More efficiency and customer satisfaction through assistance solutions
Artificial intelligence has long since made the transition from research to everyday life. It can already be found in a wide range of value-added areas, especially in business applications - across all industries. AI-supported assistants, also known colloquially as bots, have become particularly well established. Whether for researching internal company knowledge or highly specialized in an area of activity such as customer service. These digital helpers "understand" natural language, answer more complex questions and suggest solutions - all in a matter of seconds.
AI-supported chatbot for recurring routine enquiries
"Many companies are currently focusing on making processes more efficient and reducing the workload of employees in the long term - whether by automating simple routines or by providing assistance with complex decisions," explains Manuel Moser, Director Digital Innovations & AI at CANCOM Austria. The spectrum of applications now ranges from simple knowledge bots to assistants that independently use company applications via so-called tools.
Together with CANCOM, a large educational institution has added a digital colleague to its support center: an AI-supported chatbot that automates recurring inquiries about the educational offer and answers them around the clock. A previously high number of support requests on often the same topics, which were requested via several communication channels, could thus be resolved. These recurring routine inquiries put a strain on the support team, particularly at busy times.
Protection mechanisms against misuse of the bot
The first step was to implement the intelligent chatbot in the university's internal Study Support Center, which was then extended to the public website. Using a specially developed service, students and interested parties can submit their inquiries around the clock via self-service.
Deep integration into the organization ensures that the data is up to date. The bot accesses heterogeneous knowledge about the range of courses on offer and thus provides targeted answers to enquiries. Inquiries outside the defined area are not answered. Protection mechanisms against misuse of the bot are also included.
Significant reduction in the volume of inquiries in the support center
"Our CANCOM Assistant has significantly reduced the volume of inquiries in the support center - with corresponding relief for employees at peak times. In addition, improved availability is ensured, as the information can be accessed around the clock," explains Manuel Moser from CANCOM Austria.
The basis for the AI solution of the university educational institution is the CANCOM Assistant Suite, which supports companies across all industries in the use of state-of-the-art LLM (Large Language Models) technology. The suite ranges from low-threshold access to knowledge to autonomous AI agents that take on entire tasks independently.
Easily configurable AI agents for different business areas and processes
"The CANCOM Assistant Suite integrates seamlessly into the company's existing systems and enables the use of AI in different business areas and processes through easily configurable agents," explains Manuel Moser, Director Digital Innovations & AI, CANCOM Austria.
CANCOM Austria has also created benefits through AI for a large service company: This is faced with the challenge of answering a high number of email inquiries correctly in terms of content and also legally, without having to spend too much time researching internal systems.
Tailor-made integration into existing work processes
The AI-based CANCOM Assistant was perfectly integrated into the existing work processes - with links to internal documents, databases and other data sources. The "human in the loop" is important here: even if the AI provides suggestions, the human is still in the driver's seat and validates the answer before it is sent to the customer.
"The significant reduction in research effort and the much faster response to recurring inquiries gives customer service staff the opportunity to focus on complex and sensitive cases," explains Manuel Moser, Director Digital Innovations & AI at CANCOM Austria.