The government body that manages vehicle licensing has revealed that hundreds of thousands of callers to its helplines now interact with an automated agent which can understand and address queries

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency has used artificial intelligence technology to reduce by half the average length of the calls made by 900,000 citizens each month to the organisation’s contact centres.

The agency has deployed an interactive voice response system based on natural language processing (IVR and NLP), recently released transparency documents reveal. The AI tool is used to field citizens’ calls to DVLA helplines addressing queries related to general licensing issues, medical considerations, vehicle management and personal registration, and problems with using digital services, including viewing licences online.

When callers ring the agency’s telephone support lines, the IVR , which is based on AI technology from Google, “asks a customer to ‘tell us’ what their enquiry is about using their voice, [and] the NLP engine uses this intent to route to pre-programmed options within the IVR”, according to an algorithmic transparency record newly published on GOV.UK.

The document adds that the options to which citizens may be directed include: “messages that will attempt to answer the customer’s enquiry; options to receive an SMS which contains a link to a DVLA service or knowledge article on GOV.UK; [and] routing customers to the appropriate advisor”.

The algorithmic record says that, “if a customer has their enquiry answered by a message in the IVR, then they may hang up the call without the need to speak to an advisor”.

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As a result of which, since implementation of the NLP system, the DVLA claims that the average time callers spend on the line has been cut in half: from about three minutes to 90 seconds.

The AI tool has also helped automated the transfer to the appropriate adviser of 20,000 calls each month, according to the transparency document.

“NLP IVR has also provided the business with more granular and accurate call descriptors enabling the business to make more informed decisions around training and coaching requirements and routing accuracy,” the record adds.

Before installing the AI-powered system, the DVLA used a touchtone platform which required callers to listen to various choices and then press a button to route their call accordingly.

“To allow us to understand the enquiry type, these menus often included four or five options and were three or four levels deep,” the algorithmic record states. “This created a clunky customer journey and did not achieve a high level of routing accuracy.”

The tool is based the Google AI Dialogflow software and has been deployed via the Storm contact centre system offered by Content Guru – the firm that provides the DVLA with the platform that underpins its helplines.