AI Adoption Case Study: Kraken's generative AI tool for customer service helping Octopus Energy

techUK’s AI adoption collection of case studies showcases examples of how organisations are Putting AI into Action, either through the adoption of AI models within their organisations, or by developing AI tools that can be leveraged by others.

By shining a light on these use cases, techUK hopes to demonstrate examples of best practice from across sectors and from organisations of all sizes.

Kraken is the technology platform behind Octopus Energy, contracted to serve 54 million customer accounts across the globe through licensees.

1. Challenge:

Going through a customer's account history and drafting an appropriate response can be time consuming. With diverse requests spanning from billing issues to technical support, responding effectively is resource-intensive and can lead to delays.

2. Solution:

Magic Ink is Kraken's generative AI tool for customer service. Built on GPT-like models, customer service staff can use the tool to summarise all interactions with a customer, generate automated responses, and suggest actions, such as requesting a meter reading.

Magic Ink is fed continuous context around customer history and product specifications to enable customer service staff to efficiently deliver world-class service to customers. Magic Ink is integrated into the foundation of the Kraken platform, which is optimally placed to deploy AI:

Magic Ink has the maximum context available natively, with data from the entire customer lifecycle hosted on Kraken. Large language models (LLMs) make use of these large data pools.

Customer service staff are empowered to use Kraken to solve any customer issue. LLMs turn from toys to tools when they can actually take action to solve problems.

Kraken has been iterated and validated at scale — it's easy to make cool demos with AI, but the difference between demo and product in the AI sphere is huge. Our close relationship with Octopus Energy means that we understand the industry extremely well and the Kraken platform is tried and tested.

Magic Ink uses natural language processing to draft responses to diverse inquiries, as if written by the user. By reducing the burden on human agents, Magic Ink enables them to focus on more complex issues and answering phone calls, while providing swift and accurate assistance to customers.

3. Barriers:

Hallucinations — To address this we have focused on a verification system which annotates verified facts with their source and highlights text which couldn’t be verified. Team members are also trained to review everything written by Magic Ink with a fine-tooth comb. Around a third of messages generated by Magic Ink require zero to minimal changes before they are sent

Training — We use AI as a tool to enhance individuals productivity, not replace individuals. As we’ve matured, we’ve learnt a lot about how best to onboard users and make sure they understand the ins-and-outs of the tool.

Legal — Clients are understandably cautious about adopting it, so we test it extensively with our own teams and customers.

4. Impact:

Assisted by Magic Ink, our team has been able to deliver improved service and quicker customer response times. Around 35% of customer emails are currently written with the assistance of this tool, receiving higher customer satisfaction ratings (around 70%) than those without. This also drives employee satisfaction by automating routine tasks and freeing up teams’ time to address more complex queries.

To date, Magic Ink has summarised 6,239,087 calls – the equivalent of 695,379 hours of talking time – and has generated a further 9,415,901 messages. In all cases, the system keeps human operators in the loop.

One user said: “It’s been super easy to get to grips with and it’s very clever how it adapts to your personal tone so quickly”. Another shared: “I’ve been really impressed with Magic Ink’s ability to create personable responses to our customers. It’s a great tool for responding to short, snappy emails or a great starter for longer, more complex ones.”

Usman Ikhlaq

Programme Manager - Artificial Intelligence, techUK

Usman joined techUK in January 2024 as Programme Manager for Artificial Intelligence.

He leads techUK’s AI Adoption programme, supporting members of all sizes and sectors in adopting AI at scale. His work involves identifying barriers to adoption, exploring solutions, and helping to unlock AI’s transformative potential, particularly its benefits for people, the economy, society, and the planet. He is also committed to advancing the UK’s AI sector and ensuring the UK remains a global leader in AI by working closely with techUK members, the UK Government, regulators, and devolved and local authorities.

Since joining techUK, Usman has delivered a regular drumbeat of activity to engage members and advance techUK's AI programme. This has included two campaign weeks, the creation of the AI Adoption Hub (now the AI Hub), the AI Leader's Event Series, the Putting AI into Action webinar series and the Industrial AI sprint campaign.

Before joining techUK, Usman worked as a policy, regulatory and government/public affairs professional in the advertising sector. He has also worked in sales, marketing, and FinTech.

Usman holds an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), a GDL and LLB from BPP Law School, and a BA from Queen Mary University of London.

When he isn’t working, Usman enjoys spending time with his family and friends. He also has a keen interest in running, reading and travelling.

Email:: [email protected]
LinkedIn:: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/usman-ikhlaq,https://uk.linkedin.com/in/usman-ikhlaq

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