UK operator VMO2 outlined plans to work with Google Cloud to adopt large language models as part of a push to improve customer services, building on a partnership commenced in 2021.

In a blog, director of advanced analytics and data science at VMO2 Alberto Rey Villaverde stated it had worked with Google Cloud since the merger between Virgin Media and O2 to migrate data to the cloud.

With the process almost complete, it is now embarking on the next phase of its “transformation”.

Villaverde revealed a major project in the pipeline is to incorporate large language models into a chatbot by using all existing data from previous interactions, made possible through Google Cloud, to “greatly improve customer experience”.

A second project will see the company provide data sets to internal business departments, enabling them to use self-service insights to make rapid decisions.

“This is an essential part of our journey to becoming the modern telecommunications company that we want to be, where data underpins every decision we make,” said Villaverde.

Providing some background on its work with Google Cloud to date, Villaverde explained the pre-merger technology stacks of Virgin Media and O2 were built on a complicated patchwork of legacy systems, so it was clear integrating the two businesses’ architecture had to be done in the cloud.

Among the benefits of this shift are reducing internal query execution time from 16 hours to 40 seconds; building rich customer profiles to personalise offerings; cutting the lead time for making changes to network model algorithms from six months to 60 minutes; and lowering carbon emissions by eliminating unnecessary engineer callouts.

“Our migration to Google Cloud gave us a fresh start to use its intuitive solutions which suited our needs to build a new infrastructure in a fast and cost-efficient way,” Villaverde added.