How an 80-million-customer energy giant replaced voice with AI-powered digital service

Overview

This customer, one of the world's largest energy companies, serves approximately 80 million digitally connected customers globally. Across key European markets, the company set out to modernize customer operations by moving more customer interactions to fast, scalable digital channels.

Kore.ai partnered with the company to deploy AI-powered customer support across web and mobile channels in the UK, Germany, and Turkey. The solution brought together conversational AI, AI-powered knowledge search, live agent assistance, and multilingual support to help the company reduce reliance on voice and establish a digital-first service model.

The Challenge

The company's customer operations in key European markets were heavily dependent on voice support. These channels were expensive to run, difficult to scale, and increasingly out of step with customer expectations for fast, digital-first resolution.

To modernize the service experience, the company needed a conversational AI platform that could support multiple countries, languages, and customer journeys while integrating with its existing technology stack, including Zendesk and its own API Gateway.

Key challenges included:

• Reducing reliance on voice support
• Supporting customers across English, German, and Turkish
• Delivering consistent service across the UK, Germany, and Turkey
• Integrating with Zendesk and the company's API Gateway
• Automating common inquiries, including site location and loyalty card requests
• Escalating sensitive issues such as complaints, health and safety, and data privacy

Without a unified conversational AI layer, the company lacked the infrastructure to deliver consistent, intelligent self-service at scale.

The Solution

Kore.ai deployed an AI-powered customer service solution to help the company unify digital engagement across three markets.

The implementation centered on the Kore.ai Platform, supported by Search AI for AI-powered knowledge retrieval and Agent AI embedded directly within Zendesk. Hosted on AWS in the Frankfurt region, the solution integrated with Zendesk and the company's API Gateway to support customer inquiries, live agent assistance, and real-time reporting.

Key capabilities included:

• AI-powered chat across web and mobile channels
• Search AI for AI-enabled knowledge retrieval
• Agent AI integration within Zendesk
• Multilingual support across English, German, and Turkish
• Site location and loyalty card inquiry automation through the company's API Gateway
• Intelligent handoff for complaints, health and safety, and data privacy scenarios
• Real-time conversation analytics and reporting

Together, these capabilities enabled the company to make digital chat the primary customer channel across the UK, Germany, and Turkey.‍

Business Impact

With Kore.ai, this global energy leader transformed customer engagement across three markets by migrating support from voice-led service to AI-powered digital channels.

• 350,000+ annual sessions handled across the UK, Germany, and Turkey
• 60% automation rate, with the majority of customer interactions resolved through AI-powered self-service
• Voice support decommissioned across three markets, with customer traffic migrated to digital channels
• Scalable foundation for expansion into additional markets and use cases‍

‍Kore.ai Advantage

Kore.ai enabled this customer to move beyond incremental automation and build a scalable AI for Service foundation across markets, languages, channels, and systems.

Rather than adding chat as a standalone channel, Kore.ai helped the company create a unified digital service model that combines intelligent self-service, GenAI-powered knowledge retrieval, live agent assistance, and seamless escalation into one operating layer.

This flexibility allowed the company to support customers across three distinct markets while maintaining consistency across digital and agent-assisted experiences. Together, the approach establishes a repeatable foundation for expanding AI-led customer operations into additional markets and use cases.