Arcus Answer – the future of AI-powered customer service?

By Tim Lancaster, AWS practice director

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a major talking point and how the technology will transform how we communicate to deliver a faster, immediate and cost-effective service.

What if we could speak to Alexa (Amazon Echo) rather than an automated service?

In fact, this is what NHS Business Services Authority (BSA), providers of the European health insurance cards, are currently trialling at the moment. They are piloting Arcus Answer which is very similar to Alexa and have found that the technology can answer up to 40% of the calls. The average cost of a call in a UK contact centre is nearly £4, but the cost of an Arcus Answer service is less than £1 which means massive savings.

I recently spoke about this in this week’s Raconteur ‘Public Sector Technology 2018’ report for The Times. You can read it here –  goo.gl/XhT7ZX

Initially about the NHS pilot but how this also applies to other sectors too.

For example, local authorities are under constant scrutiny to deliver good customer service so due to long-term cost savings, are turning to Arcus Answer as they realise the benefits to a more streamlined, efficient approach. Simple queries can now be resolved immediately, i.e., the system can automatically order you a waste bin directly to your door, rather than being on hold for what seems an eternity to speak to an advisor for the very same thing. More complex queries can then be routed to the advisor and valuable resource can be utilised correctly.

For more information on Arcus Answer and for a free four-week trial, please get in touch.