Voice AI for outbound outage and service notifications in utilities
Outbound outage notification is often the single largest economic lever in utility voice AI: a 30–50% inbound deflection during major events that operations could not staff for any other way. The hard parts are consent for non-outage notifications and respect for opt-outs during price-cap changes.
Measured as inbound-deflection lift (30–50% during outage events) and PSR-customer-reach on welfare calls
Integration touchpoints
- Outage management system for affected-customer lists with ETR and confidence
- Priority Services Register for welfare-check routing during prolonged outages
- Planned-works calendar for scheduled service interruptions
- Consent register that distinguishes service notifications from marketing
Regulatory hooks
- Ofgem / Ofwat — guaranteed standards on outage notification and welfare-check timing
- EU electricity and gas directives on universal service during emergencies
- PECR / TCPA — service notification carve-outs are narrow; marketing requires explicit consent
- GDPR / UK GDPR — DPIA on automated outbound segmentation
What good looks like
Outage calls fire on confirmed events with affected-customer lists drawn from OMS, ETRs that are honestly bounded, and a clear inbound path. Welfare checks on PSR customers during prolonged outages run on a regulator-aligned cadence. Marketing or price-change calls are run on a separate consent basis with explicit opt-out handling.
Watch-outs
- Stale OMS lists. Customers outside the event get confusing calls; regulator complaints follow.
- Welfare-check failure for PSR customers during prolonged outages. The supplier licence conditions are explicit.
- Service-notification framing on price-change calls. The consent regime is different.
- Cadence violations during price-cap changes. Ofgem and the consumer press both notice.
Frequently asked
What's the regulator's first question after a complaint?
Consent basis for the specific call, frequency and timing against the published cap, opt-out handling on prior calls, and operator identification on the first sentence. Get those four right and most complaints resolve at first investigation.
How should welfare calls during prolonged outages work?
Fire from the PSR cohort within the OMS-defined impacted area, identify the supplier immediately, offer concrete welfare information (warm hub, alternative arrangements, expected restoration), capture any vulnerability change, and document the call. Regulators examine welfare-call programmes when outage durations stretch.