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June 21, 2023

Spanish telco builds digital assistant based on natural language bot, engages customers on new level

To change how it engages with customers, the multinational telco Telefonica used Microsoft Azure Bot Service and Cognitive Services to build and support Aura, an intelligent conversational agent for multiple services. With Aura, Telefonica customers can manage their products and services with the company, get real-time support, or just change the TV channel, all through natural voice interaction and personalized user experience. Telefonica used Microsoft AI technology to meet its deadlines, reduce development cost and effort, move customer loyalty to a new level, and generate new business opportunities.

Telefonica Group

“We used Microsoft Azure Bot Service and Cognitive Services to help cope with the complexity of launching Aura in six countries on four separate channels—and do it all seamlessly.”

Chema Alonso, Chief Data Officer, Telefonica

A new relationship with technology

For many decades, we’ve all been learning how to interface with continually advancing technology. Today, the Madrid, Spain–based telecommunications giant Telefonica connects 346 million customers in 17 countries. And Telefonica thinks it’s time for technology to learn how to interface with us.

The company wants to combine imagination and innovation with fast delivery and clear, quick support to create easy, natural interactions between customers and highly personalized services. It wants to be part of its customers’ digital lives. That’s why Telefonica used Microsoft Azure and other advanced services to build and support Aura, an intelligent conversational virtual agent for customer care and other services.

“We want to deliver more than new technology,” says Irene Gomez, Aura Global Director at Telefonica. “We strive to surprise people by transforming data into things that make their lives easier. We built Aura to create an entirely new relationship with our customers.”

An advanced, end-to-end experience

After evaluating available cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), and cognitive technologies, Telefonica chose Azure Bot Service and Microsoft Cognitive Services to help it quickly deliver a natural language service solution in six countries across Europe and Latin America. “Using Bot Service and Cognitive Services, such as Language Understanding and the Azure QnA Maker API, made it easy for our developers to put an advanced, conversational experience in the hands of our customers very fast,” says Antonio Guzman, Head of Innovation and Discovery for 4th Platform and Aura at Telefonica.

Depending on their location, customers naturally interact with Aura through multiple channels: a home device, mobile app, a social channel such as Facebook Messenger, or even another digital assistant like Cortana. Aura runs in Bot Service, deployed in Azure on Linux virtual machines in Docker container nodes, to help provide application portability across systems—in the cloud or on-premises. Aura uses Cognitive Services components such as Language Understanding (LUIS) to process natural language commands and responses and the QnA Maker API to generate smart FAQ services.

Simple, natural interactions

Specific Aura services vary by country, but most Telefonica customers can use Aura to manage their accounts, get real-time support, check data usage, or review billing information, all through natural voice interaction—in several languages. Customers in Spain, for instance, can ask Aura to recommend a movie, find a specific TV program, or tell them when it will air next.

“We use Bot Service and Cognitive Services to help people interact simply and naturally with technology,” says Gomez. “With Aura, our customers can take control of their personal environment and engage with an intelligent, personalized expression of our brand promise.”

Deadlines met, complexities overcome

During development, Telefonica used Bot Service to generate and validate Aura prototypes quickly. That helped the Aura team solve problems, meet a series of demanding deadlines, and seize opportunities to reduce development cost and effort.

“We used Microsoft Azure Bot Service and Cognitive Services to help cope with the complexity of launching Aura in six countries on four separate channels—and do it all seamlessly,” says Chema Alonso, Chief Data Officer at Telefonica.

More human interactions, new opportunities

As Aura integrates into the lives of Telefonica customers and earns their trust, it will help move the company/customer relationship to a new level. People will perceive Telefonica services in a new way, and customer confidence will increase. That will generate new business opportunities.

“We want our customers to love us,” says Gomez. “And by using Microsoft and Azure AI technology to make engagement with our services more human, we will certainly increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.”

Find out more about Telefonica on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

“Using Bot Service and Cognitive Services, such as Language Understanding and the Azure QnA Maker API, made it easy for our developers to put an advanced, conversational experience in the hands of our customers very fast.”

Antonio Guzman, Head of Innovation and Discovery for 4th Platform and Aura, Telefonica

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