KDDI: A new project utilising insights from DX (Digital Transformation) such as generative AI in the customer support domain

Challenge: Some estimates suggest that by 2030 there will be a shortage of 6.44 million workers in Japan, particularly in the service industry, leading to a demand for increased operational efficiency in the customer support sector. On the other hand, to enhance customer support, it is essential to introduce a combination of technologies, such as generative AI and voice recognition tools.

KDDI and Altius Link (a joint venture invested by KDDI and MITSUI & CO., LTD.) have achieved an 85% completion rate for the chatbot on the LINE account “au Support” by utilizing generative AI. Additionally, by leveraging voice recognition tools to automate the evaluation of customer support, KDDI has reduced approximately 24,000 hours per year to manage the quality.  Further, the company improved customer satisfaction, as measured by surveys, by 3.6 points to 84%. This initiative has promoted the DX of the KDDI Customer Centre and received the “Best Technology” at the Contact Centre Awards 2024

(https://newsroom.kddi.com/english/news/detail/kddi_nr-389_3658.html)

To provide high-quality customer support and ensure satisfaction for a wide range of customers, including those outside of KDDI, the company has initiated this project to develop a new service “Contact Centre Solution”, generalizing the DX insights gained from the KDDI Customer Centre.

Solution: Development of a contact centre solution utilizing the know-how from the KDDI Customer Centre.

1. Establishment of a pilot Centre: On 11 November 2024, KDDI commenced the establishment of a pilot centre to conduct a proof of concept for a new service in the customer support area. By the end of the fiscal year 2024, KDDI will create an environment where customers can tour the pilot centre, and from fiscal year 2025 onward, it will be transformed into a showroom where demonstrations of the proof of concept can be experienced. KDDI aims to reflect the feedback from corporate customers visited and experienced the pilot centre to enhance the value of its new products and services.
2. Enhancement of a contact centre focused LLM application utilizing insights from the KDDI customer centre: The above two companies have partnered with ELYZA, which develops and provides large language model (LLM) applications, to create a contact-centre-specific LLM application that streamlines tasks such as dialogue summarization and text generation. This application is offered as a standard feature of “Altius ONE for Support.” Based on the DX insights from its customer Centre, KDDI develops new applications through its proof-of-concept experiments at the pilot centre, thereby expanding its lineup of contact-centre-specific LLM applications. This initiative will enhance the quality of contact centre operations, advance data analysis capabilities, and reduce costs.

Impact: “Contact Centre Solution” for Corporate Clients: By providing the “Contact Centre Solution” utilising the expertise from the KDDI Customer Centre, the company expects corporate clients to achieve their contact centres with high customer satisfaction. Additionally, by reflecting the feedback from corporate clients to the pilot centre, KDDI anticipates delivering even greater value. For KDDI, this solution will represent a new source of revenue.

Topic: Customer experience, and language and content AI (NLP/LLM/GenAI)

Cost: High to low

Location: Japan

MNOs and supporting organisations: KDDI and Altius Link