South Korea’s top telecom company KT Corp. is readying to deploy upgraded chatbot software that will address customer complaints and demands via phone capable of addressing 1 million tasks previously done by human receiver at its AS call center.

The AI-driven voice bot will be applied to KT call centers by November at the earliest to support its 7,000 staff dealing with an average 4.5 million calls per month, according to industry sources on Tuesday.

The AI voice bot handles simple questions and requests in 70 categories picked by the company, which is related to internet connections, price packages, specific transactions and bills. If asked others, human call center employees will handle the request.

The voice bot modeled after Bank of America’s AI-powered financial assistant Erica, which achieved 10 million users and completed 100 million client requests since the launch in June 2018.

KT plans to test out the AI-powered voice assistant first to those in their 40s or younger and then expand the service to all age groups. It expects the AI assistant would handle at least 1 million calls a month, more than 20 percent of all.

The latest decision was made to meet the growing demand for non-contact services and customer management amid the virus spread.

KT has been active in upgrading technology for customer services, with the installation of text-based AI chatbot in late 2018 and voice recognition system and AI service assist solution for call center staff last year.

AI chatbot has helped reduce average monthly calls by 150,000, and the assist solution the average call time by 15 seconds.

The addition of new AI voice bot is expected to improve the work efficiency of call center staff, the company expected.

Customer centers exclusive for foreigners and those in need of detailed explanation will also be added to enhance the service quality. Last month, a center for the disabled opened with 100 staff as the first step.

By Lim Young-sin and Lee Ha-yeon

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