Best Buy selects Google Cloud as its AI
innovation and strategic partner for several of its key customer
care initiatives
MINNEAPOLIS, April 9,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloud Next '24,
LAS VEGAS -- Best Buy, Google
Cloud, and Accenture today announced a new collaboration that will
involve deploying generative AI (gen AI) to greatly improve the
experience for Best Buy customers looking for support services.
By leveraging Google Cloud's generative AI technology, Best Buy
is creating new and more convenient ways for customers to get the
solutions they need. This work will provide customers a
self-service option, allowing them to find solutions more
independently and will also allow Best Buy customer service agents
to better serve customers by providing them with new tools that
make interactions more efficient and personalized.
It is anticipated that Best Buy's U.S. customers will be able to
connect with a gen AI-powered virtual assistant for self-service
support starting in late summer 2024. The assistant can help with
things like troubleshooting product issues, rescheduling or
combining order deliveries, or managing software, Geek Squad
subscriptions and My Best Buy Memberships. Customers will be able
to access all of these services while shopping on BestBuy.com,
using the Best Buy mobile app, or calling the customer service line
directly.
In the coming months, Best Buy will also launch new gen-AI
enabled capabilities for customer care agents to use while
interacting with a customer across various internal platforms.
These tools are designed to help reduce the mental workload for
agents, allowing them to better focus on personally connecting with
the Best Buy customer. During interactions between an agent and
customer, these tools will also assess, recap the conversation,
detect sentiment of the interaction, and provide agents with
real-time, relevant and human-focused recommendations. The data
from these calls will be used to ensure a positive resolution is
reached for the issue at hand and to reduce the likelihood that
similar issues will occur for Best Buy customers in the future.
In addition to implementing tools to assist customer care
agents, Best Buy will work with Google Cloud and Accenture to
develop an AI-driven assistant specifically for its front-line
employees serving customers nationwide. This assistant will aim to
provide a broad array of solutions to support employees in stores
with things like finding internal Best Buy company resources or
pulling up specific product guides to help better serve a Best Buy
customer.
"These new gen AI-powered capabilities further enhance our
commitment to deliver better, more personalized experiences to our
customers by unlocking the power of people," said Brian Tilzer, Chief Digital Analytics and
Technology Officer at Best Buy. "We are excited to leverage and
tailor these innovations with great partners like Google and
Accenture so we can continue to serve our customers in unique and
differentiated ways and make our employees' jobs easier."
"Retailers are increasingly tapping into gen AI to create more
seamless customer experiences and empower employees with new tools
to make their work more impactful," said Thomas Kurian, CEO, Google Cloud. "Our
collaboration with Best Buy will help customers better interact
with Best Buy's brand and services, and employees will also gain
more sophisticated tools to assist shoppers."
Julie Sweet, chair and CEO,
Accenture, said, "This collaboration further advances Accenture's
longstanding commitment to helping Best Buy achieve superior
shopper and employee experiences, optimize costs and create growth.
With a strong digital core and innovative generative AI solutions,
Best Buy can tap the power of cloud, data and AI to do more
efficiently what it does so well—take good care of its
customers—and reach new levels of performance across the
business."
Best Buy will tap into a range of Google Cloud products
including their Gemini models and Vertex AI, to create and launch
these AI capabilities, as well as Contact Center AI to develop
state-of-the-art conversational agents. The selection of Google
Cloud's generative AI technologies builds on how Best Buy uses AI
across a number of customer care fronts.
Best Buy and Google have a long-standing relationship with
existing collaborations across other Google products and services,
including Advertising, Hardware, Google Chrome, and more. Powering
some of Best Buy's upcoming gen AI deployments will be a
coordinated effort across Accenture, Google Cloud Consulting, and
Best Buy's internal teams to build, test and scale new capabilities
for Best Buy.
About Best Buy Co., Inc.
Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) is the
world's largest specialty consumer electronics retailer. Our
purpose is to enrich lives through technology, which we do by
providing our customers a unique mix of advice, products and
services in our stores, online, and in homes. Our expert associates
advise customers on our curated assortment of the latest,
name-brand technology, while our highly trained services teams help
with designs, consultations, delivery, installation, tech support
and repair. We are a leader in environmental, social and governance
issues, including through the Best Buy Foundation's nationwide Best
Buy Teen Tech Center® network and the significant role we play in
the circular economy through repair, trade-in and recycling
programs. We generated more than $43
billion of revenue in fiscal 2024, operate more than 1,000
retail stores in North America,
and have more than 85,000 employees. For more information, visit
corporate.bestbuy.com and investors.bestbuy.com.
About Google Cloud
Google Cloud is the new way to the
cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and
collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud
offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its
own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI
models and development platform, as well as AI-powered
applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more
than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their
trusted technology partner.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global
professional services company that helps the world's leading
businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital
core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and
enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and
scale. We are a talent- and innovation-led company with
approximately 742,000 people serving clients in more than 120
countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are
one of the world's leaders in helping drive that change, with
strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in
technology and leadership in cloud, data and AI with unmatched
industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery
capability. We are uniquely able to deliver tangible outcomes
because of our broad range of services, solutions and assets across
Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and
Song. These capabilities, together with our culture of shared
success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help
our clients reinvent and build trusted, lasting relationships. We
measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients,
each other, our shareholders, partners and communities. Visit us at
www.accenture.com.
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SOURCE Google Cloud