Achieve Unmatched User Experiences with Conversational AI

Achieve Unmatched
User Experiences with
Conversational AI
How leading organizations are using AI to improve customer interactions,
enhance efficiencies, reduce costs and increase revenue.
April 2020

Whether using voice assistants, chatbots, virtual
agents, smart speakers or even talking cars and
household appliances, bots are becoming integral
to our daily lives. They help us manage our homes,
place orders, transfer money and pay bills, provide
important information and solve problems
We are seeing accelerated change and complexity
in the conversational AI market that shows no signs
of slowing. The next wave of experience-oriented
artificial intelligence (AI) systems are blazing down
the track, led by innovations such as augmented
and virtual reality, computer vision, autonomous
things and edge devices. Embedded into these
new user interfaces are the analytics, insights
and intelligence to create more individualized,
contextual and valuable interactions.
We work with businesses across industries to
build exceptional customer-facing solutions by
developing and deploying not just bots but also
design-led conversational engagements. Whether a
client wants to improve its customer intelligence or
operations intelligence, conversational AI provides
the best possible connection to consumers and
business users. These personalized experiences
allow people to interact and retrieve valuable
information directly, without human agents.
Business leaders today need a plan to scale and
operationalize conversational AI while at the
same time continuing to build a modernized
data foundation to more broadly leverage other
forms of AI. With data flowing to and from all
these connected end points, businesses can
achieve greater functionality, personalization and
experience.
The following examples demonstrate the powerful
capabilities of conversational AI. They highlight
diverse approaches, products and technologies.
Collectively, they demonstrate what can be
delivered across an array of channels, interfaces
and requirements. These engagements can
help businesses identify where to begin the
conversational AI journey.
Matthew Smith
Associate Vice President at Cognizant and
Conversational AI Practice Leader
Foreword
Creating greater value with conversational AI
2 / Achieve Unmatched User Experiences with Conversational AI
“Whether a client wants
to improve its customer
intelligence or operations
intelligence, conversational
AI provides the best possible
connection to consumers
and business users.”

ContentsClick below to select a section.
4 Banking
Chatbot streamlines bank’s finance queries,
speeds claims
6 Capital Markets
Wealth manager cuts costs, boosts customer
satisfaction with conversational AI
8 Communications
Telecom supplier gets fast answers with
conversational bot
10 Consumer Goods
Automaker guides customer purchases
with conversational agent
12 Energy Utilities
Utility speeds customer queries with
voice-based search
14 Healthcare
Healthcare company makes smarter
decisions with voice-based AI
16 Technology
A human-centric approach ensures
adoption of revamped service portal
18 Travel Hospitality
Airline improves customer experience
with loyalty program chatbot
20 Get the Most from
Conversational AI

Banking
Companies in the banking industry are increasingly
turning to conversational AI for voice, message and
chat capabilities and the convenience it offers. Today’s
retail banking customers can experience personalized
financial management through the power of on-
demand conversational banking. They can hear and view
transaction histories, set spending and saving goals,
transfer funds, set and review bill payments, and send
money to family members, friends or vendors with ease.

The challenge
A large banking enterprise was looking for an
intelligent solution to reduce the high volume
of calls and requests routed to its finance
department by internal employees. The company
wanted an intelligent virtual assistant capable of
responding to queries related to financial claims
status, payments and approval workflows.
By assigning repetitive tasks to the chatbot, the
organization believed it could free the finance
department to focus on areas where people
add the most value, such as resolving conflicts,
solving problems, defining policies and making
strategic decisions.
Our approach
We worked with the bank to implement a virtual
assistant for employees’ financial inquiries.
The company chose us because of our strong
Microsoft Azure AI competency for consulting,
implementation and employee adaptation.
Employees engage with the virtual assistant
using both voice and text to resolve common
financial claims questions.
Using the enterprise’s single sign-on capabilities,
the intelligent assistant authenticates users
and retrieves relevant details from the related
SAP module using prebuilt data connectors.
It identifies the queries it cannot answer and
escalates them. It then collects all pending
issues, uploads them to the finance document
repository and assigns them to a particular user
for follow-up and closure.
The Microsoft Azure AI-based solution uses
custom speech and cognitive linguistic models
to respond appropriately to user inquiries.
Conversation transcripts and user feedback
are stored and regularly analyzed to recalibrate
cognitive models, continuously improving the
system’s accuracy and performance over time.
Chatbot streamlines bank’s finance queries, speeds claims
RESULTS
Because it’s available 24x7 and scales
on-demand, the intelligent assistant
boosts accessibility, efficiency and
employee satisfaction. It has also cut
demand on its finance department
by 50%.
35% drop in emails
and calls to the finance
department in the first
month of operation.
50% reduction in emails
and calls after two
months of operation.
43% decrease in ticket
resolution time.
BACK TO INDEX Banking

Capital Markets
Conversational AI is empowering financial advisors with
augmented intelligence for precise, timely and accurate
next-best-action decision making for portfolio and
wealth management. These emerging conversational
digital assistants serve as engaging, personalized virtual
advisors and financial coaches for individual investors.

The challenge
A large U.S.-based wealth management
company was under pressure to cut operational
costs at its contact center. Its agents spent much
of their time responding to high-frequency,
low-complexity requests, which was draining
employee productivity and morale.
In addition to cost pressures, financial services
customers were also expecting to have their
questions answered quickly and efficiently online
— avoiding a phone call whenever possible.
Our approach
Recognizing that conversational AI provided
the best opportunity to both reduce operating
expenses and improve customer satisfaction,
and because of our extensive background in
the technology, the company turned to us for
assistance with deploying the new system.
We began by analyzing call center data and
selecting the high-volume inquiries that
represented optimal use cases to be automated
via the chatbot. Next, we analyzed the various
natural language processing platforms in the
marketplace that would meet all the client’s
requirements.
We then built and deployed a customer-facing
virtual assistant that automates inquiries
and transactions related to account balance,
withdrawals, loans and transfers. The system
performs live agent transfers through live
messaging and includes an interactive voice
response system. Next steps are to expand the
virtual assistant’s reach and functionality by
building and deploying an Alexa skill for market
updates, tax information and directions to the
nearest advisor.
Wealth manager cuts costs, boosts customer satisfaction with
conversational AI
RESULTS
This customer-facing virtual
assistant automated over 400 of the
organization’s most common customer
inquiries. It responds to both general
questions and user-specific inquiries,
with continuous improvement based on
AI analytics and customer feedback.
$6.7 million reduction in
operating costs.
166,000
fewer calls.
5% improvement in the
customer experience
index score.
BACK TO INDEX Capital Markets
SEE THE FULL STORY »

Communications
Intelligent virtual assistants are transforming the
telecommunications industry by supporting millions
of daily customer requests and transactions. Chatbots
and virtual assistants deliver an enhanced customer
experience by deflecting simple customer requests,
automating and streamlining support calls and
intelligently augmenting service representative
responses.

The challenge
The key source of revenue for this telecom
infrastructure provider — selling parts to large
telecom providers — requires regular contact
with customers to discuss product availability. As
part of that contact, the support team needed
to handle a large number of repetitive inquiries
related to product part numbers and then submit
those numbers in a variety of ways, including a
company webpage, email and phone calls.
The process required the support team to
manually check multiple databases to retrieve
the necessary information. This slowed response
time and increased customer wait times.
Our approach
Working with the client, we created customer
journey maps to identify the pain points in the
existing process. Through these sessions, we
realized that a conversational bot could replace
much of the company’s website functionality and
significantly reduce agent call volumes.
The team built a conversational chatbot
leveraging Microsoft LUIS to enable search
capabilities on a cohesive master database of
parts and availability information. Using natural
language processing, the system enables
requesters to receive real-time results for product
information, parts availability and lead-time
information on unavailable parts.
We then built an internal bot for contact center
agents, enabling them to automate ticket
creation by integrating it with the company’s
customer relationship management system. With
this streamlined process, employees are now free
to handle more difficult customer inquiries.
Telecom supplier gets fast answers with conversational bot
RESULTS
Our communication technology team
built and deployed multiple intelligent,
automated assistants to speed wait
times, check multiple databases for parts
availability and relay that information
back to the customer. We also developed
a virtual agent to automate manual
processes such as ticket creation for
contact center employees.
16% reduction
in call volume.
90% chatbot
accuracy rating.
50,000+ parts availability
and information
accessible via the
conversational agent.
BACK TO INDEX Communications

Consumer Goods
Today’s consumers frequently experience hands-free
and screenless interfaces across the physical and digital
spaces where they live, shop, interact with friends
and family, and seek entertainment. Conversational
innovations are creating and guiding seamless customer
journeys with voice-based grocery shopping, location
services, shopping assistants, on-demand delivery and
re-order automation.

BACK TO INDEX
Automaker guides customer purchases with
conversational agent
Consumer Goods
RESULTS
We worked with the automaker to
make further enhancements and
provide additional use cases to the
chat experience. After implementing,
piloting and testing the capabilities in
one country, the refined conversational
agent went into live production. Next
steps are to roll out the system to 16
additional countries in 13 languages.
13% increase in car
configurator users.
5% increase in
interaction success.
~3% conversion rate
increase in the first few
months.
The challenge
A large automobile manufacturer had big plans
to drive digital transformation globally over the
next five years. Its goal: provide a seamless,
personalized omnichannel experience to
increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.
The plan included creating a best-in-class
chatbot assistant to guide customers throughout
their journey, from research to purchase and
beyond. To accomplish this, the automaker
needed a strong implementation partner
with automotive industry expertise and an
understanding of customer needs, the digital
experience and what it takes to execute a
successful rollout.
Our approach
Our consumer goods team started by reviewing
the company’s 2025 digital transformation goals,
and then devised a roadmap with details on what
it would take to create these capabilities and
successfully roll them out to additional countries
in multiple languages.
We applied our six-dimensional framework to
execute this end-to-end omnichannel solution.
This framework includes strategy, opportunity
analysis, architecture and technology, people and
skills, governance and organizational change
management.
Along with the framework, we provided a rollout
playbook with an in-depth execution plan based
on past experience and our expertise in the
digital space. This playbook included timelines
and budgets as well as our conversational AI
capabilities to achieve the automaker’s digital
transformation goals on-schedule. SEE THE FULL STORY »

Energy Utilities
Many of today’s utility and energy customers engage
with existing Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled devices
connected to their homes and daily lives. This dynamic
has conveniently set the table to support interactive,
conversational solutions that elevate adoption and
help satisfy evolving customer expectations.

BACK TO INDEX
RESULTS
The utility’s intelligent virtual assistant
answers questions about the status
of work orders based on proprietary
information in its database. The chatbot
also helps account executives and
account managers conduct customer
research more quickly, with less effort.
Because it’s easy to use and efficient, it
was quickly adopted by users, resulting in
improved customer interactions and an
enhanced customer experience.
Automates the research
process for the sales team.
Apprises sales personnel
on key factors related to
specific industries.
Reduces processing time
by providing research
materials through a click
or voice command.
The challenge
For a major U.S. power utility, customer
satisfaction is paramount. The company wanted
to enable its customer-facing personnel to
quickly and thoroughly prepare for upcoming
client meetings and fully understand customers’
industry and energy needs. The objective was to
improve interactions between its sales force and
customers using AI.
Our approach
Our utilities industry team examined how
subject-matter expertise could be delivered
to customers via voice-activated, AI-driven
chatbots and then developed use cases and
solutions. The chosen chatbot solution enables
executives, account managers and field-service
technicians to conduct research using voice
commands or typed queries. Using voice-
activated search technology and an application
programming interface (API), the solution gives
users organized and detailed responses to their
questions.
The machine-learning functionality of the AI-
driven chatbot also helped the utility build a
knowledge hub that uses AI to answer IT-related
questions related to tracking the progress of
particular work orders.
Utility speeds customer queries with voice-based search
Energy Utilities

Healthcare
Advances in conversational technologies are helping
healthcare providers, payers and clinical services
organizations deliver more personalized and contextual
interactions throughout the patient journey. Chatbots
and voice assistants increase engagement, improve
patient trust, encourage patient adherence and influence
positive health outcomes. Today’s conversational
interactions are generating real-time data that better
informs healthcare and support teams, resulting in more
contextual, personalized care.

BACK TO INDEX Healthcare
RESULTS
The tool quickly responds to queries on
patient responsibility, coding and billing.
Using artificial intelligence, the system
analyzes claim rejections, physician
productivity, collection performance,
modality analysis, coding profiles and
back-office operations, as well as payer
and payee transactions.
88% reduction in
manual effort.
45% faster decision-
making based on
real-time insights.
~30% increase in
operational processing
with sustained
information accuracy.
Healthcare company makes smarter decisions with
voice-based AI
On-demand support for
healthcare consumers
Conversational AI is quickly
changing the healthcare
experience for doctors and
patients via chat, messaging
and voice. With on-demand and in-the-moment
secure access, patients can answer questions
and get status updates as well as receive
HIPAA-compliant data, records and results.
By automating physician record-keeping,
healthcare organizations can enable caregivers
to spend more meaningful time with patients.
Learn more here (video.)
Voice assistants fill the
insurance information gap
Intelligent, interactive voice
assistants are filling the
information void for healthcare
consumers by quickly answering
common questions and responding to frequent
requests. They are empowering consumers
and caregivers by replacing the tedious search
process during enrollment and coverage
selection, and guiding where to go for treatment
— providing clarity in the moment. Given a
choice, healthcare consumers are showing they
prefer conversational, self-service solutions that
simplify engagement and keep them in control.
Learn more here (video.)
The challenge
A U.S.-based healthcare company wanted
to better utilize its organizational data and
apply intelligent analytics to optimize business
processes. The company provides revenue cycle
management solutions that engage patients and
assist physicians to improve hospital processes
and financial results.
Over time, the organization has generated
thousands of reports, aggregates and metrics
compiled in multiple formats and stored in
myriad locations with varied entitlements. It
sought an automated approach to discover
insights, search relevant reports and visually
represent trends so team leaders could take the
next-best action. The company also wanted a way
to field requests and present details in real time
for relevant metrics, measures and dimensions.
Our approach
We developed an intelligent system that
“converses” with users and provides not only
specific information but also in-the-moment
synopses from underlying analytics. Using
Microsoft’s Azure AI platform, we built a smart
business operational assistant that answers
business analytical queries in real time using
natural language processing.
With the system, stakeholders gain a better
understanding of business processes using
the most relevant metrics, generated by the
latest insights from on-premise or cloud-based
enterprise data, including information from CRM
software, precompiled reports and statements.
The AI-based system learns and understands
acronyms, and it provides natural-language
narratives of visual charts. The tool also supports
smart integration with multiple communication
channels in a variety of languages.

Technology
As technology companies seek to provide solutions
for digital transformation, customer intelligence and
operational insight, conversational AI is becoming a
critical enabling factor. The confluence of conversational
capabilities, data analytics, AI and machine learning
provides powerful experiences that fuel operational
efficiency and enhance customer engagement.

BACK TO INDEX Technology
RESULTS
With enhanced features such as
improved search by keywords and
a virtual assistant, the revamped
portal quickly became the one-stop
destination for the service needs of the
company’s more than 7,000 employees.
81% increase in
employee adoption rate.
Improved productivity
and time to market
through consistent
design features.
Increased self-service
tickets through an AI-
powered virtual assistant.
The challenge
A cloud company’s service portal lacked a
human-centric design, leading to an inconsistent
user interface (UI), fractured information
architecture and poor navigation features.
Although the company’s cloud-based service
portal was known for its robust, configurable
features and workflow, its customers wanted a
more consistent, innovative and intuitive user
experience across every scheduled six-month
product release. The company approached
us to reimagine the platform and roll out the
revamped portal to its employees globally.
Our approach
After auditing the company’s applications
and hosting design-thinking workshops, we
proposed an employee-centric approach to
designing enterprise service management
applications, supported by guiding principles
and a design theme suitable for all IT
applications.
We centralized the platform’s information,
making it contextual and easy to find, which
facilitated early adoption. We also introduced
global smart search, personalized dashboards
and AI-driven chatbots to the platform, as well
as a knowledgebase that provides additional
insights, such as “top-rated” and “most-viewed”
content.
In addition to developing scalable and responsive
designs for mobile and desktop use, we created
a living UI toolkit so designers and engineers
could reuse component design styles, ensuring a
consistent experience across applications.
A human-centric approach ensures adoption of
revamped service portal

Travel Hospitality
The travel and hospitality industries are leveraging
intelligent virtual assistants to deliver customers hyper-
personalized concierge experiences. Voice, message and
chat capabilities allow travelers to effortlessly find, book
and manage their travel and stay choices. Customer
support and brand protection teams augment the
contact center and social media teams with intelligent
solutions that reduce costs and increase customer
satisfaction.

BACK TO INDEX Travel Hospitality
RESULTS
Our conversational AI team delivered
a virtual agent that answers over 50 of
the most common customer inquiries
relating to its loyalty program. Learning
over time, the intelligent bot effectively
contains and leverages relevant
“conversations,” reducing the load on
contact center agents by responding to
high-frequency inquiries.
1,200 conversations
automated each week by
the software agent.
80% containment rate
by the virtual assistant.
90% chat program
accuracy.
The challenge
After witnessing a shift in how consumers
engaged with its contact center, a midsize
international airline decided to find new ways to
connect with customers who called the contact
center instead of using its frequently asked
questions page. The airline wanted to reduce
direct call expenses while also providing 24x7
support.
A particular pain point was the volume
of customer loyalty program inquiries.
Recognizing the potential for conversational
AI to simultaneously reduce call volumes and
improve customer satisfaction, the airline sought
our travel hospitality technology expertise to
develop a customer-facing intelligent assistant to
automate these inquiries.
Our approach
We began by evaluating many natural language
understanding platforms to determine the
appropriate technology stack. Based on the
client’s business objectives, we recommended
Google Dialogflow because of its ability to
escalate issues to an employee using the
LivePerson chat platform.
We mapped the conversation flows and provided
chatbot training, which grew in complexity
over time as the number of user cases grew. To
mitigate use-case conflict, the team leveraged
a series of best practices built from previous
engagements and performed frequent
regression testing to ensure the bot’s accuracy
rate. The intelligent assistant was then deployed
on the airline’s website, where it automatically
handles both straightforward and complex
customer conversations regarding the airline’s
loyalty program and escalates issues when
necessary.
Airline improves customer experience with loyalty
program chatbot

Across all industries, our conversational AI teams help clients build new ways to engage with
customers. Our developers have deep knowledge in these technologies and techniques,
with approaches to deploy projects quickly and successfully. Through repetition, we’ve built
expertise that separates our projects from those executed by others.
Conversational AI is improving the way businesses engage with their customers. We are
helping our clients operationalize and accelerate the adoption of these technologies so they
can exceed customer expectations through the use of voice interfaces, chat and messaging.
Virtual agents are now emotionally intelligent enough to sense frustration or concern, for
example, and alert agents when human assistance is required to resolve an issue.
For more information, please visit www.cognizant.com/conversational-ai.
Get the most from conversational AI
Learn more about the Cognizant difference

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About Cognizant Artificial
Intelligence Practice
As part of Cognizant Digital Business, Cognizant’s Artificial Intelligence Practice provides advanced data collection and management expertise, as well as
artificial intelligence and analytics capabilities that help clients create highly personalized digital experiences, products and services at every touchpoint of
the customer journey. Our AI solutions glean insights from data to inform decision-making, improve operations efficiencies and reduce costs. We apply
Evolutionary AI, Conversational AI and decision support solutions built on machine learning, deep learning and advanced analytics techniques to help our
clients optimize their business/IT strategy, identify new growth areas and outperform the competition. To learn more, visit us at cognizant.com/ai.
About Cognizant Digital Business
We help clients build digital businesses and innovate products that create new value – by using sensing, insights, software and experience to deliver on what
customers demand in the digital age. Through IoT, we connect the digital and physical worlds to make smart, efficient and safe products, operations and
enterprises. Leveraging data, analytics and AI, we drive intelligent decisions and anticipate where markets and customers are going next. Then we use those
insights, combining design and software to deliver the experiences that consumers expect of their brands. Learn more about how we’re engineering the
modern enterprise at cognizant.com/digitalbusiness.
About Cognizant
Cognizant (Nasdaq-100: CTSH) is one of the world’s leading professional services companies, transforming clients’ business, operating and technology
models for the digital era. Our unique industry-based, consultative approach helps clients envision, build and run more innovative and efficient businesses.
Headquartered in the U.S., Cognizant is ranked 193 on the Fortune 500 and is consistently listed among the most admired companies in the world. Learn
how Cognizant helps clients lead with digital at www.cognizant.com or follow us @Cognizant.
LEARN MORE
For more information and to
find out more about Cognizant
Conversational AI, visit
www.cognizant.com/conversational-ai.

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