How A Huge Utility Is Innovating With Chatbots For Better Customer Connections

This shift towards a product-centric approach has driven Meta’s research scientists to explore new avenues in both fundamental and applied research. Imagine a utility company that uses Chat-GPT to analyze customer’s energy usage data. The AI model could identify peak usage times, suggest energy-saving tips, and even provide personalized advice to help customers reduce their energy consumption and bills. For example, a customer needing to report a power outage could interact with a Chat-GPT powered chatbot. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. The chatbot could register the complaint, provide the customer with updates, and even provide estimated restoration times, offering real-time and efficient customer service. The Oracle chatbot capability Exelon uses has built-in AI, machine learning, and natural language processing capabilities.

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to develop, chatbots — which use advanced AI and natural language processing — are a tool being used by many types of companies, including utilities. A chatbot is essentially a computer program designed to respond to voice prompts without human intervention. These programs are most useful in situations in which the appropriate responses can be easily predicted. Conversational AI offers personalized automated interactions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. Over the phone or online, communicate with customers anytime and anywhere using a simple, easy-to-use program. You can only improve your business if you know which areas need improving.

Elevate customer experience with human-like voice AI agents, proficient in understanding intent, industry-specific phrases and providing personalized responses. Blicker’s Chatbot provides virtual assistance to utility customers, guiding them anytime and anywhere. Whether customers need support or encounter issues, the chatbot is available to offer prompt assistance and solutions. For example, in a customer care situation, questions such as, “What is the balance on my bill,” “How can I save money on my electric bill,” or, “When will my service be restored” are common. A chatbot may be programmed to retrieve customer information to deliver accurate answers. It may also be able to detect when a human is needed to assist with more complex inquiries.

“AI enables us to optimize customer experiences, but all while minimizing fraud and compliance issues,” Andrew Stucchio of Discover Global Network told PYMNTS. For instance, an electricity utility could use Chat-GPT to analyze and summarize contracts with power generators. This could reduce the time spent on contract management, freeing up staff to focus on more strategic tasks. For example, a gas utility could use Chat-GPT to analyze historical usage data and weather forecasts to predict gas demand. These predictions could help the utility manage its gas supply more efficiently, ensuring a reliable service. For instance, a water utility company could use Chat-GPT to analyze data from its water distribution network.

With the help of deep learning algorithms, conversational AI utilises vast amounts of training data to determine user intent and gain a better understanding of natural language. It’s important to note that while chatbots fall under the umbrella of conversational AI, not all chatbots are considered as such. Rule-based chatbots, for example, utilize specific keywords and other language cues to trigger predetermined responses that are not developed using conversational AI technology. [24]7 Conversations enables you to build, test, and tune your own conversational chatbots or virtual assistants and then deploy across web, mobile apps, messaging and voice channels.

UK-based startup We Build Bots develops Intelagent, an energy and water utility chatbot for customer assistance. Intelagent is deployable on multiple platforms including websites and social media channels where utility customers usually ask questions. The solution ensures that energy utility companies do not lose customers even if they shift homes by facilitating efficient communications and support for the transition from one location to the next.

Anytime, Anywhere Virtual Assistance for Utility Customers

AI chatbots can provide the analytical capabilities required to extract valuable insights and make data-driven decisions in the utility sector. Nonetheless, if your objective is to achieve advanced real-time analytics and efficient decision-making based on customer data, investing in AI chatbots would be more advantageous. The utility industry often receives high call volumes from customers, which can lead to long wait times and frustration. Additionally, customers may complain about inaccurate bills due to human error in meter readings.

Another approach to implementing chatbots involves integrating the technology in social channels like Whatsapp. Understanding all kinds of requests, even those containing misspellings and errors, Butagaz’s chatbot leads customers through their journey until they find the exact answer they’re looking for. In an automated way, electricity outages and restoration of service can be communicated to customers. This approach reduces service costs while granting customers control over when, how, and where they engage with their utility provider. Overall, Blicker combines rule-based messaging with AI-generated information and utilizes image processing for photos, showcasing a hybrid approach that leverages the strengths of both rule-based and AI-driven chatbots.

Karen Marcus has 25 years of experience as a content developer within the energy and technology industries. She has worked with well-known companies, providing direction, research, writing, and… This special interest group is where customer care professionals share tactics on how utilities are improving interactions with their customers. Chat-GPT can be used to analyze operational data, identify inefficiencies, and suggest improvements.

Reducing our environmental impact should be equally important to the company and the customer. Conversational AI enables companies to notify customers of peak times, when utility costs may be higher. Knowing when to avoid high-energy use activities – like charging an electric car – leads to happy customers and increased customer retention.

Bots make it possible to scale through digital transformation without hiring more employees to perform the same set of tasks. Create dashboards to access real-time insights and improve customer experience. Dynamic AI agents for Oil & Gas and Utilities enable automated onboarding, timely reminders and proactive notifications for connected customer experiences.

Benefits of Utilities Chatbot on WhatsApp

Ambit Energy & Utilities handles 70 of the top utilities-related customer queries out of the box. Of the repetitive questions, leaving more time for our agents to focus on more demanding tasks. Some companies are already implementing chatbots that include instant payment methods to pay bills through this channel. Let’s resume the case where a user wants to download a specific power bill. With a transactional chatbot, if the user is logged in, the chatbot will be able to go search on the user’s account and return the bill directly into the chatbox, or even by email.

Promote the next best action based on customer intent and history informed by big data and predictive analytics. Messaging is destined to profoundly change the way that businesses and customers interact. Learn how [24]7.ai can help you operationalize messaging by using conversational AI to improve customer satisfaction and strengthen loyalty. EdgeConneX began piloting an AI service from energy supplier Gridmatic in January to test whether artificial intelligence could help the company achieve the 24-7 clean energy standard touted by Google.

Now, those centralized, human-intensive operations may no longer be a best practice, and support professionals must be protected without sacrificing quality of service. At the end of the day, public and private utilities are service-oriented businesses. That means treating customers well and being responsive to their needs is just as important as the flow of water, electricity, natural gas, wastewater or internet service.

There are only so many queries that your customer support team can handle at a given time. With WhatsApp chatbots, you can scale up your customer support without having to add more manpower. Additionally, use of a chatbot facilitates the efficient gathering of robust data about the nature of customer service inquiries and their resolution.

The salient features of the chatbot techniques have been discussed, in short, using examples of 5 chatbot-based utilities. Also, we have presented people’s view of chatbots through a short survey to find if the popularity of this utility is rising or declining. The way they work and their advantages and disadvantages have also been analyzed respectively through the arrangement and analysis of information, as well as statistics and conclusions. We have used the examples of some popular utilities to explain them specifically. The empirical result to create a prototype for the proposed test is shown in the form of questionnaire and recommendations.

Chatbots, while very useful, shouldn’t be viewed as a panacea for customer care. So, consider at what point a human should become involved, or how customers can enjoy a chatbot-free experience if they prefer. The topic of regulation in AI, particularly open-source AI, is complex and multifaceted. In the absence of Consensus within the community, finding a balance between openness and regulation is challenging. While open research questions need collective efforts for progress, regulatory considerations are crucial when deploying large language models, especially in commercial settings.

When I first started my career, language models were relatively small and considered an academic pursuit. The power of language modeling, once confined to academic circles, has now become widely known and embraced by the general public. Chatbots like Chat GPT and Geni have gained popularity due to their ability to provide engaging and efficient conversational experiences.

The startup’s AI-based assistant enables residential customers to participate in peak load, rebates, or other energy-related programs and offers a white-label communication extension to the energy services. Further, it reduces peak load for service providers, increases program enrollments, automates frequently asked questions (FAQs), and keeps customers engaged by simplifying home energy management. It is troublesome for service providers to manage demand-side electricity which results in electricity overload and complaints from customers. For such cases, startups develop AI-based solutions that allow customers to easily communicate with their providers. This, in turn, enables utility companies to gather actionable insights and manage resources accordingly.

Surveys help utility companies measure, assess, and advance overall processes and specific offerings. Implementing conversational AI and automating tasks decreases the amount of time live agents are tied up answering commonly asked questions. This means commonly asked questions will be answered quickly and accurately via IVAs while live agents will have more availability to handle any complex requests that may arise. They can take more calls, more frequently, and thereby, increase the scale of their operations. Chatbots can respond to thousands of simultaneous inquiries 24×7, providing robust service support when it’s needed.

Today’s utility customers expect deeper engagement and long-term relationships with suppliers. The increase in smart home management reflects their desire for better energy management and understanding of utility consumption. In the 11 months since the utility deployed a [24]7.ai chatbot to interact with its four million customers, the chatbot answered more than 720,000 questions with 94% accuracy. Provide intelligent, automated, always-on self-service to immediately resolve routine inquiries on topics such as duplicate billing, tariff plans, usage, and terms and conditions. Transition seamlessly to assisted service—the full conversation context transfers as well—for more complex requests and inquiries. For more information on how to use chatbots for field service, contact SightCall here.

Our technology easily integrates with Customer Service Software, CRMs and digital channels such as WhatsApp and Social Networks. We help you choose the best solution to automate your Customer Service and design a tailored conversational experience. Scale and automate query resolution and lead generation with a tool that provides an omnichannel and multichannel experience. We have several pricing tiers depending on your needs, you can check them out here. Additionally, by offering the option of human assistance when needed, a balanced combination of human and non-human interactions can be achieved. Provide your details and complete your connection through the HOOD Chatbot faster than it takes you to make a coffee, or let us handle it over the phone in one call.

About 60-90% of your customer service queries are frequently asked, simple questions. If we take the lower end of that scale, you can estimate about 250 hours per month saved per month by eliminating those FAQs from your agents’ workload. In the case of complex queries, a human agent can instantly chatbots for utilities jump in and take over from the bot, and address the concerns of the customers using bot-to-human handover. Agents can also monitor the bot conversation history allowing them to jump in with the context. This ensures smooth customer-experience resulting in happy, satisfied customers.

In such a structure, technological tootbotls powered by artificial intelligence have come to the rescue of the utilities sector to provide impeccable customer service and cut down on operational costs. One such tool is the utilities chatbot on WhatsApp which is an implementation of customer-facing AI. In the utility industry, poor customer service often leads to customers switching providers. Chatbots can reduce customer switching by providing immediate and accurate responses to customer inquiries and concerns.

Simply delivering electricity is no longer enough; customers seek cost reduction, energy conservation, sustainability, and access to new products. With digital capabilities, personalised services and a wider product range are in demand. For a limited time, we’ll be offering our best sidekick for those in need – completely free of charge.

Set Sail Software develops Customer Center Chatbots

Meta is committed to an open-source approach, and this philosophy extends to our AI research. Open sourcing our work allows for collaboration across the research community, fostering progress and preventing duplication of efforts. By sharing our findings, we collectively advance the field of AI and ensure that research questions are addressed more efficiently. Moreover, open-source technology promotes transparency and eventually leads to safer products, as the wider community can scrutinize, learn from, and contribute to the development of AI technologies.

The platform’s machine learning continually monitors and adapts to how people ask questions and what they expect, says Rajesh Kumar Thakur, Exelon principal architect who led the chatbot project. Avert Crisis— All companies face a crisis at some point, however, in a sector where customers’ lives get directly affected, a crisis can be unwelcomingly problematic. Answer Queries— Most of the questions an energy or utility chatbot receives are about technical queries on the services they receive.

For those seeking basic functionality, rule-based chatbots offer a cost-effective option, as they entail lower development expenses compared to AI-powered bots. It is widely used in customer service to provide buyers with a more human-like interaction. The communication can happen through a chatbot in a messaging channel or a voice assistant on the phone. AI-based chatbots utilise complex Machine Learning models that enable them to learn autonomously from data and generate appropriate responses to queries.

That is why we give you data-driven innovation insights into the utility sector. This time, you get to discover 5 hand-picked startups building chatbots for utility companies. What’s more, with WhatsApp chatbot for utilities, your customer support team can concentrate on solving more complex queries whereas the common queries can be addressed by the chatbot.

This has been an exciting and transformative time for AI, where many individuals have realized the potential and promise of AI-powered products and services. However, it is also a year of exploration, where users and developers have encountered limitations and challenges that inspire further research and development. The year 2023 marks a pivotal moment in the continued evolution of AI, laying the foundation for future advancements. If you are interested in the things chatbots can offer you now and in the future, we invite you to fill out our form by clicking here to start your journey.

One company at the forefront of AI research and development is Meta, formerly known as Facebook. As a research scientist at Meta, I have had the privilege of working on language modeling and text generation, particularly in the area of chatbot development. In this article, we will dive into the world of large language models, their challenges, and the potential they hold for various applications in different languages. We will also explore the importance of open source AI, the role of chatbots in Meta’s products, and the future of AI in the coming year.

We have also presented the study of their time complexity, according to the algorithm of a chatbot. In the future, human beings are more likely to use human-computer interaction by interacting with chatbots rather than using network connections or utilities. With this research, we hope that we can provide a better understanding and some clear information for people to know better about the relationship between chatbot and utility. The software replies to customers regarding billing assistance, relocation setup inquiries, new plans, promotional offers, and other queries popular in the utility sector.

Provide & Change Data— Another very useful feature of chatbots is the fact that it provides data on customers and their use patterns. Chatbots create analyses of conversations and provide valuable data for future use. While they provide in-depth analysis to the company, they provide information to customers on their needs and let them change certain data, such as their tariffs, locations, etc. Conversational channels help the energy industry in general deliver better customer experiences and attract new environmentally-conscious customers while simultaneously decreasing costs.

The company was going through a power leakage issue, which reduced customer experience and increased the cost of maintenance. The users of the utilities sector often review the energy usage once the bill for utilities is already generated. Thus, the customer is unable to optimize energy consumption and choose the right plan according to their usage and requirement. Utility chatbot on WhatsApp improves the accounting and billing structure of the utilities sector by bridging the gaps in documentation, manual accounting, data consolidation, and data entry. Combine JennyBot with your Live Chat solution and deflect over 80% of frequent issues automatically, saving time for your human agents.

• Transition seamlessly to assisted service—the full conversation context transfers as well—for more complex requests and inquiries.
• GetJenny chatbots help you reach more visitors on your website and close new contracts thanks to RPA integrations with your customer relationship management software.
• They can assist with a range of tasks, from answering billing questions to helping customers monitor their energy usage.
• Utility companies communicating with customers via conversational AI will benefit from improved customer service, lower contact center costs, and increased power and flexibility.
• It streamlines the acquisition process, allowing you to perform recruitment onboardings quickly and easily, while easing the workload of your Call Centre.

Through the use of Machine Learning models, AI-based chatbots can recognise patterns in the way users pose questions, even when expressed in different languages or phrased in unique ways. 5) Chatbots Help Automate Field Service RequestsTraditionally chatbots are used for customer self-service, but in field service, they can support technicians in the field. SightCall Video Assistance Chatbot for Salesforce is an example of a chatbot that can be used as a resource to help technicians when they are having issues resolving a service order. Research in the field will continue to address core challenges such as factuality hallucination and lack of recency.

Customer service agents must be able to quickly and easily fix any issues that might come up, preferably in real-time. AI chatbots regularly expand customer service team capacity in any company they work in, even during crises. As a utility you often have a mandate to provide energy to the population, and providing customers with support during outages or unexpected power failures ties into this mandate. Startups such as the examples highlighted in this report focus on chatbots, advanced analytics, digital maintenance as well as predictive analytics.

Collaborations, dialogue, and partnerships between academia, industry labs, and regulatory bodies play a vital role in shaping the future of AI regulation and establishing best practices. Chat-GPT can automate a range of routine tasks in the utilities sector, such as generating bills, updating customer records, and responding to basic customer queries. This can enhance efficiency and free up staff to focus on tasks that require human judgment and creativity.