How Digicel and Wysdom AI will handle BackOffice as AI prepare to take over 24-7 Customer Care

“We are still in the testing phase but customers the world over are demanding these services. Our plan is to ensure the new AI technology will follow the MyDigicel app in having wide scale availability across all Digicel markets. We are in the pilot phase now and will only roll out more widely when we are sure that our customers will get the right experience”

Digicel regional communications manager Elon Parkinson, speaking about the use of AI to handle Social Media and IM (Instant Messaging) queries

Digicel is taking that leap toward introducing singularity in Jamaica...and in the process potentially eliminating back office work in Call centers.

This as the Digicel Group is testing AI (Artificial Intelligence) to handle Social Media and Instant Messenger queries as reported in “Digicel Group Testing AI For Customer Chatline And Social Media”, Published Sunday October 1, 2017 by Steven Jackson, The Jamaica Gleaner. 

Powered by Canadian company Wysdom AI, this AI will allow customers to resolve text queries themselves, freeing up Digicel Customer Care agent to do other tasks. Digicel already uses an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system similar to that used by FLOW Jamaica.

This is nothing new really, just a Natural Language and Text interaction upgrade of IVR.  Digicel has been using IVR technology for some time; this Wisdom AI is just text based.

It will make it easier for customers to self-serve, very similar to the MyDigicel app, which allows balance checks and top-ups as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “AppSeeker Launched on DL810 and DL1000 and MyDigicel on Apple iTunes Store”.

For a comparison, FLOW Call Center Agents also work with IVR, as we fondly call Ivy, as our version albeit having a male voice has a female characteristic. 

It's not a true AI, but rather a menu-driven expert system that is capable of answering queries via your keypad as described in my blog article entitled “Jamaica Computer Society and Ministry of S.E.T. fears AI will eliminate Call Center Jobs in 2021”.

Digicel plans to roll out their Wysdom AI in a pilot phase all 31 countries, who will experience quicker text responses in a system that's similar to Facebook's AI as explained in my Geezam blog article entitled “Facebook 11,000 army chatbots with buttons as AI need Common Sense”.

So who exactly is Wysdom AI?

Wysdom AI and Digicel - Eliminating Backoffice and Overnight workers for truly 24/7 customer care

Wysdom platform uses an AI to respond to customer queries using NL (Natural Language) communications on Social Media and IM channels such as Facebook Messenger.

By making Telecoms more self-serve via an AI, it'll mean truly 24/7 customer care as pointed out by Digicel's chief digital officer Hernan Ozon, quote: “Digicel has a proud history of democratising communication in the regions we serve. With Wysdom, we have the tools to provide our customers with options in how they receive digital care, wherever and whenever they need it”.

According to a source of mine within Digicel, they also plan to integrate the Wysdom AI into their online webchat as well as their various apps such as the MyDigicel app. The Wysdom AI is capable of conversing in English, French, and Spanish and draws upon a database with 125,000 telecom-industry specific questions.

The AI understands queries with a 97.5% precision rate i.e. translation and delivering what is requested. Of those queries, 68% are answered, implying that this AI can actually pass for human as per the Turing Test as described in my blog article entitled “How Russian-Ukranian Researchers Eugene Goostman chatbot beat Natural Language Turing Test”.

The new system would not eliminate human interaction with customers....not at first. But with such a response rate, it might be better at achieving the KPI (Key Performance Indices) we human Call Center Workers find so hard to achieve. Thus AI can potentially replace other types of repetitive work as these video points out.

But that's obviously the plan as Digicel will still give you the choice of talking to a real persons as explained by Digicel regional communications manager Elon Parkinson, quote: “Of course, some customers will want to speak to a real person and they will continue to enjoy the convenience of reaching a live agent for support with the more complex questions and issues. Similar to the convenience of the MyDigicel app, the new technology is designed to give a helpful response to customers who make basic queries, especially outside working hours”.

So basically all the Backoffice workers who used to work on chat and email for Digicel will have to be reassigned.....ditto to the night shift people as Wysdom AI take over Digicel Jamaica.