Artificial intelligence could soon save people money on their energy bills under a project launched by the parent company of price comparison website Go Compare.
AutoSave, part of GoCo Group, has already developed software to automatically switch customers to their cheapest provider.
According to GoCo, only 30% of customers who switch energy provider choose switch to the cheapest option. This provides the opportunity to understand the preferences of the remaining customers and ensure that GoCo’s AI can automatically recommend the best Tariff for them.
Meanwhile, MyVoucherCodes, another GoCo Group company, is developing AI to recommend vouchers best suited to customers who use its website.
Both examples of AI are run on Microsoft Azure Databricks, which provides GoCo GroupData Scientists a single platform to develop Machine Learning models across all of their brands. This platform helps the team search for insights to help improve the services they provide their customers.
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GoCo Group CTO Seb Chakraborty said: “The aim of the data science team is to build products that our customers find intrinsically useful. They’ll be doing that through machine learning and AI to solve customers’ real problems.
“We chose Microsoft because it has so many capabilities and features in the machine learning space. We can use those capabilities in the products and features that we offer our customers, and it particularly helps us save them more time and more money.”
According to Energy UK, nearly 2.5 million customers switched to a new energy supplier in the first half of the year.
Research by the UK government estimates that 14 million UK households could save more than £200 a year by switching to the cheapest energy deal on the market. Through its use of AI, GoCo is aiming to ensure people are always automatically on the cheapest bill for them.
Michael Wignall, Director of Azure Business at Microsoft UK, said “GoCo Group is using AI to bring value to customers, saving them time and money. This is a great example of how technology can be used to improve existing services and add value for customers. We’re looking forward to seeing where GoCo takes this technology in the future, and all the savings customers will see as a result.”
