Openreach: Ask Me Anything about my Crystal Ball

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The UK’s largest fibre network operator is using AI tools to prevent thousands of full fibre broadband cancellations each month

Broadband engineers fast a myriad of obstacles when deploying fibre to customers’ homes, some of which can result in significant delays. When these issues occur, customers can feel left in the dark, unsure about the specific problems or when installation will ultimately be competed.

Now, Openreach says it is using two new AI services – Crystal Ball and Ask Me Anything (AMA) – to help keep customers better informed and improve satisfaction.

When an issue occurs during complex fibre installation, the AI-powered Crystal Ball pulls information from various sources, including notes from engineers, delay codes, survey outputs, and network topology, to predict the work required and whether it will take more or less than 10 days to complete.

This information is then communicated via text messages within 24 hours of an engineer’s visit, helping ISPs to keep their customers informed and manage expectations.

In tandem, Openreach’s generative AI AMA allows affected customers to ask questions about their installation processes and receive detailed information in response.

Combined, these tools help to prevent more than 3,000 cancellations every month, according to Openreach.

“When an installation hits a snag, the worst thing we can do is leave people guessing. Crystal Ball helps us explain what’s happened, what needs to happen next, and when we expect the job to be done. And we’re going a step further with Ask Me Anything, giving customers the opportunity to ask questions in their own words and get the information and reassurance they need,” explained Chris Herbert, Director of Customer Service at Openreach. “That makes life easier for customers and for the providers we work with. It means fewer people have to chase for updates, and more orders stay on track.”

Both Crystal Ball and AMA are part of Openreach’s wider CXone Proactive AI Agent platform, which it says is designed to make customer communications “more proactive, predictive and conversational”.

AI is increasing becoming a key part of the customer journey throughout the telecoms industry. In a recent survey of telco leaders across the UK and US, 64% said their organisation was already using AI to steer customer journeys.

In future, customer experience will continue to shift from reactive support towards proactive, predictive, and personalised customer journeys that address problems before customers need to chase them.

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