AI-powered phone assistance deflects 43% inbound calls

The UK’s Derby City Council and council-owned Derby Homes — an organisation created to manage and mantain the council’s housing stock — have supplemented their main switchboard with phone-based AI assistance to deal with inbound resident calls.

As Director of Digital & Physical Infrastructure and Customer Engagement at Derby City Council, Andy Brammall said embracing the power of AI for digital self-service was a logical move.

“It quickly became clear that AI had the potential to dramatically streamline our customer service operation. We started first with an AI-powered website assistant and followed by supplementing our main switchboard with phone-based AI,” he said.

Inbound phone calls represent 60%+ of resident contact with the council, and therefore are the cornerstone of Derby City Council’s self-service strategy.

“Trained in over 1000 council services, it has exceeded our deflection target of 21%, handling over 62,000 calls and achieving an incredible 43% deflection. This success has allowed us to maintain our service levels while streamlining operations,” Brammall said.

The new AI assistants, Darcie, servicing the council’s customer service centre, and Ali, serving Derby Homes, are currently answering over 1000 questions each day, directly handling up to 45% of inbound calls. Beyond answering citizen queries, they can also direct calls to over 40 different departments.

The new AI system employs advanced natural language processing, providing a user-friendly, 24/7 service in natural language to simplify interactions.

“Our new AI assistants not only allow citizens access to a range of council services and information around the clock and across multiple channels, but by automating routine tasks they also free up time for our colleagues to focus on more complex queries which require human conversation. This ultimately aims to provide a more personalised service for our residents, improving service delivery and achieving higher levels of resident satisfaction,” Brammall said.

The council partnered with ICS.AI and leveraged its SMART AI platform for this transformation. This development sets a benchmark for using AI to streamline public services and enhance citizen engagement.

“We chose the SMART AI platform from ICS.AI for several reasons. Their strong reputation and proven experience in the local government sector reassured us of their capabilities. They offered a ‘human parity’ council AI language model trained in over 1000 council topics, which could be rapidly deployed, and we were confident in their performance and their proven commitment to innovation in the phone channel. Above all, what really appealed to us was ICS.AI’s genuine interest in working as a true collaborative partner,” Brammall said.

The council is committed to further exploring the potential of AI technology across additional contact channels and service areas to further improve customer service and increase efficiency.

Image credit: iStock.com/AndreyPopov