This Fortune 100 energy and utility company is one of the nation’s foremost power providers, serving millions of customers across various states and territories. rSTAR has been working with them for several years and has helped the utility launch various initiatives, including an AI-powered chatbot.
As a company always looking for new ways to improve CX, the Fortune 100 utility wished to test GenAI in their customer service center. They sought guidance from rSTAR Technologies to evaluate GenAI chatbot models and determine whether these models could meet or exceed their high customer service standards. rSTAR, always at the forefront of new and emerging technologies, eagerly embraced the challenge, and developed and tested a GenAI chatbot model that worked with the energy company’s existing systems but provided a framework for the company’s future GenAI use if they should choose to adopt the model permanently.
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The resulting pilot demonstrated the exciting potential of generative AI for CX improvement, call center support, and more efficiency customer service.
The Challenge: Streamline Operations, Improve Response Times, Boost Customer Satisfaction
The energy and utility company sought a fast, accurate GenAI chatbot integrated with their Oracle systems to serve as the foundation for future advancements. Their challenge involved not only meeting stringent performance requirements but also defining a comprehensive GenAI strategy for ongoing enhancement.
GenAI Requirements
rSTAR developed a clear set of requirements by which the new technology could be measured.
The GenAI solution needed to meet specific criteria:
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- Accuracy of 90-95%
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- Response time under 5 seconds
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- Capable of resolving queries
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- Producing intelligent responses,
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- Seamless integration with existing systems
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- Accessibility across devices and abilities.
Use Cases Implemented
As a leading systems integrator working in the energy and utility industry for over a decade, rSTAR understood the basic use cases that the GenAI model must address daily.
These included:
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- Basic greetings
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- Error handling
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- Billing inquiries
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- Account balance checks
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- Outage and meter ping updates
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- User feedback handling
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- Outage FAQs
The GenAI agent also needed to demonstrate context management, personalization, continuous learning, conversational experiences, and handling complex queries.
Results Achieved
The GenAI implementation yielded promising results. It achieved close to the desired accuracy, with responses rated as accurate or very accurate for most inquiries. The chatbot exhibited rapid responsiveness, capable of resolving almost all queries, seamless integration with the utility’s systems from the outset, and accessibility across user demographics. Moreover, users found the responses highly satisfactory, contributing to enhanced customer satisfaction.
GenAI and AI-Powered Support Improves CX, Increases Productivity
Chris Moyer, rSTAR Advisory Council member and former CTO in the energy industry, stated in his presentation on Analytics and AI at the Oracle Energy and Water Customer Edge Conference, “I believe that we are very well prepared with base data, good policies for data use, and regulators that are pressuring us to do more with the existing level of investment. Our challenge is deciphering which Generative AI technology will help us the most.”
Energy and utility companies are indeed well prepared for GenAI. With plentiful data, existing data use policies, and clear standards already in place, utilities have the robust source material needed to train machine learning models but also the proper frameworks to ensure customer and data privacy in the age of GenAI. Many utilities already use some form of AI in their call centers – chatbots, for example, that can answer routine outage and billing questions. It is a natural progression from basic AI to GenAI for many and a step that rSTAR can help them with.
The Fortune 100 energy company’s transformative journey with GenAI, showcasing remarkable strides in elevating customer experience and boosting productivity, serves as a compelling testament to the immense potential within the energy and utilities sector. As rSTAR continues to pioneer innovation, we eagerly anticipate partnering with organizations across the Utility landscape and beyond, empowering them to harness the full potential of GenAI.