Generating visit reports easily with a voice assistant

Bürkert offers a broad portfolio of valves, sensor technology and control heads for the measurement, control and regulation of liquids and gases across a wide range of industries, including food and beverage, pharma and biotech, lab and analytical, and new energy. To improve sales efficiency across an organisation of this scale, AI was identified as the right enabling technology.

Currently, sales staff spend four days a week in the field conducting customer visits. That usually leaves only Friday for follow-up work. By that point, valuable details have often already been lost as they fade during the week and are no longer top of mind. The quality of visit reports suffers accordingly – and in the worst case, no documentation is produced at all.

The objective, therefore, was to develop a production-ready AI model built on existing technologies. Gofore advised on the concept, tested the approach and ultimately supported the implementation of a voice assistant based on Microsoft Teams.

In a joint workshop, Gofore and Bürkert identified key pain points in sales. A structured analysis of the sales process then highlighted opportunities for using AI in meeting documentation.

The approach was deliberately not taken at management level. Instead, requirements were defined through conversations with the sales staff themselves – the people dealing day in, day out with the challenge of preparing reports after customer meetings.

Seamless integration of voice processing via telephony required a holistic understanding of the wider system – particularly the structure of the reporting framework and the CRM architecture. On that basis, the relevant processes could be set up effectively and the right technology components integrated.