Video above courtesy of Microsoft.
When a new building is in the planning stages, elevators and escalators are key pieces of a complex jigsaw puzzle. The developer asks various suppliers for bids – otherwise known as tenders – to provide just the right equipment at the right price, and on the optimum schedule.
Time is of the essence in such projects, with large investments hinging on speedy decisions. To serve our customers better and to create new solutions to boost customer service and internal productivity, we co-developed an innovative tool harnessing Generative AI (Gen AI). It produces sophisticated text, images and other content based on data it absorbs.
“Tendering work is time-consuming, and we want to make it smarter and faster, because we see an increasing amount of customer expectations for speed,” says KONE’s Business Development Manager Emilia Blomfelt. With TenderLens, our salespeople and customer solution engineers can spend more time on customer interactions and value-adding activities.”
Kristof D’Argent, product owner, modernization sales at KONE IT and Tony Harbour, senior sales executive explain how TenderLens works.
“First the AI tool does a quick scan of the whole document, which can be up to several hundred pages long, and picks up the relevant chapters. We can then identify how much equipment is included in the tender,” D’Argent explains. “Usually, this can take many hours, but with the new tool, the routine tasks, such as looking for basic information can speed up significantly".
Harbour sees TenderLens as a game-changing addition that will also support the experts in decision-making.
“AI then scans for a predefined set of parameters to find a solution addressing the customer’s request and offer compatible KONE products. After that TenderLens creates a tender. The expert always makes the final decision about which suggestions of the tool to take and what to leave out.”
“It was clear this tool needed to be embedded in our existing customer relationship management tool and sales process flow. We’ve tried to focus on what is most important with a clear scope definition, and I think that’s what has made it successful,” says D’Argent.
Empowering sales teams to deliver enhanced customer value
TenderLens is an example of how KONE is harnessing the integration of AI technology to boost human potential to make tendering more efficient.
“TenderLens shows how AI can automate repetitive tasks. This means our sales teams can focus on consulting customers and providing expert advice on challenging cases,” says Erdogan Güler, KONE’s Sales Management & Pricing Manager in DACH region, which comprises Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.
As Güler sees it, TenderLens is a good example of how KONE fosters a culture of innovation and collaboration.
“KONE cultivates an environment that fosters open communication and interdisciplinary teamwork,” he says. “Employees are encouraged to share ideas and participate in pilot projects. There are varied paths and programs for experts to grow and contribute to groundbreaking projects like this.”
A successful example of Gen AI in action
The project has brought together enterprise architects, salespeople, data scientists, developers, and other experts on various KONE tools and products.
“It’s been a mix of people with different backgrounds and perspectives, but with the same eagerness to make a change,” says Blomfelt.
TenderLens uses Microsoft’s Gen AI technology, which enables natural language processing and understanding without requiring large amounts of labeled data. The solution runs on Microsoft Azure OpenAI, a cloud platform that provides access to powerful artificial intelligence models and tools.
"We are proud to partner with KONE on this innovative project that leverages cutting-edge AI technology to transform the tendering process and enhance the customer experience," says General Manager Mervi Airaksinen, from Microsoft.
"KONE is a leader in adopting AI for its core business functions and demonstrates how Azure OpenAI can enable new possibilities for digital transformation."
Digital innovation and engineering agency Futurice supported KONE in applying the technology to play to the strengths of both Gen AI and KONE's experts.
“Helping KONE challenge the convention of how core business processes are redesigned with Gen AI to drive real business metrics was a privilege,” says Futurice’s Chief AI Officer, Tuomas Syrjänen.
Embracing AI for growth and customer-centricity
KONE has been piloting the tool since early 2024 in United Kingdom, Finland, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar and Bahrain. The solution will be scaled globally, starting this summer. There has been positive feedback from both frontline salespeople and customer solution engineers, who’ve been involved in development and testing since the project began in 2023. In the pilot phase, the users rated the tool’s ease of use as 4.3 out of 5. Additionally, the tool demonstrated a 90% accuracy in extracting information.
“We have been surprised how fast the tool was developed and pleased to see our feedback coming alive. We see that TenderLens can make a real change in our daily work,” Güler says.
The tool will be developed further based on the feedback from the users, so the journey into harnessing the benefits of artificial intelligence has just begun.
“We’re learning where AI is most useful,” says D’Argent. “It’s not applicable to everything. And we’ve seen that the human aspect is still always needed on top of that.”
“There have been a lot of surprises as this is a new topic for us, and we’re learning by doing,” says Blomfelt. “We’ve gone into this project with courage and an open mind. We want to embrace the opportunities of AI to empower individuals in their everyday tasks.”