What challenges did Centrica face before AI implementation?

IT service desk faced high call volumes and slow resolution times. Contact center and field staff lost significant productivity waiting for IT issue resolution. Routine IT requests consumed valuable support resources. Manual provisioning and parts requests required extra steps and reduced efficiency.

What was the impact of the AI solution?

Reduced IT issue resolution time from 15 minutes to 2-3 minutes. Returned 12-13 minutes of productivity per interaction to staff. Automated over 10,000 incident resolutions per month, totaling 100,000 in a year. Saved thousands of pounds in costs monthly and added 200 person-days of productivity. Achieved 77% positive feedback from end users.

Source

MicrosoftLive source

Centrica boosts IT service desk productivity with AI-powered virtual assistant

Use case typeIT operationsUpdated Jun 13, 2026

Centrica plc, a leading energy and utilities company, has significantly enhanced the efficiency of its IT service desk by implementing Buddy, an AI-powered virtual assistant developed in partnership with Fujitsu. Built on Microsoft Azure AI technologies, Buddy automates the resolution of common IT issues in under three minutes, compared to the prior average of 15 minutes. This allows contact center and field staff to stay productive and focused on customer service. Over the course of a year, Buddy was used more than 100,000 times and consistently received highly positive user feedback. The solution, integrated with Alluvio Aternity, resolves over 10,000 incidents each month and returns an estimated 200 person-days of productivity to the organization. The automation project has yielded substantial monthly cost savings and improved operational transparency. Centrica continues to explore new use cases for Buddy, including remote device provisioning and streamlined parts requests, while leveraging the strong partnership with Fujitsu to drive further digital transformation.

Organization: Centrica
Industry: Energy & Utilities
Location: United Kingdom
Published: November 2022

Reported outcomes

77%

quantified impactAdoption & scale

15 minutestime3 minutestime13 minutestime

Strategic outcomes

Speed & agilityAutomated routine IT issue resolutionCustomer experience & trustImproved end-user satisfactionCost efficiencyReduced support costsScale & capacityExpanded self-service IT support capacity

Catalog median for adoption & scale deployments: +85.5% across 46 reported metrics. Compare benchmarks →

Primary read

Use case focus

Showing 3 of 3

1AI-powered virtual assistant for IT service desk automation
2Automated incident resolution for employee IT issues
3Proactive monitoring and device provisioning using AI

IT service desk faced high call volumes and slow resolution times.
Contact center and field staff lost significant productivity waiting for IT issue resolution.
Routine IT requests consumed valuable support resources.
Manual provisioning and parts requests required extra steps and reduced efficiency.

Implemented AI-powered virtual assistant Buddy on Microsoft Azure AI.
Integrated automation with Alluvio Aternity for proactive monitoring and incident resolution.
Handled routine IT issues via natural language interface, enabling self-service for users.
Extended Buddy’s capabilities to support remote device builds and automated parts requests.

Technologies

Azure AI

Reduced IT issue resolution time from 15 minutes to 2-3 minutes.
Returned 12-13 minutes of productivity per interaction to staff.
Automated over 10,000 incident resolutions per month, totaling 100,000 in a year.
Saved thousands of pounds in costs monthly and added 200 person-days of productivity.
Achieved 77% positive feedback from end users.