Openreach deploys NiCE Cognigy AI agents across 15 million UK broadband customer journeys

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Openreach deploys NiCE Cognigy AI agents across 15 million UK broadband customer journeys

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Openreach, the BT Group unit that operates the United Kingdom's largest wholesale broadband network, deployed proactive AI agents from NiCE Cognigy to redesign customer engagement across roughly 15 million customer journeys, and reported a one-third reduction in both missed appointments and inbound contact volumes, alongside tens of millions in financial benefits for Openreach and its ISP customers. The deployment sits inside one of the largest digital-infrastructure programmes in the UK, as Openreach extends full-fibre connectivity to millions of premises. The traditional model was reactive: customers initiated contact when something went wrong with their service upgrade, missed appointments were common, and the same questions cycled back through the contact centre. The new model uses NiCE Cognigy agentic AI to anticipate needs and start real-time conversations by SMS, email and voice, providing service updates, suggesting options, answering questions, and automating actions on the customer's behalf. The architecture is built around live performance signals. As the system detects signals such as a likely appointment conflict or a stalled order, the agent reaches out proactively rather than waiting for the customer to call. That shift from inbound-driven service to outbound-orchestrated engagement is what produces the one-third reduction in missed appointments and inbound contact, and lets service teams focus on the cases that genuinely need human judgement. Chris Herbert, Openreach's director of customer service, described the operational and commercial impact directly: "Our proactive AI agents are transforming the broadband experience across the U.K. and delivering tens of millions in financial benefits for Openreach and our customers. By moving to proactive, AI-driven engagement, we've improved appointment success, optimized operations, and given customers greater clarity during a complex national upgrade. At this scale, that combination of efficiency and trust makes a meaningful difference." The downstream effect on customer experience is unusually measurable. Openreach's Trustpilot rating rose from 2.0 to 4.7 out of 5 after the rollout of proactive AI engagement, a jump of 3.7 points based on hundreds of thousands of reviews. Repeat contacts also fell, allowing service teams to focus on more complex interactions. The deployment benefits 680+ service providers using Openreach's wholesale network, including BT, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone and Zen, and is funded in part by Openreach's £15 billion Full Fibre buildout programme.