How Vodafone uses AI

Vodafone Carrier Services launched Scam Signal, an API that analyses real time network data during a live bank transaction to detect social engineering behind authorised push payment fraud, so banks can stop fraudulent transfers as they happen. It sits in Vodafone's Identity Hub next to the SIM Swap and Number Verify APIs, which use CAMARA open standards. JT Group, working with FICO, was the first channel partner to offer it. In a three month pilot with a UK bank that Vodafone does not name, scam detection improved by 30%.

• Detection improvement: 30%, three month pilot with a UK bank

  "Scam detection using this service improved by 30% after only three months of a successful pilot with a leading UK bank."

  Claimed by: organization

Vodafone rebuilt its TOBi chatbot on Azure OpenAI as SuperTOBi, launched in Italy and Portugal, with Germany and Turkey announced to follow from July 2024 and other markets later that year. A companion SuperAgent helps human agents search the company knowledge base and, in Ireland, sends the human agent a summary of the online customer conversation so customers do not repeat themselves. Vodafone reports that initial tests at one of its call centres showed a 50% improvement in first time resolution of critical journeys such as complex billing inquiries, and that in Portugal first time resolution on appointment booking rose from 15% to 60%, with billing journeys being added next.

• First contact resolution: 60%, appointment booking journey, Vodafone Portugal

  "As a result, the first-time resolution rate has increased from 15% to 60% and Vodafone’s online net promoter scores (where respondents are asked to rate their experience) improved by 14 points to 64 points – anything above 50 points is considered a strong result."

  Claimed by: organization
• NPS change: +14 points, online NPS, Vodafone Portugal

  "As a result, the first-time resolution rate has increased from 15% to 60% and Vodafone’s online net promoter scores (where respondents are asked to rate their experience) improved by 14 points to 64 points – anything above 50 points is considered a strong result."

  Claimed by: organization

TOBi is Vodafone's digital assistant on the website, the My Vodafone app, messaging and telephony, first launched in Italy and extended to 15 language versions. It handles billing questions, contract updates and simple technical troubleshooting, hands over to a live agent with a summary, and during the pandemic made the same sales offers as human agents, such as data boosts and upgrades. Microsoft reports that TOBi now fully resolves 70% of inquiries arriving through digital channels; an earlier Microsoft story quotes Vodafone on a 12% year on year fall in contacts to call centres after launch.

• Containment rate: 70%, inquiries arriving through digital channels

  "Currently, TOBi handles nearly 45 million customer calls a month, fully resolving 70% of customer inquiries coming through the company’s digital channels."

  Claimed by: vendor
• Interactions handled: about 45 million, per month

  "Currently, TOBi handles nearly 45 million customer calls a month, fully resolving 70% of customer inquiries coming through the company’s digital channels."

  Claimed by: vendor
• Contact deflection: 12%, frequency of customer contacts to call centres, year over year after the TOBi launch

  "Since launching TOBi, we’ve reduced the frequency of customer contacts to call centers by 12 percent year-over-year"

  Claimed by: organization

Vodafone and Nokia jointly developed an Anomaly Detection Service, based on Nokia Bell Labs technology and running on Google Cloud, that detects and troubleshoots irregularities such as mobile site congestion, interference and unexpected latency before they affect customers. After an initial deployment on more than 60,000 4G cells in Italy, it was being rolled out across Vodafone's European network in July 2021, with all European markets planned by early 2022 and plans to apply it later to 5G and core networks. Vodafone expected around 80 percent of its anomalous mobile network issues and capacity demands to be detected and addressed automatically; no measured result was published.

No outcome disclosed.

Vodafone ran early machine learning trials in centralised self organizing networks. In Germany, with Huawei, an algorithm found the optimal voice over LTE settings for 450 randomly chosen cells in four hours, a task Vodafone says would take an engineer around two and a half months. In Ireland, with Cisco, algorithms predicted where 3G traffic would peak in the following hour so the network could rebalance load between neighbouring cells; Vodafone reports an average 6 percent improvement in mobile download speed in initial results. Vodafone planned commercial use from its 2018/19 financial year.

No outcome disclosed.