AI-Assisted Search: the merger customers never felt
27 m
Customers, zero friction felt
60%
first-contact resolution, outpacing industry benchmarks
20%
more engagement than other channels
About the Client _
The Vodafone/Three merged to create the UK's largest mobile operator overnight. The combined business spans two distinct brands, each with their own customer behaviours, expectations, support journeys and zero room for the kind of friction that sends a customer to a competitor.
Executive Summary _
VodafoneThree needed to make the merger of two mobile networks invisible to 27 million customers, delivering one seamless experience across two distinct brands from day one.
MSQ DX built AI-Assisted Search, embedding intent-driven answers across both estates to remove friction and keep customers connected to the services they depend on.
The Challenge _
Behind the merger sat two digital estates, two brands, and two sets of customer expectations, and all of it needed to feel like one seamless experience from day one, with none of the complexity visible to customers.
High stakes for consistency: 85% of customers expect consistency across every touchpoint, and over 30% walk away after one bad interaction
Zero margin for friction: 27 million customers now in scope, with no room for error as two estates came together
Traditional search limitations: keyword-match search left customers to work things out themselves, at the moment they could least afford it
Two brands needed to feel like one seamless experience, with no customer left to notice the difference underneath.
The Solution _
MSQ DX built AI-Assisted Search to make merger complexity invisible to every customer.
Intent-driven answers: replacing keyword-match search with direct, contextual answers, understanding queries with no reformulation and no dead ends
Shared codebase, distinct brands: two builds compiled from one shared codebase, so a single change deployed to both estates while preserving each brand's identity
Enterprise AI architecture: Azure AI Search indexing content across both estates, Azure Conversational Language Understanding classifying intent, and GPT-4.1 Mini generating each answer
Responsible AI safeguards: Human-in-the-Loop validation, fairness and equity checks, and seamless escalation to TOBi or a live agent when needed
Day-one delivery: embedded across any page on either estate without changing the underlying sites, live on merger day with no wider redesign
The Commercial Impact _
How we drove growth for VodafoneThree
Every decision was built to protect commercial performance during one of the UK's largest mergers. Intent-driven AI answered queries directly, a shared codebase kept both brands consistent without duplicating effort, and Responsible AI safeguards kept escalation seamless throughout. As a result, 27 million customers navigated the merger without friction, and chose to stay when they had every reason to switch.
27M
Customers, zero friction felt
20%
more engagement than other channels
60%
first-contact resolution, outpacing industry benchmarks
"We've partnered for a long, long time, 8 years plus, and that is what it has been: a partnership. It has never been us and them, you versus me; it's been us against the competition."