‘Robots’ trained to staff call centres

May 16 2008 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

HUMAN call centres could soon be a thing of the past thanks to a North technology firm. Artificial Intelligence company Artingence, based in Newcastle’s Centre for Life, is developing technology which will allow the centres to be staffed by computerised “robot” agents that sound and respond like real people.

The software agents will be trained and managed in the same way they currently are, but businesses will be able to focus on improving customer service rather than staffing issues.

Because of the cost effectiveness of the technology, companies will be able to bring their operations back to the UK rather than running them offshore, creating high-grade jobs locally.

The firm also hopes the technology will mean irate customers will no longer have to listen to the words “your call is important to us, you are being held in a queue”.

Company director Karl Dorner said the innovation would cost a fraction of what it costs to employ human staff, and could create new jobs in the North East.

He said: “Imagine a call centre staffed by agents who consistently perform at the highest level, never take a day off sick, cost a fraction of the usual price and don’t need holidays, heating, lighting or even the toilet.

“Unlike human agents, they provide consistently excellent customer service while staffing and management overheads are dramatically reduced.”

The Centre for Life’s chief executive Linda Conlon, said: “At the Centre for Life, it’s one of our objectives to support science-based businesses like Artingence and to help them become established. I am delighted to welcome them to our science village.”

Newcastle-born Mr Dorner, who set up Artingence last year, formerly worked for the European arm of Convergys – the largest call centre outsourcing operation in the world.

Last month, the company appointed two technical directors with over 20 years of experience in the call centre industry between them. Ian Blythe and Keith Suddick both worked in senior technical positions at Convergys in Newcastle.

Artingence’s artificially intelligent call centre will harness voice recognition and synthesised speech technology alongside database access tools.