Telefonica introduces AI to give customers more control over data

Telefonica CDO Chema Alonso

Spanish multinational telecommunications provider Telefonica is looking to put its customers in control of their data using a digital personal assistant.

The so-called ‘fourth platform’ of Telefonica’s building blocks is named Aura. The AI-powered app enables users to control all Telefonica services by voice, offers full transparency regarding data, and decide whether or not to share this data with third parties like Facebook or Google.

“Cognitive intelligence will allow us to understand our customers better, so they can then relate to us in a more natural and easy way, and generate a new relationship of trust with them based on transparency and the control of their data”, said José María Álvarez-Pallete, Telefonica chairman and CEO.

Telefonica’s ‘brain’ can be used through a mobile phone app, Amazon’s Echo and Microsoft’s HoloLens. Aura can respond to natural language queries regarding services, managing wi-fi connections, get information and suggestions about shows and movies, as well as alerting the user when their data consumption is greater than usual.

Chema Alonso, CDO of Telefonica, said: “With Aura we want to transform data into knowledge and place it into our costumers’ hands so that they are able to know, decide, and act, and so that they can make the most of their relationship with Telefonica.”