Meet Pepe, Naturgy’s chatbot

He’s saved humans from answering 90,000 customer questions

Pepe, the AI-based chatbot of the multinational energy group Naturgy, has recently turned one year old. More productive than most at that age, he’s already answered more than 90,000 online inquires. He’s well versed in 358 topics including maintenance, billing, prices, reading meters and how to use company’s online services. According to Naturgy, he’s helped boost customer trust and satisfaction.

Pepe confirmed that chatbots work best when everyone involved is committed to creating something great. In this case, the collaboration between Naturgy, Sngular and Inbenta, the platform upon which Pepe was developed, showed how a joint effort is an ideal approach for these kinds of technological solutions.

Today, the chatbot is a shining jewel on Naturgy’s communications crown. Pepe answers an average of 400 questions per day, and the vast majority of the time he provides people with exactly what they want to know. In total, 92.51% of the user sessions were finalized without the need for human intervention. It hasn’t only been a huge time saver, the project also allows for continuous customer service. Any time, day or night, Pepe’s there to answer questions. Pepe has also helped Naturgy meet its digitization goals, drawing in more people to manage their accounts on an online customer portal. At the same time, Naturgy’s click-to-call service has reached a 40% conversion rate.

Demonstrating the importance of digital communications

Pepe’s roots date back to 2017. That’s when Sngular’s head of Artificial Intelligence, Jose Luis Calvo, met his counterparts at Naturgy’s innovation department during a conference on AI. From there, they created a chatbot for
Naturgy’s employees. Although this pilot project never left the testing phase, it helped prove the potential of chatbots.

In 2019, Nartugy decided to improve its customer service by using the innovative digital solution, so the company got in touch with Sngular. Pepe was the result of several months of hard work by a dozen Sngular team members working from the offices in Madrid and Seville and collaborating with the Naturgy team based Madrid and Barcelona, as well as Inbenta in the Catalan capital.

The first version of Pepe was the product of business trips and in-person meetings, but that way of working was put to an abrupt halt with the Covid-19 pandemic. Work became fully remote, but the chatbot’s features never stopped expanding and improving. The team was already used to connecting through video calls so the transition was smooth, and Pepe fit in perfectly with the new reality. Across the board, the project served to illustrate the importance and utility of digital communications.

Sngular’s Artificial Intelligence team continues to work on the project, adapting the texts to Naturgy’s needs, using new technological developments to refine design and useability and solving any issues that arise. The successful delivery of Pepe opened the door to new opportunities for collaboration, with Naturgy deepening its knowledge and trust in Sngular’s innovative ecosystem.

If you’re interested in developing a chatbot for your business, get in touch.

In this video, we’ll tell you more about how Pepe was created.