systems for inappropriate output. The development process took approximately three months, involving multiple iterations for optimal performance.

The results have been quantifiable and impactful: within six months of launch, the chatbot significantly improved customer experience by providing faster, simpler interactions and increasing containment rates, meaning more queries were resolved without escalation to human agents. It also reduced the average handling time for customers needing agent support. Importantly, the new chatbot set a industry benchmark as the UK’s first customer-facing gen AI chatbot in telecommunications. It not only enhanced operational efficiency by reducing the volume of routine chats handled by human agents but also strengthened VOXI's brand presence by delivering a more engaging, relatable customer experience tailored specifically for Gen Z users.