Industry
Communications, Media and Information Services
Connect. Curate. Comprehend: Unlocking Value Beyond Boundaries
Solution
TCS HOBS™
TCS HOBS™: Engineering experiences with personalization and innovation
Highlights
- Telecommunications companies (telcos) can leverage generative AI (GenAI) and build simpler user interfaces (UIs) for their customer relationship management (CRM) and channel front ends without having complex page flows or menu-driven pages.
- Telcos can use a conversational interface to understand customers’ exact needs, auto-classify service requests, replace UI validations with prompts, enable voice-based integration, and personalize adaptable widgets.
- Reimagining front ends with GenAI integration will minimize the need for complex user interface and user experience (UI/UX) development and maintenance costs, reduce agent handling time, and personalize customers' experiences.
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Overview
Traditionally, existing systems like CRM and other channels that are used to capture customer data have been developed with a front-end UI that captures customer inputs in a structured format. These include labels, text fields, dropdowns, radio options, buttons, and cascading style sheet (CSS) styling. IT teams are compelled to design and develop new web applications and portals, leading to complex and multiple UI designs, which are both expensive and time-consuming. However, what end users need is a better customer experience in terms of a reliable network and accurate billing.
With the advent of GenAI and the use cases of its proven outputs, these front-end systems (CRM, channels, portals) must change how they capture user information. The structural rigidity of using multiple fields on a web page needs to be redesigned with more contextual and conversational interfaces. This is especially true for telecom service products like voice, data, or fibre.
By leveraging GenAI, a conversational interface can be designed to capture a user’s intent and requirements. For example, a user wants 200 GB of data and an unlimited talk time mobile plan or 5G broadband service. The interface can capture this using conversational UI (in text or voice), and the GenAI agent can invoke the backend API service with the required specifications.
Conversational UI
Telcos can use a conversational interface to understand their customers’ requirements rather than listing all products on a page.
For example, when a user is looking for a plan within a specific price range and a GenAI agent offers that without selecting any filters or scrolling through a list of plans, it simplifies their experience.
Similarly, if a user is specific about how he intends to use a plan (such as wanting to watch movies or sports), plans with those features can appear first, such as those automatically recommended on popular over-the-top (OTT) platforms. Interfaces can also provide information on how a product suits the customer, making it easier for the customer to decide, as shown in the below infographic:
Figure 1: Conversational interface to understand customer requirements
Reimagining customer interactions with GenAI provides a better customer experience and reduces UI overhead. Multiple menu-driven, form-based UI functions for post-sales/ support queries, such as billing, tickets, and profile updates, can also be integrated with the back-end application programming interface (APIs) using GenAI from the same conversational interface.
Auto-classification
Another prominent and helpful feature is redesigning a trouble or service request with a simple problem description placeholder and leveraging GenAI to automatically classify service requests into different buckets or categories. This shifts the focus to customer problems rather than displaying a page with multiple fields to select, such as category, type, and sub-type of the problem.
In conjunction with ticket auto-classification, GenAI can also be leveraged to identify a customer’s emotions from the tone of the problem description. For example, a customer reporting a problem such as “I have been distraught with slow Internet since morning” can be automatically tagged to a priority P1 category issue and assigned to a team for quick resolution.
Prompts
Typically, UI developers have to write multiple JavaScript validations to check the input received from users. This requires technical knowledge of handling scripting and maintenance of multiple JS methods. This problem gets simplified GenAI prompts. For instance, UI has different address elements, such as addressline1, addressline2, building, city, and postal code. Developers can create a prompt in an address format to capture a user’s address. The input is then automatically validated against the expected format and can suggest the user provide the missing information if it isn’t validated.
Voice integration
GenAI's overwhelming success is due to its ability to understand human language and use models developed for voice-to-text.
Today, customers use instant messaging apps to request a service over a live call or send a recorded voice note. GenAI can translate these voice notes to text and map the corresponding backend APIs to serve a customer's needs.
This trend will increase, especially for scenarios related to recharge or plan upgrades.
Personalized widgets
Enterprises can deploy dynamic widgets based on the context of user scenarios to personalize user interfaces. Instead of having a static and cluttered web form with multiple widgets, the UI should auto-refresh with relevant data based on a user’s intent. For instance, if the user interaction shifts from order information to initiating a trouble ticket, the UI should adapt accordingly, tailoring itself to the user’s needs.
GenAI for simpler UI
Telcos should re-examine their investments in developing and customizing new UI portals, which often involve steep learning curves and ongoing maintenance. Instead, they should explore simpler, GenAI-driven conversational interfaces. These interfaces can personalize customer interactions and are more intuitive.
By reimagining UI/UX front ends with GenAI integration, telcos can reduce the need for complex development and maintenance costs, reduce agent handling time, and provide a better customer experience.
