SKT Launches Industry-First Voicebot AI Consultation Service

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Cho] SK Telecom has become the first in the industry to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) voicebot functionality in its customer center consultation services.

According to SK Telecom on the 29th, they plan to significantly integrate their proprietary AI technology into the customer center consultation and support system by ▲introducing a voicebot where AI directly consults with customers, ▲expanding the scope of the existing chatbot service, and ▲applying AI conversational technology (NUGU Interactive) to customer guidance and consultation tasks.

As a result, a customer center system capable of 24-hour consultation without time restrictions has been established, enhancing customer convenience. Additionally, by deploying existing consultation staff to specialized tasks, consultation efficiency is expected to improve significantly, opening the era of a full-fledged AI customer center where humans and AI robots jointly provide consultation services to customers.

Since the 16th, SK Telecom has introduced the voicebot consultation service called ‘AI Consultation by Voice’ at the metropolitan area customer center, where customers and AI consultants communicate via voice dialogue, and plans to expand it nationwide from the 30th. ‘AI Consultation by Voice’ applies AI technologies such as speech recognition, language understanding, and speech synthesis, enabling it to understand and analyze natural language at the sentence level beyond simple keyword-based customer responses.

When customers call the customer center and select ‘AI Consultation by Voice,’ the voicebot provides actual consultation services. Without the hassle of pressing ARS buttons to select consultation menus one by one, customers can simply speak their inquiries, and the AI NUGU’s voice naturally and accurately guides them, allowing customers to quickly and easily resolve their questions, with 24-hour consultation available.

Currently, the voicebot can provide about 100 customer center consultation services, including checking charges, gifting or refilling data, subscribing or canceling additional services, and changing or reissuing bills. Within the year, chatbot services will also be introduced to the customer center’s mobile app service ‘Mobile T World.’

SK Telecom plans to broadly apply AI technology to advance the AI customer center to the extent that the voicebot can directly call customers for consultations.

First, from December, AI conversational technology (NUGU Interactive) will be applied to the notification service aimed at preventing overdue payments by delinquent customers. This will replace the previous task where consultants individually called customers to provide guidance and answer questions with AI robots, greatly improving the efficiency of customer center consultation tasks.

Lee Ki-yoon, Head of Customer Value Innovation at SK Telecom, stated, “SK Telecom will do its best to enhance customer convenience by establishing itself as a leading company in the advancement of AI customer centers where humans and robots interact, utilizing differentiated AI technology. To this end, we will minimize trial and error related to the integration of AI technologies such as the newly introduced customer center voicebot service and quickly stabilize the service.”