Telefónica Tech has launched a generative AI (GenAI) platform targeting customer service.
The platform will allow contact center teams to leverage customizable virtual assistants.
These virtual assistants may help autonomously solve queries, automate agent tasks, and support various other internal processes.
Telefónica Tech also promises intuitive plug-and-play capabilities and access to advanced large language models (LLMs), so teams can leverage their preferred models without compromising data control.
Moreover, customer service teams may utilize both open-source and proprietary models, allowing for comparison based on cost, performance, and latency.
The tech giant also promises to integrate with various communication tools, business applications, and information repositories.
Another key feature is real-time monitoring to evaluate and identify the most suitable model for each use case, ensuring optimal performance and quick adjustments.
Celebrating the release, Alfonso Ibáñez Martín, Head of Artificial Intelligence & Analytics Technology at Telefónica Tech, wrote on LinkedIn (translated from Spanish): “At Telefónica Tech, we are marking a before and after in how companies can take advantage of Artificial Intelligence.
Today, we are introducing our new platform: Telefónica Tech GenAI Platform, designed so that any organization, regardless of size, can implement customizable virtual assistants easily, quickly and securely.
In bundling this together, Telefónica takes a three-pronged attack to improve customer service, anticipate trends, and increase productivity.
Yet, it’s far from the only platform on the market, with other AI providers – like Salesforce, Kore.ai, and Cognigy – recently launching solutions that allow enterprise-wide functions create their own AI agents.
As more of these innovations come to market, contact centers are ramping up their use of AI, with more of than four in every five contact centers leveraging such a virtual assistant.
Use Cases for Contact Center Virtual Assistants
In the contact center, most think of virtual assistants as customer-facing bots. However, there are many more use cases.
For instance, virtual assistants can support agents in collecting and disseminating of customer information in call queues, handing over vital information before calls are connected.
Moreover, they can dig out essential information in real time, whether that’s relevant data from various enteprise systems of a relevant knowledge article.
However, with GenAI, this use case has gotten even more mature, as – across digital channels – virtual assistants can utilize this info to draft customer responses for review.
There are lots more use cases, too, including those that support contact center supervisors and managers, too. Check those out here.
GenAI at the Heart of Virtual Assitant Advancements
GenAI has a particular role to play in improving virtual assistants and making the use cases above much more accessible.
However, while the use of the Telefónica Tech GenAI Platform may begin in customer service, businesses can expand its use to drive generative AI across the enterprise.
Elena Gil Lizasoain, Director of AI and Data at Telefónica Tech for Spain and the Americas, hints at this, stating:
This new platform was created with the aim of boosting the use of Generative AI in all types of organisations, regardless of the size and technical level of the users, and to popularize the use of personalized virtual assistants to transform businesses and make them more efficient and resilient.
Indeed, beyond customer service, there are many excellent applications for these virtual agents. The following CX Today article considers how sales and marketing teams are leveraging the tech, too: Generative AI in Customer Experience: The 11 Most Implemented Use Cases