How Evergy reduced calls with AI and became a utility experience leader

At a Glance:

• Mission: Scale service without sacrificing the human touch
• Solution: AI agents that continually improve through collaboration between Evergy and SoundHound AI, resolving routine requests while freeing customer service representatives to focus on complex customer needs
• Results:
  
  • 67% containment rate
  • 12.7M calls deflected from the contact center since 2020
  • Significant increase in customer self-service
• What’s Next: Expand AI self-service across additional utility workflows

Challenge: meeting customer service with fixed staffing

Evergy’s traditional voice response system was not meeting the need to serve the customer efficiently.

But as a regulated utility with rising call costs to serve customers, it faced a unique challenge: Evergy had to improve customer self-service and decrease the volume of calls going to the call centers. 

The utility turned to AI to take routine calls out of the contact center — including billing, payment plans, outage inquiries, and service starts and stops. This allowed human agents to focus on customers whose issues required deeper expertise, more complex problem solving, or simply the reassurance of speaking with another person.

The result: millions of calls deflected, faster service, and increased customer self-service at a lower cost per transaction — all while keeping human interaction central to the customer experience.

Evergy’s results are among the strongest in the utility sector:

[[block:stats]]
58% | industry containment average
67% | Evergy's containment
[[/block]]

Since launching in 2020, Evergy’s AI self-service has:

• Handled over 4 million calls annually
• Deflected nearly 13 million calls from the contact center
• Reduced cost to serve

By successfully resolving millions of routine interactions through AI, Evergy dramatically reduced contact center demand while achieving an excellent ROI on its investment.

Award-winning innovation in digital experience

Evergy’s approach has been recognized across the utility industry.

The company earned Gold in Chartwell’s Best Practices Awards for Excellence in Digital Experience, highlighting its leadership in modernizing customer service.

A key driver of that recognition was the combination of successful AI‑driven workflows with more personal, dedicated human agent interaction. Ultimately, this delivered both operational and customer experience improvements.

"AI agents can handle a range of tasks, allowing human agents to focus on interactions that require empathy, deeper problem solving, and dedicated time with the customer."
‍
Kelly Reynolds
Senior Digital Product Manager, Evergy

Where AI delivers the most value for Evergy

Moving shouldn’t require a 15-minute phone call ‍

• Starting or stopping service typically required a 10–15 minute call with a human agent. With AI, that time dropped to 5–7 minutes, cutting handle times nearly in half for customers and freeing agents for more complex conversations.

When customers need flexibility, not just a bill‍

• When someone is past due, the AI doesn’t just repeat the balance; it helps them figure out what to do next.

"Our AI engages customers at a stressful moment, walking them through payment plan options they can afford. It also makes it easy to set up autopay or paperless billing. Customers leave the interaction feeling that a stressful situation has been handled clearly, quickly, and with care."
‍
Kelly Reynolds
Senior Digital Product Manager, Evergy

‍

When the power goes out, speed matters

• During outages, the system adapts in real time. It immediately identifies customer locations, provides updates, and reports power outages, helping reduce pressure on the contact center when demand spikes.

AI isn't a product. It's a partnership.

Evergy's success didn't come from deploying an AI solution and walking away.

The company treats AI as a continuously evolving digital asset — one that improves through ongoing collaboration with SoundHound AI.

Together, the teams regularly analyze customer interactions, identify opportunities for improvement, and expand the range of issues AI agents can successfully resolve.

"The AI agents aren't static. They're a digital asset that gets smarter and more effective over time. The partnership with SoundHound AI has been critical because we're constantly refining and expanding what the system can do."
‍
Kelly Reynolds
Senior Digital Product Manager, Evergy

Looking ahead

Evergy continues to expand its use of AI across customer service operations, with plans to automate additional workflows and deepen integration across systems.

As the utility industry evolves, Evergy is leading the way with how AI can reduce costs to serve and modernize customer experience, while keeping people at the center.

Interested in starting your own AI journey with SoundHound?

We'd love the opportunity to discuss how we can help you achieve your goals with agentic AI.

Talk to an expert