2024-09-14 16:44:28
Interaction between man and machine
This company wants to eliminate annoying telephone waiting times
13.09.2024 – 12:26Reading time: 3 min.
The Berlin start-up Parloa presents a new platform for customer service. The technology is intended to fundamentally change the industry.
Parloa wants to innovate customer service. At the WAVE conference in Berlin, the AI company presented its “AI Agent Management Platform” (AMP). The technology is said to represent “the biggest innovation and technological leap in the history of the customer service industry.”
AMP is based entirely on generative artificial intelligence, says Malte Kosub, founder and CEO of Parloa. This means the model goes far beyond previous rule-based systems. According to Kosub, this platform enables companies to deploy their AI agents quickly, easily and safely on a large scale.
In practice, this should work in such a way that customers first interact with artificial intelligence when they call a service hotline. According to Parloa, the AI agents are able to handle most inquiries independently. The big advantage over human employees: the AI advice is available around the clock and in almost all languages.
An example: In the test, in which t-online is also present, Kosub asks the AI agent of a fictitious airline for ideas for a short trip for his brother’s birthday. Seconds later, the friendly and very natural-sounding voice provides several suggestions – Kosub decides on Barcelona.
Previous bookings are also saved and taken into account the next time you call. In another test, the test customer asked for a rental car and the conditions were the same “as two weeks ago”. Shortly afterwards, everything is repeated, summarized and… wait, the price has changed. So the AI independently looks for alternative offers or the availability of a comparable car in the local area.
Every now and then you can hear a short “umm”. The clicking of a keyboard and the typical call center murmuring in the background are also clearly audible. Studies have shown that most callers perceive these sounds positively because they make the AI ”more approachable”.
Of course, no one is forced to use the system, Kosub emphasizes. If necessary, customers will continue to be referred to human agents. However, the company is convinced that the use of AMP will create an efficient team of AI and humans with clearly defined roles. The human service employees “lead” the team of AI agents and support them when necessary.
At the same time, Parloa’s technology empowers employees to better respond to callers’ needs with powerful AI tools such as real-time translation and contextual, automated response suggestions. This allows customer service agents to respond to inquiries at any time without having to speak the other person’s language.
According to initial surveys of customers of companies that already use the system, more than half of the callers said that the AI agents had improved contact. Waiting times in the switchboard had been significantly reduced – response times for individual answers could be significantly accelerated.
But despite all the innovation, the AI Agent Management Platform presented by Parloa also poses potential risks and challenges. The increased use of AI in customer service could lead to a loss of human jobs.
According to Parloa, however, most companies are already understaffed. Existing service employees could therefore focus on more important matters and leave standard requests to the AI agents.
There is also a risk that complex or emotionally charged customer concerns cannot be adequately recorded and processed by AI systems. In addition, the use and storage of sensitive customer data in AI systems raises questions about data protection.
However, the company deliberately decided to remain in Germany in order to be able to offer customers greater security for their data due to the stricter EU regulations.