Using GenAI to enhance business operations at OutSystems

The quest for innovative strategies to captivate customers, streamline operations, and gain a competitive edge is ongoing, and it has resulted in all kinds of disruptive technologies–the web, low-code, mobile apps, and the cloud. Yet, I have never seen a technology that is having as dramatic a business impact as generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). It is offering a multitude of previously untapped avenues for businesses.

At OutSystems, we have been using different models to test new ideas. Their versatility makes them ideal for different scenarios, from customer support to HR, which delivers a significant return on investment. The transition from a question-and-answer format to a conversation can also significantly boost user experience.

But actions speak louder than words. In this blog post, I explore how OutSystems is using AI to transform customer experience, sales, developer relations, and employee experience.

AI-Powered Support Assistant: Using GenAI to enhance OutSystems customer support

How is OutSystems using GenAI to enhance customer support? With the new AI-Powered Support Assistant that we added to the OutSystems Support Portal. Now, OutSystems customers can ask a question anywhere in the portal and get an answer from the assistant–any time–in their own language.

Applying generative AI to customer support allowed us to automate customer query responses, saving precious human resources. The secret to its effectiveness is to ground the AI model in pertinent business materials such as public and internal documentation, along with support tickets. This, along with prompt engineering, contributes to the production of accurate and useful responses to customer inquiries. The impact has been considerable, with customers witnessing a 38% success rate in self-service resolution.

After launching this new GenAI-based customer support application and seeing such dramatic results, our goal is now seven times higher. GenAI was able to significantly increase the number of support issues that did not require the assistance of a representative, resolving support cases at an unprecedented rate.

In addition, customers do not have to search through all the documentation since the AI-Powered Support Assistant leverages the entire OutSystems knowledge base to provide the best answer to their question.

Optimizing sales processes at OutSystems with GenAI

In the sales arena, OutSystems is using GenAI to analyze and condense extensive customer call transcripts, accelerating the summarization process and improving the quality of Salesforce data. Because a GenAI model is anchored in the call dialogue, succinct recaps can pinpoint critical aspects like competitors, gaps, and next best actions. An LLM validates the transcripts and prompts internally, providing insights sales can use to refine and strategize. This method has significantly enhanced the content derived from these calls, enabling the refinement of Salesforce data–and we have the receipts.

• 70% to 90% of opportunities now include BANT (budget, authority, need, and timeline) data and competitors.
• Within the first week of rollout, 10 new opportunities were created.
• Data can immediately sync with Salesforce.

And for sales, it’s just the beginning. Our ambition is to automate all data gathering tasks on behalf of our sales reps and assist them throughout the sales cycle with next best action recommendations, preparing for meetings, or answering any query they might have at any stage of the deal.

Transforming OutSystems developer relations with GenAI

Because they can generate human-like text, GPTs have become indispensable tools in developer relations. For instance, the OutSystems Community team is using GenAI to translate its developer forum content.

This effort started with the determination to translate the forums from English to Japanese, and it has expanded the number of Japanese developers using the community, with a 65% surge in Japanese developers on the site within a few months. The Community team then expanded to other languages, and as a result, the forums are now also translated into French, Korean, and Portuguese. (Get all the details of this project in OutSystems + GenAI: Our journey to community translation.)

Next on the GenAI agenda at OutSystems: Employee experience and marketing

AI models are also carving a niche in other domains. Take employee experience, for instance. By designing a context-aware conversational chat, businesses can refine their internal processes and elevate employee experience. Currently, OutSystems is working on a conversational chat agent that can answer employee questions. A Google Chrome extension addresses common HR inquiries, such as vacation booking or report usage.

And OutSystems is in the process of building solutions and applications for marketing use cases that can benefit from translations and other GenAI content and process automation.

Lessons learned from using GenAI across OutSystems

GenAI presents OutSystems with an exciting opportunity for boosting operations and customer engagement. Enabling direct interaction with GenAI models and capabilities is already cultivating trust and innovation. As we look ahead to employing GenAI models at their full capacity, we know that it's critical to recognize patterns and understand context.

Also crucial to successful GenAI implementation is the data that feeds the “brain” and its quality. We learned that for a GenAI application to be effective, the data that it relies on must be specifically relevant to the task that the system aims to complete or address. Bad data leads to bad performance of the solution, especially for commercially available large language models. For example, when building a GenAI application for an internal HR function, that application should rely on accurate and specific HR information—the most current HR policies, for example. Data structure is of high importance as data needs to be prepared to be consumed by a machine.

We’ve also learned that the intricate nature of generative AI can be quite daunting. It's easy to be overwhelmed by the complexity and lose sight of the objective. To navigate this, we believe in starting on a small scale, establishing patterns, and rapidly scaling up. This strategy enables businesses to capitalize on the existing code and develop new business use cases.

The potential of generative AI at OutSystems is undeniable

Wrapping up, the successful integration of GenAI into areas such as customer support, sales, and community engagement signals its transformative power. As our exploration and harnessing of generative AI progresses, employees, partners, and customers alike can anticipate a surge of innovative applications with substantial impact.

To learn more about how OutSystems can help you integrate GenAI into your business operations, visit our GenAI web page.