Brief and project description
Client Background: Cosmos Telecom is a large telecommunications company providing mobile and internet services to millions of customers. They operate multiple support channels: call centers, email, live chat, and a help center for self-service. Prior to implementing AI, Cosmos Telecom’s support faced typical big-industry challenges – high volume of repetitive inquiries (billing questions, basic tech support, plan info), long wait times during peak hours, and substantial staffing costs to maintain around-the-clock coverage. Their customer support organization was looking for ways to answer common questions faster and free up human agents for more complex issues. Industry trends indicated that AI could help, as an estimated 80% of routine customer inquiries are simple enough for AI to handle. With customer experience being a key competitive factor in telecom, Cosmos knew they had to innovate to provide quicker, smarter service.
Goals: The goal for Cosmos Telecom was to elevate their customer support efficiency and quality through AI automation. Specifically, they aimed to resolve a majority of common customer issues instantly without human intervention – things like “What’s my current balance?”, “How do I reset my router?”, or “I want to change my plan” should be handled by an AI agent if possible. They also wanted to offer true 24/7 support where customers could get help at any time (especially outside normal hours) with minimal wait. Reducing average response and resolution times was a key metric, as was improving the first-contact resolution rate. From a cost perspective, Cosmos hoped that an AI support agent could reduce the volume of tickets reaching human agents by at least 30-40%, translating into operational savings or allowing the team to focus on high-touch cases. In essence, the company set out to create a highly available, intelligent support assistant that would make customers happier while optimizing support center workload and costs.
Solution: We built and deployed an AI “Virtual Support Agent” for Cosmos Telecom. This agent is essentially an AI-powered helpdesk assistant capable of conversing with customers in natural language across chat and email (and even voice IVR for calls, using speech-to-text). It was trained on Cosmos’s extensive knowledge base – FAQs, troubleshooting guides, policy documents, and historical chat logs – so it has deep domain knowledge about the company’s services. When a customer reaches out via the website chat or mobile app with an issue, the AI agent steps in immediately: for example, a customer might type “My internet is slow, what can I do?” and the agent will dynamically respond with a troubleshooting dialog. It might ask a couple of questions (to clarify the problem, e.g. “Are you experiencing slow speeds on Wi-Fi or mobile data?”), then provide step-by-step guidance (“Let’s try rebooting your router. I can send a reset signal remotely – shall I proceed?”). The agent can handle inquiries about billing, usage, technical issues, account changes, and more, pulling up the relevant information and instructions instantaneously. Importantly, it is capable of personalizing the interaction by accessing the customer’s account data (with permission) – so it might say, “I see you have the Unlimited Plus plan. Your last bill was $75. Are you asking about a charge on that bill?” This makes the support feel very contextual and intelligent. The AI uses NLP to understand even free-form questions and can handle multi-turn conversations gracefully. If it comes across a request it cannot solve (or detects a frustrated customer or an urgent tone), it will seamlessly escalate to a human agent, transferring the chat along with a full transcript of the interaction and its own notes on the issue. This hybrid approach ensures that the AI tackles the bulk of straightforward cases, while anything sensitive or complex still gets human attention. Additionally, the AI agent proactively offers help on the website – if it notices a user browsing the support FAQ for a while, a chat pops up saying “Need help finding something?” In call center scenarios, an AI voice agent can greet callers and handle simple requests via speech (using the same knowledge base), handing off to live agents if needed. The result is an always-available, smart support agent that dramatically cuts wait times – often providing solutions in seconds – and maintains a friendly, professional persona throughout. It’s like each customer has a personal tech support rep on demand.
Integrations: The virtual support agent was integrated with Cosmos Telecom’s customer support platforms and data sources. We connected it to their CRM system (Salesforce Service Cloud) and ticketing system so that the AI could fetch and update customer account information, open or close tickets, and log interactions. It was also linked with their billing system to pull details like balances, due dates, and payment history when customers ask billing questions. For technical support, the AI integrated with network monitoring tools – for instance, it could check outage information or signal status for a customer’s area by querying Cosmos’s network APIs, then inform the customer “There appears to be an outage in your region causing the slow internet, our technicians are on it.” We also integrated the agent with the Zendesk knowledge base where all the help articles reside; this allowed the AI to pull snippets or whole articles to provide to customers, ensuring information is consistent with Cosmos’s official resources. On the customer side, the chat widget on the website and mobile app was plugged into the AI backend. For voice calls, the agent was integrated into the IVR phone system using speech recognition and generation, enabling it to handle voice queries. Another integration worth noting is with Cosmos’s identity system – the AI can authenticate customers by asking verification questions or sending a one-time passcode, just like a human would, before accessing account-specific data. This keeps the process secure. By integrating with all relevant tools (CRM, billing, network status, knowledge base, etc.), the AI support agent could function effectively as part of the support team’s workflow. It also means when it hands off to a human, that agent sees everything the AI did in the same interface (since transcripts are logged in the CRM), making the transition seamless. The use of popular support platforms like Zendesk and Salesforce meant the AI could slot into Cosmos’s operations without requiring a complete systems overhaul – it was an upgrade to their capabilities using the infrastructure they already trusted.
Results: The deployment of the AI support agent brought transformative results to Cosmos Telecom’s service department. To start with, about 60% of customer queries are now resolved entirely by the AI without needing escalation. This surpassed the initial target and aligns with industry forecasts that autonomous AI could handle up to 80% of routine issues in coming years. Customers embraced the instant help – the average response time (how quickly a customer got an initial answer) dropped from several minutes (or hours via email) to under 30 seconds through the AI chat. Resolution times for common problems (like resetting a password or troubleshooting a router) were cut by more than 50%, since the AI could execute actions (like sending a reset signal or guiding step-by-step) immediately. The 24/7 availability meant that off-hours support quality rose dramatically: previously, late-night inquiries might wait until morning; now the AI handles them on the spot. Cosmos saw its customer satisfaction scores improve (post-interaction surveys showed higher CSAT for AI-handled chats, largely due to speed and the agent’s polite, helpful demeanor). On the operational side, the volume of tickets that human agents had to deal with fell significantly – roughly a 35% reduction in live agent workload in the first few months. This allowed the human support team to give more time and attention to complex issues that truly needed a human touch (and those cases too were solved faster because agents weren’t swamped with simple requests). The company estimates it saved several million dollars per year in support costs through this deflection of routine tickets and the ability to optimize staffing (for example, they could handle peak volumes without hiring an army of temporary agents). Importantly, no layoffs were made – instead, Cosmos reallocated staff to more value-add roles like proactive customer success calls and improving the knowledge base content, while the AI handled the repetitive stuff. From a strategic view, Cosmos Telecom now advertises its “smart AI assistant” as a feature of its service, promising quick help anytime. They’ve effectively turned customer support into a competitive advantage rather than a pain point. Gartner predicts that by 2029, agentic AI will autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service issues and cut support costs by 30% – Cosmos is already well on that path, experiencing tangible ROI today. In summary, the AI support agent empowered Cosmos’s customer support to be faster, more cost-effective, and highly scalable. Customers get answers in an instant, and the company scales service without scaling costs linearly. It’s a win-win scenario that showcases how AI agents amplify human teams – delivering a futuristic customer experience right now.