Vodafone has become the latest company to embrace FaceMe's digital humans to put a human face onto AI based automated customer service applications. It is developing a customer service kiosk that will use the FaceMe technology.
FaceMe technology is already in use at Auckland Airport answering arriving passengers' questions about biosecurity rules. Another New Zealand company, Soul Machines, has had considerable success with its digital customer service avatar, Nadia, announcing deployments by Autodesk, UK bank Natwest, and most recently UK company Daimler.
Vodafone says its digital human will enable customers to benefit from self-service options and free up time for staff to address more complex customer needs. It will make its debut at retail stores in Auckland in late 2018 and, according to Vodafone, will be the first AI-powered digital human in a retail store in NZ.
Vodafone director of customer operations Helen van Orton said: "FaceMe has evolved AI technology to create intelligent digital humans that are human-like in their appearance and interaction. Thanks to machine learning, they are capable of continuously learning how to anticipate our customers’ needs and better serve them.”
FaceMe CEO Danny Tomsett said the digital human would be able to establish an emotional connection with customers.
“Digital humans combine the best customer experience influencers from both person and machine, embodying the brand of an organisation and creating significant value through emotional connection, personalisation and consistency,” Tomsett claimed.
“Research across hundreds of brands in dozens of categories shows the most effective way to maximise customer value is to move beyond customer satisfaction and connect with customers at an emotional level.