Online chatbots offer wait-free customer support at scale. But despite their convenience, generic chatbot interactions can feel impersonal.
With our partner Kia Motors, we brought the chatbot from the internet to a live, retail environment and added a human touch. It’s an engaging, personalized, lifelike approach to automated customer service.
Can we enhance the customer experience by bridging the gap between AI and humans?
Mark Albrecht, our Global Head of Innovation, explains how a human avatar can add a personal quality to the encyclopedic and technical product knowledge that lives in the cloud.
Thomas Noermark, Global Head of AI & Robotics
Pressure from online retail means tighter margins at brick-and-mortar shops. Stores have responded by cutting staff. But while staff reductions reduce costs, fewer knowledgeable sales people make for diminished customer experiences.
The idea: Use SAP HANA, SAP Conversational AI, and IBM’s Watson to create a lifelike, human avatar that’s both engaging to speak with and up to date on every detail of every product.
Imagine a wheel with NTT DATA Business Solutions at the center. The spokes of that wheel are the various cutting-edge technologies we needed for Kia Mia to function. Quantum Capture and Qlik provided the visuals for our product. SAP’s Conversational AI gave her the ability to speak. SAP HANA and IBM’s Watson added the data and question-answering capability for her to think and remember.
The sum of these parts was a human-like chatbot with endless product knowledge, who looks customers in the eyes, never gives a canned answer, and remembers where her previous conversations left off.
Our project needed a certain tech-oriented partner, and when Kia Motors’s came onboard, we were thrilled. We knew customers interested in Kia’s new electric car, the e-Niro, would be open minded enough to engage with a new kind of customer support colleague. We called her Kia Mia. She’s friendly, engaging, and can answer any question you might have about e-Niro – literally. When she made the finals of the 2019 SAP Innovation Awards, we couldn’t have been prouder.
Kia Mia is an example of how we can innovate for better customer experiences right now.
That’s innovation to the point.
Kia Mia is only one example of how we transfer our experiences with machine learning and human interface technology into new endeavors. We’re constantly on the lookout for projects where our experience might make the difference between good idea and great product.
The Giant Hogweed Case: Learn how NTT DATA Business Solutions used intelligent technology and SAP innovations to save lives.
The FarmBot Network: Learn how NTT DATA Business Solutions created a platform for users of FarmBot gardens, integrating logistics, procurement, and the gardens themselves.
The logistics bridge case: Learn how NTT DATA Business Solutions used Internet of Things technology and SAP cloud resources to build a better track-and-trace solution.
The XERVON cooling Towers: Learn how NTT DATA Business Solutions used machine learning to increase efficiency and better schedule maintenance.
Every innovation project is a story of its own. Co-innovate with NTT DATA Business Solutions and write yours now! Let’s discuss where your pain points lie, what you want to achieve, and how we can help you do that. To the point.
Just contact us – we will be glad to help you.
Laurens Steffers
Innovation Lead
