What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Accenture Conversational AI has been in the insurance industry, helping several companies mainly with their voice assistance and chatbots. With generative AI emerging, we have been using a lot of NLP and ensuring that we keep operations alive even though there is no human being manning it.
A specific example of how I use Accenture Conversational AI for voice assistance in my insurance projects is mainly for consultations, where someone might find that what they are looking for is not found during a normal online consultation. They have the option to choose a voice assistant, which will help them customize a package in terms of what they want to insure and what they want to leave out. It is mainly used for custom packages that are not freely available.
What is most valuable?
The best features Accenture Conversational AI offers include its integration with legacy systems, which is quite complex because a lot of things are set in stone and you need a lot of innovation and technical ability to integrate these systems. I think it is a great accelerator in the insurance industry because it makes everything a little bit faster, way more accessible to users, and for the people receiving the information, it is easier to categorize and see and separate the data easily. I can see where our customer base is heading towards, what they are liking more, and what they like to include in their packages.
The accessibility and speed of Accenture Conversational AI have impacted my day-to-day operations by allowing us to work at speed without compromising quality. We appreciate that we are able to give our clients peace of mind.
What needs improvement?
The only thing that I have seen with Accenture Conversational AI is that for long-term operations, it comes a little bit more expensive. However, I am very thankful that working with companies that have been in the industry for so long makes it easier to integrate with legacy systems and gives a little bit more extensive support than other conversational AI solutions that I have worked with.
Accenture Conversational AI can be improved as it often requires custom development for implementation, which brings us to higher implementation costs. The costing around implementation is a very big conversation that we have been trying to get over that hurdle. Though the return on investment has not been that bad, the initial implementation costs are a little bit higher than other conversational AI solutions.
In terms of needed improvements, working with the Accenture team for technical implementation has been brilliant, but they just need to help us with the costing when it comes to implementation. In terms of features, we are quite happy with what we have, and they do give a lot of global support depending on where we are and what type of implementation we are doing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Accenture Conversational AI for quite some time, about two to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In my experience, Accenture Conversational AI has been stable, with no downtime or issues. Clients are loving it, and any hiccups have usually occurred during implementation and testing.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Accenture Conversational AI is quite easy to scale up or down depending on my needs, particularly if I am on cloud or private cloud. It is straightforward to communicate with the support team about pricing, space, and capability when it comes to scaling.
How are customer service and support?
Regarding Accenture Conversational AI's capabilities, I think its governance and security are really good, as we have not had any issues security-wise. How it is governed is in line with all the GDPRs and the POPI acts, with no significant issues on that front.
The accuracy and reliability of output from Accenture Conversational AI have been very consistent. I think it is one of its greatest strengths, and we are able to get great data in terms of that. The NLP setup is easier than most, and it also has some agent assist capabilities, which are very helpful.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used other solutions before Accenture Conversational AI. Recently, we have been trying out Microsoft Copilot, which is cheaper, but most of the capabilities we are looking for are not there, making Accenture Conversational AI good in comparison.
We previously evaluated no other solutions before Accenture Conversational AI, as it was the only option we knew at that time, and we just went with it.
How was the initial setup?
Currently, I think Accenture Conversational AI is really great due to how we can customize the implementation, making it easy for us to align with different settings or scenarios. So far for me, it has been great, and we are going to start our third implementation soon, with each implementation having its unique nuances based on the company's wants, needs, and business goals.
What about the implementation team?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Accenture Conversational AI has been really great, as the team has been very helpful. However, I think the initial pricing is quite heavy. Hopefully, we can come to some agreement to reduce the original price as we get deeper into these different implementations. I have a good team of developers who understand what is needed and can meet deadlines, and Accenture's support team is also fantastic in teaching us how to handle things that might be new to us.
What was our ROI?
We have seen a return on investment from using Accenture Conversational AI, especially money-wise. In terms of agents needed, that has become less, and companies are pivoting toward employing people who are technically sound in the setup of Accenture Conversational AI instead of relying heavily on consultants. While I do not have the exact numbers, the waiting time and conversion rate sit currently between thirty and forty-five percent.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In terms of metrics on how much time has been saved or conversion rates improved since I started using Accenture Conversational AI, I think we have cut down those calls to about thirty percent, which is quite good. In terms of converting a client, those numbers have been up by about thirty to forty-five percent, paving a new way of doing business for the insurance companies that we are consulting for.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Accenture Conversational AI an eight out of ten because, while it helps a lot, it is not an out-of-the-box product where you can just learn and implement on your own. You still need a lot of help from the Accenture team, plus the implementation cost plays a role. My overall review rating for Accenture Conversational AI is eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?