Meet SuperTOBI - Vodafone’s new Generative AI virtual assistant now serving customers in multiple countries

Vodafone today announced that SuperTOBi, its new customer-focussed Generative AI (GenAI) driven virtual assistant, is being rolled out across Europe.

SuperTOBi, powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI, can understand and respond faster to complex customer enquiries better than traditional chatbots. It has been introduced in Italy and Portugal and will start serving customers in Germany and Turkey from this month. Other markets will follow later this year.

The online chat service is the next generation of Vodafone’s existing chatbot called TOBi, which is already supporting customers in 13 countries across Europe and Africa and understands 11 different languages. SuperTOBi is a key initiative in Vodafone’s wide-reaching transformation of the customer experience, all of which is underpinned by a reallocated investment of €140 million this financial year.

SuperTOBi can interpret entire sentences and phrases, overcoming the limitations of existing chatbot technologies which typically can answer only simple questions based on a few key words. It also engages in more natural conversation with customers for a more personalised experience, rather than one- or two-word answers, and it will automatically transfer a question it can’t answer to a person that can.

Customers of Vodafone Portugal are already benefitting from SuperTOBi when booking appointments. As a result, the first-time resolution rate has increased from 15% to 60% and Vodafone’s online net promoter scores (where respondents are asked to rate their experience) improved by 14 points to 64 points – anything above 50 points is considered a strong result. Other customer journeys such as billing are also being added.

SuperTOBi is complemented by an enhanced bot assistant used by Vodafone’s own customer care employees, called SuperAgent, as well as an improved search facility on Vodafone’s customer-facing websites called SuperSearch.

Based on Microsoft Azure OpenAI’s Agent Copilot solution, SuperAgent helps human agents to quickly search and locate answers to complex queries or multiple questions. In Ireland, SuperAgent is assisting agents by sending a summary of its online customer conversation to the agent, so customers don’t need to repeat themselves. It also only uses information from Vodafone’s companywide and private knowledge database, ensuring that the information is more reliable than public sources.