TLDR
- Vodafone is investing €140 million ($151 million) in AI systems to improve customer service.
- The company is using advanced AI from Microsoft and OpenAI to enhance its chatbot, TOBi.
- The upgraded system, SuperTOBi, has already been introduced in Italy and Portugal, with Germany and Turkey to follow.
- TOBi handled 8 million customer inquiries in Germany last year, resolving 65% without human intervention.
- This investment comes as Vodafone Germany plans to cut and relocate around 2,000 jobs as part of cost-saving measures.
Vodafone, the global telecommunications giant, is making a significant push into artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize its customer service operations.
The company announced on Thursday that it plans to invest €140 million ($151 million) in AI systems this year, focusing on enhancing its chatbot capabilities to handle customer inquiries more efficiently.
The cornerstone of this initiative is the upgrade of Vodafone’s existing chatbot, TOBi, which was introduced five years ago.
The new version, dubbed SuperTOBi in many markets, leverages advanced AI technologies from Microsoft and OpenAI. This enhancement aims to enable the chatbot to respond faster and resolve customer issues more effectively than traditional chatbots.
TOBi has already proven its worth in Vodafone’s customer service ecosystem. In Germany alone, the chatbot handled 8 million customer inquiries last year, successfully resolving about 65% of them without any human intervention. With the planned upgrades, Vodafone expects to see these numbers improve significantly.
The rollout of SuperTOBi is already underway. The system has been introduced in Italy and Portugal, with promising results. Germany and Turkey are set to follow later this month, and Vodafone plans to expand the implementation to other markets throughout the year.
Vodafone’s investment in AI is not just about improving response times. The company envisions SuperTOBi assisting customers with a wide range of tasks, from troubleshooting hardware issues to setting up fixed-line routers. This expanded capability is expected to significantly enhance the customer experience while also streamlining Vodafone’s support operations.
The technology powering SuperTOBi is a product of Vodafone’s partnership with Microsoft. Specifically, the telecom provider is using Microsoft Azure OpenAI, which integrates technology from OpenAI. This collaboration allows Vodafone to tap into cutting-edge AI capabilities, including those similar to the widely known ChatGPT chatbot, as well as other OpenAI innovations like the DALL-E image generator and the Whisper speech transcription model.
However, this push towards AI-driven customer service comes against the backdrop of significant organizational changes at Vodafone.
In March, Vodafone Germany announced plans to cut and relocate around 2,000 jobs, affecting 13% of its workforce. This decision is part of broader cost-saving measures, which include an increased reliance on AI technology.
