Ask those in the shared services field what the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) are and they will likely tell you that the main benefit is the potential to do more, with less. With AI on the rise, Siemens Global Business Services utilizes the potential capabilities of AI to create a solution that proves ready for the future of business services – all through the power of “robots”. Robots come in all shapes and sizes, metals and materials and yes - physical and virtual forms.

Hi Alfred, can you introduce yourself?

I’m a cloud-based solution that interacts directly with your existing customer support system and uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to process incoming unstructured data from customer requests. Best of all, I work alongside your team, not replacing them.

What are your main capabilities?

For one, I’m a great multitasker. I can interpret written customer requests, extract the relevant data, trigger the right workflow and deliver the answer to the customer automatically. I also ensure improved resource allocation and enable streamlining of low-value and repetitive tasks, have shorter response times, do not cause unnecessary redirection of requests and have an unlimited capacity to handle peak periods.

Who helped you come to life?

My team at Siemens GBS partnered with Microsoft (MS) and their cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI). We used Microsoft Azure ML Stack, combining technology like Robotic Process Automation (RPA), API protocols and low code. GBS also utilized their infrastructure and orchestration layers, based on Microsoft Azure services, making me capable of scaling in the cloud. Currently I am fully integrated with MS Exchange, working with functional mailboxes and with ticketing systems like Service Now, Zendesk, SPARK and PEGA DOM. I was designed with reusability and scalability in mind to be able to work in multiple business contexts and functions in multiple target software platforms.

Innovation is all the rage. What keeps you future-ready?

Several of my features carry an innovative edge. Some of these include being able to receive customer requests from multiple channels, the use of NLP for classification, prioritization and interpretation of requests, interfacing with any system, handling file attachments, and tools for tracking performance and retraining the AI models.

We know you love numbers; can you give us some of yours?

Here are a few of my results since our go-live in 2020: Over 200k requests automatically categorized, management of requests distribution over multiple categories and sub-categories, several customer flows automated end-to-end, 4,988 hours per year saved with automated categorization, 5x faster than manual request processing and 877 hours per year saved with End-to-End request handling.

Why were you brought on board?

The main reason was to tackle inefficient and time-consuming tasks of customer service teams dealing with thousands of annual customer inquiries. Within that, I deal with issues such as manual processing. I support in peak workload times with a high volume of tasks that are difficult to manage and meet service level agreements. And I relieve overworked and stressed teams prone to errors to avoid customer dissatisfaction and low Net Promoter Scores (NPS). It may seem like a lot of issues, but many of them are interconnected.

If you take on many roles, are you replacing human employees?

I would never be able to replace humans because of the broad nature of inquiries. My offerings have shown how an entity can transform large portions of its business processes into autonomous operations without sacrificing employees. Employees are critical as they develop the solutions while also managing and monitoring the automated processes, perform more valuable and complex tasks and handle direct customer contacts. I exist as a software that automates repetitive or administrative tasks giving humans space to handle more complicated inquiries and work hand in hand with any team, I’m a part of.

What sets you apart from fellow bots?

My first version was called “Mailbot” and was implemented to specifically solve the email processing problem. Over time, my team discovered that I have more than just these capabilities and I can execute large complex solutions as well. What sets me apart today is my ability to read, understand and classify customer queries and use my business knowledge to perform an action (search, collect, update information) in a target system and respond to the customer – all without human interaction.

To see The Bionic Agent in action, watch the video below.

To learn more about the Bionic Agent click here or contact bionic.agent.automation@siemens.com.