CASE STUDY: Salzburg AG

The Challenge

Salzburg AG identified a significant opportunity in leveraging Conversational AI to support its customer service operations for its customer base of over 450,000.

These interactions ranged from simple queries to complex requests across diverse services. The objective was to alleviate the workload on the customer service team by deploying an AI Agent capable of efficiently managing routine interactions while integrating up- and cross-selling functionalities.

This would allow human agents to focus on more complex issues. As a Green Tech leader, Salzburg AG aimed to be an early adopter of futureproof technologies, using Contact Center AI to offer self-service opportunities, showcase its innovation potential, and increase automation.

The Solution

NiCE Cognigy was chosen in 2018 as the optimal solution to meet their customers' needs. Salzburg AG trained "LEA" (Learning Electronic Assistant), a Self-Service AI, later enhanced with NiCE Cognigy Knowledge AI for more context-sensitive responses.

This innovative AI Agent uses Generative AI technology to better understand and respond to customer intents with unprecedented accuracy, ensuring smooth handovers to live customer service representatives when necessary.

The development and continuous evolution of LEA not only incorporates the latest in technology but also prioritizes conversation design and empathy. LEA's personality and avatar reflect the company's values, demonstrating competency and humor, while also taking each customer request seriously and maintaining a self-confident, charmingly cheeky demeanor.

“Our customer service team truly appreciates the collaboration with the Digital Chat AI Agent. It efficiently handles routine inquiries and precisely manages orders, saving us around 2,500 calls each month. This reduction in call volume allows our agents to dedicate more time to engaging with customers who have complex requests.”

Sarah Haider

Digital Manager Conversational AI at Salzburg AG

The Impact

LEA has expanded its capacity to address over 400 different topics and manages over 160,000 messages annually, significantly reducing the workload of customer service teams. She saves 2,500 customer service contacts each month and manages over 4,000 orders from start to finish. LEA's capabilities have evolved to provide customized responses to complex inquiries, such as public transport ticket purchases directly through the chat interface, showcasing its adaptability to diverse service demands.

With the integration of GPT in 2024, orchestrated with NiCE Cognigy AI, LEA's responses have become even more specific and context-aware, marking Salzburg AG’s commitment to pioneering in customer service automation.

This Generative AI-powered evolution of LEA, based on NiCE Cognigy Knowledge AI, has not only optimized operational efficiency but also significantly enhanced customer interactions, earning an 89% customer satisfaction rate.