IT firms in race to provide AI-based call center service for small businesses

[Source : LG CNS]

With artificial intelligence (AI)-based contact centers become available as a cloud-based subscription model in Korea, the market scope of this service is expected to expand from large corporations to small- and medium-sized and the self-employed businesses.

LG CNS Co on Thursday announced the launch of its contact center as a service (CCaaS) business. The cloud-based AI contact center (AICC) provides a solution in which AI counselors perform call center tasks. Thanks to advances in technology, AI voicebots can respond directly to consumers.

A CCaaS model allows subscribers to purchase the technology they need, which in turn helps to save costs from internal premise setup and maintenance.

LG CNS has already carried out various AICC projects in the finance and manufacturing sectors. In the financial sector, voicebots perform simple tasks such as deposit and withdrawal, loan plan recommendation, and customer information updates. LG CNS is also active in business partnerships to advance AICC. It recently signed a partnership agreement with U.S. Genesis, the No. 1 contact center solution provider in the world.

KT is planning to debut its CCaaS solution KT A’Cen Cloud this month. Hospitals, academies, insurance and shopping malls are the main targets of this service. AI voicebots can handle simple customer inquiries, reservations, and ordering tasks, and transfer complex tasks to human counselors. KT’s customer center equipped with A’Cen Cloud has seen the quality of call services improved with 10 percent more consultation time, while 30 percent of costs were saved, the company said. KT aims to build a voicebot system that speaks naturally like a human by applying its super-giant AI to A’Cen Cloud.

Kakao Enterprise also has a plan to launch a cloud-based subscription-type contact center in the first half of next year.