With the booming popularity of San Francisco -based tech company OpenAI’s ChatGPT and the recent launch of its next-generation AI engine GPT-4, conversational AI has steadily attracted more and more media attention, stimulating a race to understand its implications and benefits for the Telco industry.
The telecommunications market is one of the fastest-growing industries that use AI in many operational aspects of business, including improving customer experience and network reliability. According to Grand View Research, the global artificial intelligence in telecommunication market size was valued at USD 679.0 million in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38.4% from 2020 to 2027.
At Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, Tovie AI unveiled its distinctive AI-powered, ChatGPT-integrated solution, Mobile Virtual Assistant. The assistant handles mobile subscriber calls, protects against scams, and is set to replace outdated voicemail tech. The cutting-edge solution is targeted at mobile operators and will help them create added value for their subscribers, increase their Net Promoter Score (NPS) and boost revenue from value-added services.
Joshua Kaiser, CEO of Tovie AI commented: “Tovie AI’s mobile assistant is a game changer for mobile operators as it opens the door to new features and monetisation opportunities. Personalisation of the operator service as well as mobile interactivity is the future which has already started.”
The mobile virtual assistant was developed by Tovie Mobile, the Finnish subsidiary of Tovie AI, and is an ideal replacement for voicemail – which is already becoming an outdated technology. These days, few people leave messages and those that are left are rarely listened to afterwards. The average time a subscriber communicates with a voicemail is rarely more than eight seconds, but a solution based on an intelligent assistant raises the duration of incoming calls to 16-20 seconds.
The Tovie Mobile Personal Assistant acts naturally, making callers feel as though they are interacting with a real person. A customisable virtual assistant that is enabled for each subscriber, it answers incoming calls and builds up a meaningful conversation with each caller. Each virtual assistant’s character has its traits and image, with a unique style of dialogue and emotionally charged synthesised voice. The Tovie AI Emotional Speech Synthesis platform adds intonations to the assistant’s voice and allows the creation of custom voices, such as celebrities or the branded voice of the Mobile Operator. Today, over 1 million people use the solution, and the figures are impressive.
The Mobile Virtual Assistant’s tasks include clarifying the purpose of the call and scheduling a meeting or time for a call-back. This task automation helps subscribers avoid missing important calls by providing a summary of what was said, whilst providing a detailed transcript to the messenger if needed. It also protects users from spam and fraud, identifying spam by both the number and the semantic meaning of the dialogue. These features are welcomed with the rise in phone scams, which according to the European State of The Call Report 2022 have increased in volume. In 2021, people received an average of 14 spam and fraud calls each month, which resulted in serious financial losses and distress.
As modern consumers expect an increasingly personalised experience, subscribers will feel positively towards Tovie AI’s cutting-edge solution as they perceive it as their assistant, significantly saving their time and interacting with them in a way that feels both effective and applicable to their specific situation.
“Telcos are in a perpetual race for innovation and price–value protection. Conversational AI opens up multiple opportunities to deliver that.” Says Joshua Kaiser, CEO of Tovie AI. “The exploration and possibilities are truly endless with direct benefits for customers.”
For more information on the Mobile Virtual Assistant, and to keep up to date with the latest news on Tovie AI and other industry insights, visit our blog or subscribe to our newsletter.