Airtel, Jio leverage artificial intelligence to offer better, cost-efficient customer experience

Weeks after Bharti Airtel signed a deal with Bengaluru-based artificial intelligence (AI) service provider AuthMe ID Services, it has taken another step into the new-age digital world with a new partnership with Google.

In an industry first, the Sunil Mittal-controlled company has collaborated with the search giant to integrate its customer care with the AI-powered Google Assistant. "This new cutting-edge feature will allow customers to have rich conversational experiences with Airtel," the company said in a statement yesterday.

This development will not only simplify its customer service experience - since users will now able to get instant resolution to their frequent account related queries through the Google Assistant, which is driven by voice commands - but will also help the telco reduce costs.

"With smartphones fast becoming the norm for every Indian, this will make digital self-care much more interactive and step up the customer experience," Sarang Kanade, Director - Customer Service Delivery, Bharti Airtel, said about the new initiative, a part of Project Next - Airtel's digital innovation program, which is aimed at transforming customer experience across all of its services and touch points.

The service is currently available in English but Airtel plans to roll it out in multiple regional languages over time to help deliver an even more personalized experience to millions of Indians, encouraging them to get online. "Similarly, Airtel will continue to track what questions customer are asking and enable responses to them via Google Assistant, thus improving the flexibility and robustness of the Airtel voice Action," said the company.

According to The Economic Times, Airtel is not the only telco turning to AI to offer better, more cost-efficient customer experience and thereby increase stickiness on its networks amid the cut-throat competition in the space. Industry disrupter Reliance Jio Infocomm has similar designs in mind. Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a recent report that voice AI is a focus area for the Mukesh Ambani-led telco, which introduced voice commands on its MyJio application to ease the customer service process.

"It makes a lot of sense to adopt AI technology to automate, given the cost of human interaction has increased 20-30%," Sanchit Vir Gogia, founder of Greyhound Research, told the daily. "Indian telcos need to make their subscribers use these features. Airtel's app for self-service is well received. Jio's user base is different and they may not use such a feature as aggressively," he added.

So here's how Airtel customers can use the Google Assistant

1. Android Users just have to long press the Home Button to launch it but iOS Users have to first download Google Assistant on their phones.

2. To get your account details, for the first time, the Airtel assistant will ask to link your Airtel account with Google. If you click yes, you will be asked to enter your Mobile number and accept the Terms of Service following which you will receive an OTP. Enter the OTP to complete linking your account.

3. Get Started. Speak to Assistant saying "Talk to Airtel", "Ask Airtel" or "Get Airtel". Airtel assistant will open within Google Assistant and offer to tell you about "outstanding amounts, data balance and more". All you have to do is to speak clearly while posing your Airtel account related questions.

Edited By Sushmita Choudhury Agarwal