Octopus Energy confirms 'overwhelmingly positive' change for customers

Octopus Energy's new AI customer service assistant, Arlo, achieved a 76% customer satisfaction score during a three-month trial, beating human advisors' 72%. Arlo handled 4% of the company's UK customer emails, answering routine queries to free up human agents for complex issues.

Octopus Energy confirms 'overwhelmingly positive' change for customers Built in partnership by Octopus’ tech team and Kraken Octopus Energy’s new AI customer service assistant, Arlo, has received a stamp of approval from customers https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/cost-of-living/octopus-energy-warns-customers-until-34222954 . Built in partnership by Octopus’ tech team and Kraken, Arlo helps answer straightforward customer emails, including questions about tariff renewals, payment dates and account details. During the three-month trial, Arlo handled around 8,000 emails a week – 4% of all customer emails received by the energy supplier in the UK. And customers liked the new support https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/cost-of-living/octopus-energy-warns-customers-until-34222954 . Arlo achieved a 76% customer satisfaction score, beating comparable responses from human advisors, which scored 72%. READ MORE DWP confirms three groups of PIP and DLA claimants excluded from law change Arlo only deals with routine enquiries and works within strict guardrails. It never handles vulnerable customers, sensitive cases or complex complaints, which always go straight to experienced members of the customer service team. By taking care of simple enquiries, Arlo gives Octopus’ energy specialists more time to focus on what matters most: helping customers through more complex situations, solving difficult problems and providing expert human support when it is needed most. Early feedback from customers has been overwhelmingly positive. Kelly, a customer from Wales, said: “I was very impressed with the response I received, especially as it was a bot who responded It was very accurate information.” Brenda, a customer from Cheshire, said: “My query was answered very quickly and told me exactly what I needed to know.” Ashley Firth, Deputy CTO at Octopus Energy, said: "Too many chatbots have been built to keep customers away from people. We wanted to build one that does the opposite. Arlo deals with the simple questions quickly and effectively which enables our energy specialists to focus on the conversations where their empathy and experience make the biggest difference. “The real opportunity with AI isn’t replacing people, it’s removing the repetitive things that get in the way of them doing their best work. We’ve spent years building AI that supports our teams, and Arlo is another step in that journey. "Seeing customers already rate its responses so highly gives us confidence we’re building technology that genuinely helps.”