Artificial Intelligence in Action

Embedding RPA and AI in Operations

Harsha Kumar Pari Bajpay

President Senior Vice President of Digital Platform Development
Prodapt CenturyLink

1
Prodapt - World’s leading robotics implementation partner for CSPs/DSPs

2
 The New CenturyLink

The new CenturyLink, purpose-built to serve the connection needs of the networked world. CenturyLink understands the power of all that is digital.
Life is powered by connections and business is connections. Our extensive network reach, significant local presence, and innovative technology
solutions combined with an experienced team of employees and relentless focus on the customer experience create a powerful choice for enterprise,
government, and wholesale customers globally, and consumers nationally.

The new CenturyLink is equipped to serve customers with reliable, flexible and secure connections — where, when and how they need them.

Approx.
Route Miles of Fiber Employees
450,000 Globally 52,500 Globally

Approx.
360,000 International
Transport Miles
More Than 60+ Countries
and counting
International Transport Route Miles are a combination of
leased and owned fiber and optical transport connectivity.

Proforma (Estimated trailing

100,000+ On-Net buildings
Annual
Revenue
$24B twelve months, ending
December 31, 2017)*

*Excluding revenue related to the colocation business sale and including estimated intercompany eliminations and purchase accounting adjustments. Approximately 75% of core revenue
will come from business customers and nearly two-thirds of core revenue will come from strategic services.

© 2018 CenturyLink. All Rights Reserved.

3
What is Robotic Process Automation?
Automation technology that significantly reduces manual effort associated with swivel-chairing across systems

are software
Automated data entry

enable the Multi-system integration

automation of
Business Benefits

OPEX/Cost Optimization
repetitive rule-based
processes Repetitive tasks

Robots
Improved Accuracy
(Right First Time)
mimic interactions Process reconciliation
Improved Productivity
of users with
(24*7 Operations)
multiple systems Data validation/quality

work across Processing business rules

functions

Service Fulfillment Service Assurance Network Management Billing

4
Three main levels of maturity…

Basic Robotic Process

Automation (RPA) Cognitive RPA Intelligent RPA

Structured Data and Rules Semi-structured Data + NLP AI/ML Decision Making
Automation of repetitive
activities without
(OCR+ML, NLP, Machine learning &
changing the map of Virtual Assistants, deep learning-based
existing systems Chatbots) + RPA self-learning bots

Routine, repetitive Tasks Complex, cognitive

Follow instructions Actions Draw conclusions

Broad, any suitable process Applications Narrow, insightful output

Maturing Market Emerging

Lower Cost Higher

Weeks Timeframe Months

Maturity Model in Automation

LOW HIGH

5
Basic RPA (Structured Data and Rules)
Based on Prodapt’s customer engagements, typical savings in the service fulfillment area (such as order handling) have been in the ~60% range

Basic RPA Cognitive RPA Intelligent RPA

Various
Systems/Apps

Address
Customer Validation

Orders are automatically Robots automatically Robots validate the product Orders are keyed in
collated from different validate the addresses for codes and associated charges automatically by the robots
source systems serviceability – Nothing missed! into OMS with no errors

100% orders processed through RPA - Faster time

to market and first time rights Customer
No backlogs whatsoever - No more wait time
Satisfaction
Zero errors induced by robots - Provisioned as ordered!

6
Cognitive RPA is applicable across the customer engagement lifecycle

Basic RPA Cognitive RPA Intelligent RPA

Ex-1: Upgrades/downgrades of services Ex-3: Provisioning status verification and port status/availability
Ex-2: Customer complaints registration and fault diagnosis Ex-4: Employee reimbursements/payroll/letter requests

Web – Static/FAQ Web – Dynamic/Interactive FB Messenger WhatsApp Voice …….

Instant
Payment Electronic
Invoice Support
Support ID&V
Provisioning/Porting/
Fulfillment Engage
Personalized
Offers,
Pre-eligibility Pay Support and
Check User Community Upsell News
Onboard Interaction and
Use Cross Sell
Service
Select Guidance
Service Service Change
Presales Management
Support
Invoice
Support
Marketing Join Personalized
Customer Support

7
NLP powered BOT identifies a customer request, understands the emotions, offers right
solutions & also triggers backend processes through RPA for quick implementation

Basic RPA Cognitive RPA Intelligent RPA

This is ridiculous – I had asked the customer
care rep to put a notification if I am about to
exceed 20GB; why isn’t this happening? Bot automatically senses the tone of the customer and associates it
with displeasure – uses an apologetic tone to pacify the customer
I apologize Mr. Kumar – Let me look into it
Bot has the ability to understand the context that the customer is
Thanks for your patience – I noticed that referring to a past conversation and had asked for a specific update
you had this conversation on 4/26 but we to be done
did not update your account in time for this
change to be effective
Bot again accesses the required systems at the backend to provide
accurate information to the user with minimal wait time
I cannot pay for anything more than 20 GB
data!! Period!!
Bot proposes a corrective measure based on the intelligence as to
which step will solve the issue faced by the customer - also
I am sorry for this inconvenience – I can
create an adjustment to your account to understands the customer’s queries about payment
cancel additional charges.

Bot has the ability to implement corrective actions as well by

Shall I go ahead and do that? triggering RPA bots in the backend to make the necessary changes

The bot uses episodic memory to understand past actions and also the EQ ontology to understand human emotions while responding

8
Intelligent Robotic Process Automation
Enable BOTs to make decisions similar to those made by human experts

Basic RPA Cognitive RPA Intelligent RPA

9
CenturyLink Digital Transformation Vision

01 Customer Experience Shift to left – DevOps 06

Shift towards digital media with “real- Reduce risk, cycle time and improve
Customer Shift to speed to market with DevOps-based
time” transactions and consolidate portals Experience 01 left -
to an integrated omnichannel experience. software development.
DevOps
Product and services available through
online store of the future.
Customer
Care of 06 05 Personalized Experience 05
02 Customer Care the Personalized experience and targeted
Cognitive enabled agents. Exception- future bundles and solutions through
based handling with smaller, higher social/mobile channels by leveraging
skilled centers. 03 Personalized customer segmentation analysis.
02 Experience
03 Digital Business Model Digital Big Data and Analytics-driven 04
04
Business
Market place of digital products with Big Data & Leverage big data analytics, deep learning,
Model
real-time or near real-time fulfillment & Analytics Driven and AI/ML to drive experience, improve
simplified experience for traditional products. efficiency, and increase revenue.

Self-service Omnichannel Social Integration Automation

Digital
Platform API Strategy Data Analytics Cognitive/AI

10
 RPA Approach: Centralized & Federated
Stakeholders from
Telecom operator
BOT Development Factory Model Benefits
Head of RPA CoE
Centralized or De-centralized CoEs

• Begin with centralized

Chair of the
governance board model and move into
from customer end
Business Unit Head
federated model for scale
IT-Head
Business 1 Business 2 Joint RPA
Responsible for run Responsible for
Team
& maintenance of program • Standardize governance
IT/Infrastructure RPA Core Team management
and ROI measurements

• Identify and share best

practices to optimize
Business 1 Business 2 Business 3 Delivery/Program Head Technical Architects investment
Joint RPA Team This core team will
build additional team
(developers, testers, controllers,
• Leverage RPA as legacy
etc.) based on RPA project’s
Process Consultants systems wrappers for
roadmap and requirements
systems modernization
effort
Demand Management RPA Benefits Continuous Delivery Steering +
+ Generation Realization Improvement Training/Skill Building

RPA provides quick operational benefits allowing for long term strategic platform work

11
 Bringing it all together to provide better service at lower costs…

Omni Actions for

Benefits
Channel issue resolution

Applications
automation)
(back-office
Technician • Reduce order and care call

Legacy
Chatbots

RPA
IVR volume

(back-office automation)
API Layer
Chat
• Provide seamless multi-
channel experience

NLP
SMS
Customer
Self Help • Eliminate tech calls to back
office and improve MTTR
IoT (Alexa) Microservices
Cognitive/ML
Social Media • Storage of customer
Employee Auto Resolution interactions information
for future analytics

Natural language processing (NLP) engine provides context, intent and sentiment identification to
carry forward meaningful conversation with customer, technician or employee
12
How you can get started?
Start with a process study to determine automation potential and execute a PoT (Proof of Technology)

Sample Chart
High
Step 1: Business Case/ROI Report
Billing
Assignment Directory
Automation potential review factors

Process Transaction Throughput/ Listing

Automation Potential
standardization time volume Trouble Ticket
Closure
New Employee
Service
Onboarding
Input and Provisioning
Technical Number of
feasibility distinct screens output format

Sales
Commission Toll-free
Security - thin Assignment
Number of Environment -
exceptions
client, special reusability, test Low
access Effort High
data etc.
Long-term Require Process
Immediate
Action Change Size

13
 Harsha Kumar
President

harsha.k@prodapt.com

+1-508-330-0147

Thank You
Pari Bajpay,
Senior Vice President of Digital Platform
Development

pari.bajpay@centurylink.com

14