Business
Key Facts
—The change. Vivo is replacing its old press-a-number phone menu with an artificial-intelligence voice concierge.
—The setup. The concierge routes callers to three AI agents for service, billing and technical support.
—The target. The company wants these agents to resolve about 60% of calls in coming quarters.
—The ambition. Longer term, Vivo aims for 70% of call-center contacts to be handled with no human at all.
—The owner. Vivo is the Brazilian arm of Spain’s Telefónica and the country’s largest telecom by revenue.
—Why it matters. It is both a cost play for the group and a daily-life change for millions of customers.
The Vivo AI concierge is set to retire one of the most disliked features of Brazilian phone support, the old press-a-number menu. In its place comes a system that talks back.
Vivo is the Brazilian arm of Spain’s Telefónica group and the country’s largest telecom by revenue. Its chief executive, Christian Gebara, laid out the plan on a recent earnings call with analysts.
The idea is to replace the traditional automated menu, known in the industry as an IVR, with a voice concierge powered by artificial intelligence. Callers speak naturally instead of pressing keys.
From there, the concierge hands the caller to one of three specialised AI agents. One focuses on general service, one on billing and plans, and one on technical support.
How the Vivo AI concierge is meant to work
The goal is resolution without a human. Gebara told analysts the company is aiming for the new agents to settle about sixty percent of calls over the coming quarters.
That is a stepping stone to a larger target. In separate comments, the chief executive has said he wants roughly seventy percent of all call-center contacts handled entirely by digital agents, with no human involved.
The technology builds on years of groundwork. Vivo already runs a long-standing virtual assistant called Aura and has rolled out generative-AI tools that act as a copilot for its human agents.
Aura has been part of Vivo’s service since 2018, first answering questions by voice and text in the app. The new concierge extends that logic to the phone line, the channel customers still reach for when something goes wrong.
Those earlier tools have shown measurable gains. The company has reported shorter average handling times and higher rates of problems solved on the first call since deploying them.
The scale of the operation is large. Vivo’s call centres field contacts from a customer base of well over one hundred million lines and connections across mobile and fixed services.
The copilot tools already reach deep into the workforce. Vivo has put generative-AI assistance in front of thousands of agents, drawing on dozens of internal systems to surface answers in seconds.
Why the Vivo AI concierge matters beyond the call
For the parent group, this is squarely a cost story. Telefónica has set out a plan to cut operating costs by up to a quarter by 2027 and to generate large annual savings by 2030.
Digitising customer service is a named pillar of that plan. Fewer human-handled calls mean lower labour costs in one of the group’s most people-heavy operations.
There is a customer-experience bet layered on top. Gebara argues that AI can identify who is calling and tailor the response, making service faster and, in his words, paradoxically more human.
The company also sees the shift as a springboard into new revenue. Gebara has flagged opportunities to sell AI and cloud services to business clients, building on the same technology base.
For a foreign resident, the practical stakes are real. Anyone who has navigated a Brazilian carrier’s phone tree knows the frustration, and a working voice system could make sorting out a bill far less painful.
The test will be whether the AI actually resolves problems rather than looping callers. Poorly built automated systems can frustrate as much as the old menus, so execution will decide if customers notice a real improvement.
What is the Vivo AI concierge replacing?
It replaces the traditional automated phone menu, where callers press numbers to reach a department. The new system lets people describe their problem in plain speech and routes them to a specialised AI agent instead.
Will human agents still be available at Vivo?
Yes, for now. The aim is for AI to resolve a majority of calls, but complex or unresolved cases are still expected to pass to human agents, who increasingly work alongside AI copilot tools.
Why is Vivo doing this now?
The move fits a wider Telefónica drive to cut costs and digitise customer service across its markets. Handling more calls automatically lowers expenses while the company bets that the experience can also improve.
More: Brazil news in English, every day from The Rio Times.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Vivo AI concierge replacing?
It replaces the old press-a-number phone menu, known as an IVR. Callers now speak naturally to describe their problem and are routed to a specialised AI agent.
Will human agents still be available at Vivo?
Yes, human agents are still expected to handle complex or unresolved cases. They also increasingly work alongside AI copilot tools.
Why is Vivo introducing this AI voice concierge now?
It is part of a wider Telefónica plan to cut operating costs and digitise customer service. The company aims to lower expenses by handling more calls automatically.
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