Counties Power launches chatbot
Counties Power has become the first lines company in New Zealand to launch an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot called Lenny the Liney.
Lenny could be found on the company’s home page where users could type a question into the bot, who would reply with an answer.
The chatbot would initially assist customers with commonly asked questions, saving them time and offering a more personalised experience than searching the website.
As with other AI technology, Lenny would learn based on the conversations people had with it, and would become more user friendly as interactions increased.
Counties Power chief executive Judy Nicholl said the chatbot was a new approach for the company that was investing more in improving the customer experience and in technology.
‘‘Lenny the Liney is a personal online assistant to help our customers go directly to the information they need.
‘‘Lenny may answer the question directly or refer you to the page on our website with the information.
‘‘The beauty of chatbots is that they learn and evolve over time and become increasingly useful as the public ask them more questions.’’
Users could ask Lenny any number of questions, from how to report a power outage, to how to connect a new house to the electricity network.
Lenny was programmed with a large databank of answers or information sources, but would not be able to answer every complex question so it would direct users to the Counties Power customer services team in that case.
In the future the company envisioned the chatbot being used for an increasing amount of customer interactions.
As society’s use of online technology grows, the use of chatbots and AI-based systems is set to grow exponentially.
Lenny the Liney was the first implementation of FAQ Bot, an AI-powered multi-channel chatbot developed in New Zealand to answer frequently asked questions and automate customer service.
Every chat would be analysed for insights into trends and issues.
FAQ Bot is a product of the innovation lab at Theta - a New Zealand technology consultancy that has been building chatbots since early 2016.