AI and customer service: Eight things you need to know

There’s no denying AI is ubiquitous, but how much progress have utilities actually made in using it? Where might it successfully be employed in the future? And when it comes to customer service, can it be trusted?

These were just some of the questions Utility Week Intelligence asked at our ‘Generative AI for customer experience: Bust the myths, explore the potential’ event with our partner EXL.

The get-together was timely, with suggestions that interest in AI has peaked. Is a tech industry hangover looming?

“As of 2024, AI, particularly generative AI, is at the peak of the Gartner Hype Cycle – the ‘Peak of Inflated Expectations,’” explains Susan Pollock, vice president for business development at EXL.

We may now enter the next phase of the Gartner cycle, she says – the ‘Trough of Disillusionment’, where the limitations and challenges of the technology become more apparent​.

So, with a little scepticism in the air, we wanted to find out what utilities leaders thought about AI. More specifically, we wanted to know what they thought generative AI might do to improve customer service.

But first, we asked no less an authority than ChatGPT to identify areas where AI can help serve customers better. This is what it came up with:

• Personalised customer service. Providing highly personalised interactions by analysing customer data to predict needs and preferences.
• Proactive problem resolution: Detecting anomalies and predicting potential issues in networks before they affect customers.
• Energy management and optimisation: Helping customers better manage their energy consumption through smart home integrations.
• Billing accuracy and transparency: Improving billing accuracy by automatically detecting and correcting errors in usage data.
• Enhanced customer engagement: Engaging customers through interactive platforms and personalised communication.

These possibilities are set against a backdrop where energy and water companies are unpopular, and customers expect a lot more from them. “In general, we have increasing expectations about what we expect from companies and how we want to be treated,” says Pollock.

“Our clients often ask us to simplify things for their customers, with a reduction in effort on the part of the customer being the key driver.”

But there is also an opportunity each time a customer contacts a call centre or engages with a chatbot. Customers often contact a utility because of a problem but that “conversation can become a positive by addressing another issue, or helping in an unexpected way”, explains Pollock.

“We can resolve their issue, but also use it as an opportunity. To inform the customer about their energy usage, say, educate them, or to highlight offers.”

Technology, then, should not only assist contact centre agents in resolving a customer problem, but also help enhance the relationship between the customer and the supplier’s brand.

Pollock points out: “We’ve all had good experiences talking to someone at a call centre, and bad experiences, and it’s the same when it comes to automated channels. We need to make customer service channels consistent while providing choice to the consumer.”

There’s no doubt AI is already playing a part in doing that, but how exactly – and what role will it play in the future?

Here’s a few things we learnt from our panel with EXL.