By Kasturi Datta |
Global car rental and mobility solutions provider Hertz is using Microsoft Power Platform to develop low-code applications and AI agents to better support employees and customers.
Hertz has used Power Apps to develop a 'Start my Day' application, which brings together work-related data from Microsoft Shifts, Teams and other platforms to allow its more than 26,000 employees to manage their shifts from a single location. Frontline teams can now easily swap shifts and update their schedules without needing to go through multiple approval channels. The updates are automatically uploaded to the payroll system, which has improved management processes and increased convenience and efficiency for the overall team. In addition, Hertz is using Microsoft Copilot Studio to develop a new AI-driven agent named Manny, which helps Hertz employees quickly provide technical support to customers seeking roadside assistance
Previously, customer service representatives had to search through vehicle manuals on an internal SharePoint site to answer customers’ questions. Now, they ask the AI agent, which finds relevant information from trusted sources including websites of the specific vehicle manufacturers in the fleet, a government site and online video platforms with links to instructional videos employees can share with customers.
Hertz predicts the agent will result in "significant time and cost savings", while enabling employees to focus on more complex queries. During a pilot at one location, the agent has already cut the time it takes to resolve customer issues by 15 per cent and received positive feedback from users.
“I entered a complicated question about setting up a car’s Wi-Fi hotspot. Not only did Manny answer the question, but it also provided detailed, step-by-step instructions there were easy to understand,” said a Hertz employee.
In future, Hertz will roll out the agent to more locations and plans to expand its functionality, for example by enabling image recognition.
“We have literally hundreds of processes that could benefit from automation and AI, and we see Power Platform as a fast, efficient way to develop solutions that deliver those benefits,” said Zac Cadi, director of the Strategic Technology Initiative and leader of the AI enablement team at Hertz.