Public Utility Builds Foundation for AI-Powered Customer Service

Client Overview

Public utility serving a broad and diverse customer base
Provides essential services with ongoing customer billing and payment needs
Multiple business and IT teams involved in customer service and payment operations
Relied on legacy payment technology and disconnected processes
Sought to modernize its technology foundation and prepare for greater use of automation and AI

Legacy payment technology created friction for customers and employees
Existing systems required manual intervention when processes broke down
Disconnected systems limited access to consistent, usable data
Payment issues contributed to higher customer support demand and operational costs
Legacy technology made it difficult to introduce modern digital capabilities
Limited integration restricted reporting, analytics, and opportunities for intelligent automation
The organization needed to address immediate payment challenges while building a foundation for future AI initiatives
Discovery found that technology limitations had led to reactive and manual business processes; the modernization strategy identified better integration, centralized data, near-real-time reporting, and AI as opportunities to create a more agile operation

Conducted discovery sessions across customer service, finance, communications, and IT teams
Assessed existing workflows, systems, integrations, and customer interactions
Identified manual processes that could benefit from modernization and automation
Evaluated new payment technology based on business and technical requirements
Selected a modern payment processing solution with stronger integration capabilities
Developed a roadmap connecting payment modernization with future automation and AI initiatives
Established plans for better data availability across core business systems
Identified opportunities for AI to assist customers and support employees
Prioritized technology investments that could serve as a foundation for continued modernization

Mapped customer journeys, workflows, and payment processes to identify opportunities for improvement
Planned mobile browser payment capabilities and expanded digital self-service
Designed integration between payment processing and the organization's CRM
Incorporated business intelligence tools to strengthen analytics and reporting
Planned centralized data access to improve visibility across business functions
Established integration requirements to get the right data to the right systems at the right time
Created a phased technology roadmap to support continued modernization
Identified future AI use cases for helping customers find answers more quickly
Identified opportunities to use AI to reduce employee training time, knowledge burden, and cognitive load during customer interactions
Created the technical groundwork needed to support additional automation and AI initiatives

Established a stronger technology and data foundation for AI adoption
Reduced reliance on disconnected legacy technology and manual processes
Created a path toward greater automation across customer service operations
Improved system integration and access to business data
Expanded analytics and reporting capabilities to support better decision-making
Created opportunities to reduce support demand through digital self-service
Positioned employees to spend more time on interactions requiring human judgment
Established a roadmap for using AI to assist customers and employees
Connected near-term technology modernization with longer-term AI goals
Created a more flexible foundation for future digital and automation initiatives