Accenture Conversational AI Platform

Nominated for

Best Customer Experience in Business Technology

(A COVID STORY)

Accenture Conversational AI Platform

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This document, either in whole or in part, must not be reproduced in any form or

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1. ACCENTURE CONVERSATIONAL AI PLATFORM (CAIP) OVERVIEW

Contents

3. VALUE DELIVERED DURING COVID

2. CAPABILITIES AT A GLANCE

4. THE CAIP ADVANTAGE

Copyright © 2021 Accenture. All rights reserved. 3

ACCENTURE CONVERSATIONAL AI PLATFORM (CAIP) OVERVIEW


• The connected customer expects an interaction that is smart, responsive and engaging.

• Customer expectations are rising as quickly as technology is evolving.

• Today virtual agents represent an exciting opportunity; tomorrow they will be a competitive necessity and a basic expectation for the digital customer.

Today’s AI is no longer viewed as primarily a corporate tool to increase automation, but instead as an emerging technology to be leveraged to handle global challenges.

56%of CIOs and CTOs

surveyed by Accenture Research say conversational

bots are driving disruption in their

industry 1

43%report their

competitors are already

implementing the technology 1

57%agree that

conversational bots can deliver large return on investment for minimal effort 1

1. Accenture Research: Chatbots Are Here To Stay2. Gartner: Conversational AI to Shake Up Your Technical and Business Worlds3. Gartner: Market Guide for Conversational Platforms4. Gartner: Governance and Best Practices for Chatbot Development

Chatbots will be responsible

for over

cost savings annually by 2020 2

$8B

By 2021…

15%of customer service interactions will be completely handled by AI, an increase of

400% from 2017 3

By 2022…

70%of white collar

workers will interact with conversational

platforms on a daily basis 4


THE RISE OFCONVERSATIONAL AI

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/29425/facebook-messenger-adds-chatbot-payments-support

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/29606/tieto-appoints-bot-to-leadership-team?utm_medium=newsflash&utm_source=2016-10-18

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/50616.wss

https://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/nationwide-trials-branch-automated-advice-service/

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/29425/facebook-messenger-adds-chatbot-payments-support

http://www.bankingtech.com/602071/seb-deploys-ipsofts-virtual-agent-amelia-for-customer-facing-ops/

COMPREHEND

Asynchronous

Image

E-mail

SMS

Real-Time

User Interface

Live Agent Escalation

Enterprise Systems

3rd Party Systems

AP

I

Tone of Voice &

Sentiment

Voice or Text

Interface

Avatar

Social

Knowledge Base

RPA

Instant Messenger

LEARN

SENSE ACT A smart assistant that interacts with people and machines, harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence* to inform, support and advise, helping them with their tasks, challenges and goals

*Artificial Intelligence: Smart machines that extend human capabilities by sensing, comprehending, acting and learning – allowing people to achieve much more.

Semantic model

Natural Language Processing

Vision processing

Voice/ IVR

AI Services

Q&A

Enterprise Search

Knowledge graph

BPM Process Flow


WHAT IS A VIRTUAL AGENT?OUR DEFINITION

Accenture’s Conversational AI Platform is a middleware solution that stitches together products and services from different vendors.

Its plug-and-play architecture allows robust, data-driven conversational AI solutions to be scaled and managed across the whole enterprise, facilitating end to end business transformation.

AI SERVICES

NLP

Speech Text

Translation

Voice Biometrics

ENTERPRISE

SYSTEMS

CONVERSATIONAL AI MIDDLEWARE

Bot Design

Bot Execution

Bot Analytics

Bot Training &

Maintenance

Agent Assist &

Escalation

AP

I L

AY

ER

US

ER

CH

AN

NE

LS

AG

EN

T C

HA

NN

EL

S

A SNAPSHOTACCENTURE CONVERSATIONAL AI PLATFORM (CAIP)


AI SERVICES SUPPORTED:AI Services(NLP, TTS, STT, Translation)15+

16Customer Interaction ChannelsText, Voice

Engineers Trained on Platform

1000+

Integrations available Out of the Box20+

Client ImplementationsB2B, B2C, B2E models90+

44MicroservicesLoosely coupled Modular Architecture

Languages support, including niche languages such as Hungarian, Catalan, etc.50+

Our patented innovation forms the core of the Conversational AI Platform, which

offers the ability to plug-and-play AI vendors and easily switch between them.

FACTS AND FIGURES


Accelerate pace to deliverPre-built technical integrations and reusable components speed up implementation

Avoid vendor lock-inCloud- and vendor-agnostic: easily switch between providers and mix-and-match to get the best solution

Data-drivenLogging and analytics tools facilitate operations and maintenance and create a living system

Privacy by designRole-based access control and encryption, segregation and masking of data

Leverage existing investmentUnify previously siloed initiatives build on various technologies without needing to rebuild from scratch

Operational scalabilityCentralizing creation, publishing and maintenance of experiences helps organizations to break traditional silos and enables scaling across the enterprise

User-friendlyNon-technical users can design, build and monitor conversations with an intuitive user interface

Pre-built conversational experiencesEver-evolving library of use cases created by designers and subject matter experts that are ready to be rolled out for a range of industries

CAIP BENEFITS


CAIP CAPABILITIES AT A GLANCE

PLATFORM TOOLS:

ENGINEER PORTAL AGENT ASSIST PORTAL ANALYTICS PORTAL

The Conversational AI Platform consists of 3 main tools to enable a robust enterprise solution.

EXAMPLE USERS

Bot Engineers Bot DesignersCustomer

Service AgentsBusiness Analysts

Business Operators

FUNCTIONAL CAPABILITIES PLATFORM TOOLS


12

The Engineer Portal enables bot configuration, management and reporting though a friendly interface. Engineers can select, switch and train their NLP model, view conversation logs and design new conversations.

KEY FUNCTIONALITIES:

• Configure AI Services to switch cognitive service provider(s) – cloud or on-prem – avoiding lock-in

• Build and test dialogs with a no-code graphical interface with rich components in the Dialog Designer

• Easily build bots with multi-lingual support, including more niche languages such as Cantonese, Catalan, etc.

• Re-train NLP models from within the Portal

• View conversation logs to analyze user behaviour


Functional Capabilities

ENGINEER PORTALCONFIGURATION


13

The Platform supports various easily configurable user interaction channels, enabling virtual agents to reach users across a range of interaction points. The channel spread is effective in implementing omnichannel user experiences & IVR deflections.

OMNICHANNEL:Users can start an interaction with a virtual agent on one channel, and continue that same conversation on another channel

VOICE DEFLECTION:Callers are diverted via IVR, potentially receiving a link via one channel, where they can then begin a chat with a virtual agent within the same channel or another.

TEXT:

Web WhatsApp

VOICE:

Slack SMSTwitterMS Teams

Email FacebookMessenger

AmazonAlexa

GoogleAssistant

Twilio IVRAmazon Connect

GenesysIVR

CISCOIVR

Wechat

GoogleCCAI

Voice Biometrics

Smart TV

AR/VR Headset

ENGINEER PORTALUSER INTERACTION CHANNELS



14

The dialog designer facilitates easy design and build of conversation flows with a user-friendly interface. It caters for both bot designer beginners and advanced bot engineers. A variety of UI controls and advanced context operations support complex dialogs.


• Sequential conversation flow builder

• Versioning – control which version is published and easily roll back to an earlier iteration. A/B testing enablement

• Advanced API and variables configuration

• Support multiple response types depending on the channels enabled

Users: Designers

ENGINEER PORTALDIALOG DESIGNER



15

Create and publish conversational experiences across a range of languages. Translation services facilitate quick multi-lingual enablement for each conversation flow. Language detection allows a user to switch language whilst interacting with a bot.


• Define bot responses in multiple languages with a simple UI

• Translate from one language to another to speed up implementation

• Language detection allows a user to interact in their language of choice

Users: Designers

ENGINEER PORTALMULTI-LINGUAL ENABLEMENT



16

Map out a step-by-step workflow for how the bot will tackle user requests, including decision trees, FAQs, document search and disambiguation. Easily configure confidence thresholds for intent mapping and the number of fallback attempts that will trigger escalation to a human agent.


• Configure confidence threshold for triggering an intent-driven conversation flow

• Define whether FAQs, document search or disambiguation should be used, and in what order, to contain user queries

• Set the number of attempts a bot should make before escalating to a human

Users: Designers

ENGINEER PORTALBOT WORKFLOW



17

The assisted learning functionality allows knowledge engineers to review utterances that a bot has failed to classify. These utterances can be used to quickly train the bot using the same interface.


• View list of unclassified utterances

• Train all the master and worker bots in single interface

Users: Knowledge Engineers

ENGINEER PORTALASSISTED LEARNING



If the context requires human support (or if the customer requests) the virtual agent will hand-over to a human agent – this can happen via various channels with minimal customisation.These escalations will be handled by our Agent Assist Portal, an intelligent agent console built to empower the human agent and drive customer satisfaction. Features include: Enterprise Knowledge Search, Agent Coach (with query classification and conversation tips), and Customer Profile (with personalised offers and information).Our Platform can alternatively be integrated with existing agent software to enable a smooth transition from Bot to Human. To prove this functionality, the Platform has been integrated with third parties like LivePerson and Bold360.

Contact Center AI (CCAI)

AGENT ASSIST



The Analytics Portal features a Kibana dashboard which showcases the key performance metrics. Each metric can then be explored in a greater level of detail if required. Alongside the multiple in-built modules, there is also the option to add new modules (as part of implementation).

NATIVE MODULES:

• AUTOMATION RATEQuantifies the extent to which customer queries have been automated

• CUSTOMER SATISFACTIONFeedback allows for easier identification of pain points in conversation flow

• EMPLOYEE SATISFACTIONFeedback allows for easier identification of pain points with escalated conversations

• AVERAGE HANDLING TIMEKey Contact Centre metric, allows for understanding the efficiency of a VA solution

• FIRST CONTACT RESOLUTIONLow scores here may indicate an inefficient or flawed implementation

• CUSTOMER TIME SAVEDProxy for positive customer experience

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE


DEPLOYMENT

20

At runtime, the platform executes intelligent routing to support user queries. All conversations are secure and protected for data privacy.

KEY FUNCTIONALITIES:• Dialog versioning • PII masking• Data Protection at rest & in transit• Privacy by design• Plug & Play analytics solution• User authentication & voice biometrics


Our Industry Cartridge library

is a single repository of

standardized, pre-built &

reusable conversational

experiences to allow for rapid

deployment of virtual agents,

all running on Accenture’s

Conversational AI Platform.

PRE-BUILT

CONVERSATION FLOWSWe have use cases across a

number of industries that are

ready to be tailored and

implemented

TRAINED WITH

UTTERANCESOur use cases have supporting

utterances with neutral

expressions to rapidly train the

NLP

PRE-VALIDATED

WITH OUR SMEsOur intents have essential

market considerations across

security, fraud, risk and

compliance

DATA ITEMS

CONSOLIDATEDAll data points, entities, APIs

and interfaces are extractable

and can be tailored to client

requirements

PRE-BUILT NLP

INTENTSWithin a use case is an

extract of the NLP it was built

with, which is reusable with the

client

OUR KEY PARTNERS

ADAPTORS FOR THIRD

PARTY SOLUTIONOur cartridges include

adaptors for partner solutions like

Genesys and LivePerson

MULTI-LANGUAGE &

DIALECTCartridges contain use cases in

multiple languages and dialects,

including English, Cantonese,

Spanish and French

Each cartridge is a collection of design and build materials of working, scalable, conversational experiences, that can be implemented at a clients with minimal modifications. These cartridges will help reduce the design and build time for delivery.

A cartridge includes utterance libraries, conversation flows, different languages and dialects, and data items - all ready to implement

COMPUTERIZED INDUSTRY CARTRIDGES


Transfer Funds Between Accounts

Report Issue With Energy Supply

Mortgage/Payment Holiday

Re-order Credit/Debit Cards

Broadband Installation

Unlock Account

Report Lost/Stolen Card

Apply For Credit Increase

Change StatementPreference

EXAMPLE USE CASES ACROSS THE INDUSTRIES…

80+BANKING

135+INSURANCE

75+WIRELESS

55+HIGH TECH

90+WIRE & CABLE

85+UTILITIES

80+AVIATION

The Conversational AI Platform provides an ever-evolving library of conversational experiences created by designers and subject matter experts that are ready to be rolled out across a range of industries.

CROSS-FUNCTIONALVIRTUAL AGENTS

In addition to the breadth of industries, our cartridges also sit cross-functionincluding HR, IT Service Desk, Other Enterprise Services (Finance, Procurement and IT).

Change StatementPreference

1000+ cross-functional intents and 75+ use cases

Update Contact Details

Cancel Services

Reschedule Interview

HR Policy Virtual Agent

Invoice Look-Up

Desktop SupportEscalation

New Joiners FAQ

Change User Passwords

Time Card Submission

Software Request Or Change

CARTRIDGE EXAMPLES


Security is considered and tested at every stage of the Application Lifecycle from Design, Build, Test to Deployment

APPLICATION LAYER

Session Management✓ Each user session is associated with randomly generated session ID, and in web chat,

a secure client cookie is assigned✓ Session validation executes both on client and server side✓ Secure, omni-channel session management allows user to switch channels without

compromising on security

User Authentication & Password Management✓ Strong omni-channel user authentication in place, using combination of user

emails/password, PIN, voice biometrics✓ Secure password management policy, password encrypted in storage

Authorisation & Access Control✓ Role-based authorisation is implemented for all Enterprise Users, including Live

Agents, Bot Engineers and Business Operator. Following least-privilege principles, these users will need to be granted access to READ, WRITE, or become ADMIN.

Input Validation✓ Input validation is performed on both client and server side to ensure no malicious

inputs are injected into the Platform, including XSS and CSRF

Error Logging & Handling✓ All errors are logged at 4 levels (debug, info, warning, error) in CloudWatch for

monitoring and further analysis. ✓ Errors are handled appropriately both on client and server side without

compromising on information security

Security Testing✓ Open source packages are scanned regularly using Nexus Lifecycle/Black Duck✓ Security testing performed for every version’s release

INFRASTRUCTURE LAYER

Access to public-facing resources✓ The load balancer to the private channels is only accessible via OpenVPN or

whitelisting.✓ The load balancer for the public facing channels is open to the world on port 443

(HTTPS) only.

Identity and Access Management✓ Kubernetes worker nodes are protected using AWS Security Groups, no SSH keys

provided✓ Access to Kubernetes APIs controlled by AWS IAM✓ Communication Security

DATA LAYER

Data Validation✓ All data is validated against schema before updating to Database

Data Encryption✓ All sensitive data are encrypted at rest

SECURITY


CONSENT

✓Possible to make opt-in to the Platform explicit for first time users

✓Possible to support opt-out as a use case in its own right

RIGHT TO ACCESS

✓Customer data stored by the Platform can be extracted and aggregated with other customer data held by the enterprise. This aggregated data can then be provided to the customer as per the Right to Access process defined for the wider enterprise.

RIGHT TO BE FORGOTTEN

✓ Customer data stored by the Platform can be removed on a per customer basis

PRIVACY BY DESIGN

✓Authentication – PIN/Passphrase/Voice Biometrics (available through integration of third party services)

✓Authorization – Control access based on role type

✓Data Protection – Encryption, segregation and masking of data

BREACH NOTIFICATION

✓Handled as per wider enterprise’s Breach Notification process

DATA PORTABILITY

✓ Customer data stored by the Platform can be removed on a per customer basis

PRIVACY


READILY AVAILABLE COMPUTERIZED INDUSTRY CARTRIDGES:

PUBLIC SERVICES EDUCATIONTELECOMS UTILITIES AVIATIONFS SUPPORT

IT HELPDESK HR

CHANNELS:

Enterprise

Voice

Contact Center

Customer interactions

PLATFORM:

Bot Design

• Low code graphical UI to configure dialogs

• Versioning and publishing

• Multi-NLU support & multi-lingual design

• Proactive conversations

Bot Execution

• Multi-bot management with intelligent routing

• Context management

• API Integration

• Omnichannel conversations

• Multi-lingual conversations

Bot Analytics & Training

• Conversation insights

• Trends visualization

• Event driven analytics

Agent Assist

• Multi-channel text escalations

• Voice escalation to human agent

• Assisted learning

• AI enabled agent assist

Tech Agnostic

• Assisted learning with multiple NLUs

• On-cloud, on-prem or hybrid deployment

• Orchestration of external bots

TOOLS ANDFRAMEWORKS:

Intent Discovery

• Conversation logs analytics

• Intent detection & discovery

• Dialog visualization

Knowledge Management

• Knowledge extraction from

enterprise knowledge bases

• Unified knowledge representation

Human Centered Design

Framework

• Conversation Design offering

Virtual Agent Delivery Tooling

• Platform estimators

• Deployment templates

• Platform documentation

Industry Cartridges

• Pre-configured dialogs

• Pre-trained intents

• Created with domain experts and

designers

CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS:

Systems of Record

Systems of Insight

AI Services

RHEA**

BotZero**

Human Handover

Live Agent

Industrialization

Smart TV

AR/VR

SUMMARY OF CAPABILITIES


SAAS

• Conversational AI Platform software available on AWS or Azure or GCP

• Monthly fees include environment availability price

• Excluding consumption of AI / third party services

• Support availability – 9 AM to 5 PM GMT

• Bot design and build effort not included

MANAGED SERVICE

• Use of the Software for a predetermined term (e.g. 3 years)

• Annual (or Monthly) Subscription fees including License and M&E price for the duration of the Term (bundled or unbundled)

• Must renew License and M&E at end of contract

OR

Price calculatedas per requirements

AS A SERVICE

Pilot Full domain

Crossdomain

Enterprise

DEPLOYMENT


Well-implemented conversational AI solutions can have numerous benefits…

Reduction of contact centre trafficA European governmental institution now handles 40% of its customer interactions without human intervention resulting in a 30% improvement in the speed of service.

Fulfilment of new requests at reduced cost On average, call computerization solutions deliver 60-80% cost savings compared to human-powered call centres.

Ability to meet seasonal surges in demandA virtual agent implemented in a European governmental department saw a reduction in demand of 55% for operator tasks.

Increased service hours and languagesA bank in the Middle East is launching a virtual agent that customers can interact with 24/7 in both Arabic and English for their everyday banking queries.

Improved customer experience and engagementA utility company in the UK has seen a 20% uplift in engagement since launching an Alexa skill where customers can service their account through their Amazon Echo device.

Improved flexibility and time to marketThe virtual agent can be changed instantly for an updated version, and can proactively obtain survey information, cross-sell and upsell.

Improved compliance and auditabilityA Nordic financial institution implemented a virtual agentthat increases visibility and the capture of information by ensuring all customer interactions are securely recorded.

Increased quality and consistencyA US telco launched a virtual agent to ensure customers received consistent and standardized responses to queries, regardless of customer type, segments and channels.

BENEFITS AND OPPORTUNITIES


PANDEMIC RESPONSE WITH CAIP

The COVID-19 pandemic and

the early 2020 oil crisis led to

an unprecedented surge in

new unemployment insurance

claims and an overwhelming

number of calls to call centers,

triggering a need for another

communication channel.

THE COVID DOOM

29

To cater to this unprecedented demand, Accenture worked with 90+ customers and used the CAIP platform to roll out Virtual Assistants (VAs) at speed and scale for numerous customer journeys.

The tool was deployed within days and has been used to understand various caller intents and provide automated responses with quick resolutions that are satisfactory to the callers.

CAIP to the rescue


CLIENT - 2nd most populous state in the USAddressing the surge in citizen unemployment concerns due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The client is responsible for managing unemployment benefits for the entire state. COVID-19 caused call volumes to increase by 1000% to approximately 200,000 calls daily. Within a week, Accenture implemented a conversational, self-service virtual assistant, to support unemployment insurance questions via a webchat, relieving pressure on the contact center.

The conversational AI solution offers:

Delivery at pace

The Commission started with a list of 20 intents and within five days, Accenture and Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched the virtual assistant.

Scalability

The virtual assistant can support around 100 questions and 20,000 concurrent users – a 233% increase in capacity from when it was first launched.

24/7 engagement

Unlike traditional call centers, the virtual assistant can assist customers 24/7. In fact, 19% of user interactions occur outside regular call center hours.

5 daysFirst version of virtual assistant launched in under a week

20K Concurrent users

448KQuestions answered in the first week

Client Story 1Impact of VA implementation:

May2020

LIVE

To increase engagement and communication with citizens, the CLIENT worked with us at Accenture, to implement a cloud-

based, automated virtual assistant named VA-BOT. To date, VA-BOT has assisted over two million CLIENT customers and

answered over nine million questions.


ABOUT VA-BOTThe bot provides informational responses to the most common questions, such as

“How do I file a claim for unemployment insurance?” and “What is the status of my

claim or payment?”

AWS Lex, the natural language processor, identifies topics submitted through text

questions and uses machine learning to help match queries to the best answer. For

example, if a user asks “When will I get a check in the mail?”, the system can recognize that the person is

trying to find out when they will receive their payment. Since CLIENT does not send checks, the virtual

assistant recognizes that the end user is inquiring about payments and answers accordingly.

Leveraging Accenture’s Advanced Customer Engagement platform, the CLIENT can

merge AI, data and analytics to improve the customer experience. These insights

highlight how users interact with VA-BOT. This helps the CLIENT to refine processes

based on industry learnings and best practices, including how to shorten back-and-

forth conversations and help individuals narrow down their questions.

VA-BOT, the Virtual Assistant appears

on the bottom right of the CLIENT

website. Users see a box that says

“Chat with Us.” Once this box is

clicked, it automatically engages the

user in a conversation.

After 1 month, the CLIENT updated the bot to include a “Request CLIENT to Contact

Me” form. If a user needs more information on a request, the bot can present a web

intake form that asks for several pieces of information. The user is then placed on a call

list for a CLIENT employee to reach out to them directly.

This option helps divert calls from the call centers and allows the CLIENT to reach

customers with outbound calls, which further enhances citizen engagement.



Today, the VA-BOT can support around 100 questions and 20,000 concurrent users – a 233%

increase in capacity from when it was first launched.

VALUE DELIVERED

To date, VA-BOT has served over two million CLIENT customers and answered over nine million

questions. On average, it can answer requests in just over four messages.

Unlike traditional call centers, VA-BOT can assist customers 24/7. In fact, 19% of user interactions

occur outside regular call center hours. Today, it takes less than a day to turn around updated policy

information to and for customers using the virtual assistant.

Now that VA-BOT has proved effective for unemployment insurance, the CLIENT is currently using

the virtual assistant for other agency business and helping to answer questions related to vocational

rehabilitation, workforce initiatives and child care.


BRIGHT HORIZONSDeflect traffic from the call center without compromising on customer experience.

Bright Horizons is one of the leading child-care providers in the US. The COVID-19 crisis caused an overwhelming surge of calls to their call center. The queries included:

• Enrolment in child-care programs• Program reimbursement process• Reservation across various offerings• Program benefits explanations

The conversational AI solution offers:

Speed and agility

The web-based FAQ AI Bot was rapidly developed using the Conversational AI Platform hosted on Azure Cloud with MS LUIS providing the NLU service. Release 1 was completed in just one week, with subsequent releases nearly weekly with new Q&A conversations.

Deflection from IVR to digital

Users are prompted via the Call Center IVR system with an option to avoid long wait times for an agent and have the FAQ AI Bot handle their query.

Improved customer engagement

In May the VA interacted with 15% of people who called the IVR at a time where only 28% of IVR connects made it into a call queue and 36% of callers in the queue abandoned.

May2020

LIVE

10K+Calls deflected from call center to the VA on a weekly basis by Release 4

$400K+ Annual cost savings

19% Reduced call volume to consultants’ queue

Impact of implementation:

Chat with our Virtual Agent

Chat now

Client Story 2


COVID-19: Agility in pandemic response using CAIP

Created, tested and launched a COVID-19 Chatbot in seven days for a major pharmaceutical

company, serving more than 35000 professionals

Launched a triage bot to orient customers at a country’s Department of Education, with more

functionalities to come

Created and launched a bot to answerand support unemployment insurance queries

Added Covid 19 guidance for a Canadian energy transportation company

customers self service bot

Built a call centre for a state government overnight, then extended it to the Department of

Public Health. Enabled state agents to work remotely and stood up a VA to support

COVID call volumes

Deployed virtual agent solution for a major university to respond to stakeholder COVID

concerns

Deployed an enterprise ready cloud solution, seamlessly embedding ACE+ COVID-19 Virtual Agent into the client’s existing environment.

(4 different clients)

Implemented a cloud based call center solution to rapidly enable UIA call center staff to work remotely. Concurrently expanded call center capacity from 700 to 800 ports in 5 minutes.

Client names are anonymized due to contractual obligations

NOT EXHAUSTIVE


More client stories

MEASURINGSUCCESS

Major KPIs included:

• Deflection in number of cases and $ saving

• Average Handling Time no queues, faster responses

• First Contact Resolution resolving customer problems 1st time

• Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)• Employee Satisfaction (ESAT)

A variety of KPIs are measured in pilot or production to evaluate the success of a virtual agent solution.

95%

No. queries

deflected

85%

Live agents’

time saved

75%

Customers’

time saved

85%

Increased customer

satisfaction

82%

Query

time reduction

* Data sourced from live implementation


THE CAIP ADVANTAGE

The Technology-Agnostic Conversational AI platform is an accelerator for rapidly building robust and comprehensive Virtual Agent solutions for various use cases.

Its modular microservices architecture integrates different artificial intelligence algorithms and offers the ability to switch them quickly and easily using the intuitive user interface to create a best-in-class solution.

Accelerated development

Development is accelerated by 4 to 12 weeks with pre-built hooks to front-end and back-end components, so focus can be put on the specifics of the client

Vendor-agnosticism

Easily switch between cloud-based cognitive services and avoid vendor lock-in

Security

Sensitive data can be identified and masked before sending to cognitive services. Access control and encryption of data at rest as well as anonymisation of training data for GDPR compliance

Data Driven

Pre-built logging, analytics and NLP training modules facilitate auditability and maintenance

Pre-Built Cartridges

Pre-built industry relevant cartridges have been developed to provide working use cases for common flows

In House Knowledge

Content and logic are held inside the VA application, not externally in the cognitive services

CAIPBEST IN CLASS SOLUTION


MODULAR DECOUPLING

Modular microservices approach enables:

Targeted horizontal scaling for the particular componentsthat are experiencing high load without having to scale the others.

Easily extensible platform by adding new modular services rather than having to modify the entire monolith application

Easy maintenance with responsibility of each micro-service to one targeted team

STANDARD-

ISATION

To ensure production

readiness, each microservice

conforms to set of standards,

including:

High Coding Standards:

minimum 80% unit testing,

standardised error handling

Standardised Build &

Deployment process with

automated checks in place for

each stage

Standardised

Documentation, including

service endpoints, error

codes, etc.

BUILT FORSCALE

Each microservices are built with scalability in mind, following principles such as:

Service statelessness: theshould be easily replaceable if service goes down

Automated scaling groups to handle increased/decreased loads

TECH AGNOSTIC

Avoid vendor lock-in by building abstraction layers facilitating easy switch between different providers of the same technology, including:

Cloud Providers

AI Services: NLP, STT, TTS, voice biometrics

Messaging Platform Channels: WhatsApp, Facebook, MS Teams

Document Database

PLATFORM APPROACH

The platform aims to create enabling base technology, from which it is easy for user to create, operate and maintain bot regardless of their use cases. Some platform features include:

Multi-tenant bots hosting

Role-based access authorization

Built in analytics & monitoring

The architectural principles allow the Platform to meet non-functional requirements including high scalability, performance, reliability and adaptability

ARCHITECTURAL PRINCIPLES


PILOTLAUNCH

• Build UI & conversation workflows

• Train and test NLP model• Integrate back-end and

front-end• Test E2E integration, UI

and User Experience• Integrate testing

feedback• Deploy to pilot

environment for initial pilot users

• Monitor performance and make changes to NLP model accordingly

• Build backlog of items for future releases

• Create roadmap for transitioning to scaled implementation

RESEARCH& INSIGHTS

• Mobilise team and kick-off

• Analyse existing data and user journeys. Define how data is processed by systems and humans: as-is and to-be

• Design Thinking workshops: agree use cases and create backlog of functionality

• Plan development sprints • Agree contracting

approach with AI vendors

• Define User Testing plan• Define Pilot users/scope

PRODUCTSCALE

• Perform steps for pilot to integrate the Platform into client systems

Continuously iterate to achieve the below items:• Execute Performance

testing• Address performance

bottlenecks and optimise for larger userbase

• Integrate into additional channels

• Improve integration into agent software to provide more functionality

• Iterate new use case flows• Expand utterances and

intents• Address user feedback to

refine flows

PROOF OF VALUE

Controlled learning of conversational AItechnology with a focus on selected use cases

DESIGN& PLAN

• Design User Experience

• Design User Interface• Design personality of

Virtual Agent• Define conversation

flow and dialogue content

• Create NLP model• Set up and test

environment

EXPAND & MANAGE

Expand platform to additional business units and deploy ongoing improvements

DISCOVER CO-CREATE TEST SCALE SUSTAINLAUNCH

A successful launch timeframe varies from just 5 days to a couple of weeks.

TYPICAL ENGAGEMENT PLAN


Partners

Access to our leading AI community of practice

The Converse AI Platform, a Technology Agnostic Solution

that shortens deployment time by 1-3 months

We have strong partner relationships with key AI

players in the game

• UK Liquid Studio• Dublin AI COE• Tech Labs Palo Alto

For more detail on our AI capabilities, please visit us at www.ai.accenture.com

POWERFUL INNOVATION ARCHITECTURE & DELIVERY

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

WORLD LEADING ACCELERATORS

BEST IN CLASS PARTNER ECOSYSTEM

Research Institutes& Universities

• Tech Labs Sophia• IDC Innovation

Centre

WE HAVE INVESTED $600 MILLION IN DEVELOPING A FULL SUITE OF AI ASSETS, DESIGNED FOR RAPID IMPLEMENTATION. ASSETS WE HAVE ARE SERVED TO 50+ OF THE FORTUNE 500.

WHY US?


http://www.ai.accenture.com/

HOMECARE

An ecosystem of voice enabled services for the elderly target segment, with behavioural data capture and machine learning algorithm to detect anomalies

IVR AI

Decoupled voice adapter allowing the integration of artificial intelligence services and telephony systems with reduced latency

Accenture D18-065/03454-90PR-US; H&H No.: 0095-0438PRO

Accenture D18-193-03519-90PR-US ; Brinks 15718-362

OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

VENDOR-AGNOSTIC PLATFORM

Dialog management system for using multiple artificial intelligence service providers

US-10381006


Thank You

Documents

Accenture Conversational AI Platform