TCS and Vi partner on AI-led BSS transformation to accelerate product launches and personalize customer experience
Vi partners with TCS on an AI-driven BSS for faster, more personal support. HOBS and TwinX link billing, CRM, and care for smarter routing, predictions, and faster resolution.
Vi partners with TCS to build an AI-driven BSS for faster, more personal customer support
Vodafone Idea (Vi) has entered a five-year partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to modernize its Business Support Systems (BSS). The program brings together TCS HOBS and TCS TwinX to improve automation, personalization, and speed to market across all customer touchpoints.
For customer support teams, this means tighter integration between billing, CRM, orders, and care workflows-plus AI that can predict needs, recommend actions, and shorten resolution time.
The stack, in plain terms
- TCS HOBS: The digital backbone for BSS-connecting customer data, products, orders, billing, and care so interactions feel seamless.
- TCS TwinX: AI/ML that analyzes patterns and runs scenario simulations to guide decisions, test changes safely, and personalize interactions at scale.
Together, they aim to improve service responsiveness, stability, and the speed at which Vi can launch and support new plans and features.
What this means for customer support
- Unified context: A consistent customer view across channels reduces repeat questions and re-authentication.
- Smarter routing: Intent and profile-based routing gets issues to the right agent or bot the first time.
- Proactive care: Predictive alerts for churn risk, payment issues, or service disruption before the customer contacts you.
- Agent assist: Real-time suggestions for next best actions, knowledge articles, and offers-based on history and intent.
- Faster rollouts: New products and plans ship with ready-to-use support flows, macros, and knowledge updates.
Near-term changes you may notice
- Single sign-on or fewer screens to access key tools.
- Cleaner customer timelines with fewer data gaps.
- Automation for repetitive steps (identity checks, plan changes, refunds within policy).
- More precise personalization in offers and retention saves.
How to prepare your team
- Audit your top 20 intents: Define success criteria, required data, and ideal resolution paths.
- Tighten knowledge: Shorten articles, add clear steps, and tag by intent so AI can surface the right content.
- Refine macros: Standardize tone, compliance language, and personalization tokens.
- Feedback loops: Add a "Was this suggestion helpful?" control in-agent to train the models.
- Escalation rules: Set thresholds for when AI suggestions stop and a specialist steps in.
- Training: Run short live demos on AI-assisted workflows; collect friction points weekly.
Metrics to track
- First Contact Resolution (FCR) and Average Handle Time (AHT)
- CSAT/NPS by channel and intent
- Containment rate for automated flows
- Proactive resolution rate (issues solved before contact)
- Agent assist adoption and acceptance of AI suggestions
- Time-to-launch for support assets when new plans ship
Data, privacy, and controls
The program highlights security, sustainability, and sovereignty. For support leaders, this is the moment to enforce PII masking, consent management, role-based access, and audit logs across every tool in the stack. Keep a human-in-the-loop for sensitive actions and set clear guardrails for automated refunds, plan changes, and KYC-related steps.
Scale and credibility
The initiative builds on a long-standing Vi-TCS relationship. TCS brings over 25 years of experience in communications and supports telecom operations across 45 countries with more than 100 delivery locations-serving over a billion subscribers. Expect enterprise-grade performance with room for future features and channels.
Action checklist
- This week: Map customer journeys for billing, plan changes, SIM issues, network complaints, and porting. Identify friction and handoffs.
- This month: Pilot AI suggestions on two high-volume intents. Add success and override rules. Measure AHT and FCR shifts.
- Quarter 1: Roll out proactive playbooks (outage comms, payment reminders, churn saves) and retire duplicate legacy flows.
Helpful resources
Bottom line
Vi's BSS transformation with TCS HOBS and TwinX is set to make support faster, more consistent, and more personal. Prepare your playbooks, clean your knowledge, and let AI handle the repetitive work-so your team can focus on conversations that matter.
