DATEV Cognigy

AI Agent achieves over 99.9% success rate in Phone Authentication

DATEV is one of Germany’s leading IT service providers for tax advisors, auditors, and lawyers. With over 1.5 million complex support calls annually, the company sought a solution that could both reduce pressure on service teams and elevate the user experience through intelligent voice automation.

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1.5M+

Calls processed annually

99.9%+

AI success in authentication

AHT

Reduced for routine inquiries

DATEV's Success in 50 Seconds

The Challenge

DATEV's support environment is defined by technical depth and a broad range of user personas. From non-technical business users to legal experts, the spectrum of inquiries demanded a solution that could:

Handle a massive volume of support calls with accuracy and efficiency.
Understand and guide a diverse user base in a natural, human-like dialogue.
Maintain top-tier data protection standards, essential in handling sensitive information for tax professionals.
Minimize follow-up questions while maintaining thorough diagnostics.
Seamlessly transfer calls to customer service representatives, without losing context or data.

"With Cognigy, we redefined our phone-based customer service. We designed an AI Voice Agent that listens attentively, asks intelligent follow-up questions, and adapts to each caller. It delivers immediate solutions using real-time data and resolves many issues instantly.”
Markus Wolf
Conversational AI & User Experience @DATEV

The Solution

DATEV developed a Voice AI Agent designed to serve as the front line of its hotline infrastructure. The assistant acts as a smart filter and problem solver:

Situation Analysis & Needs Assessment
The AI Agent listens closely to customer queries, using large language models (LLMs) to interpret and evaluate the completeness of information. It asks intelligent follow-ups when necessary and identifies routing needs.
Authentication Excellence
A flexible, guided authentication process ensures near-100% accuracy – even when users are unsure, change input mid-sentence, or provide vague responses.
Real-Time Resolution
The Voice AI dynamically integrates backend data and uses Cognigy Knowledge AI to deliver immediate, step-by-step solutions. Complex or unresolved cases are seamlessly handed over to CSRs with full interaction history and solution suggestions.

The Impact

The implementation of DATEV’s Voice AI Solution led to significant improvements across their customer service operations. Routine inquiries are now handled automatically, reducing the burden on support teams and allowing them to focus on more complex cases. This has resulted in greater efficiency and a noticeable improvement in response times. The authentication process achieved near-perfect accuracy, even with inconsistent or uncertain user input, contributing to a smooth and reliable user experience.

Thanks to natural language dialogue and real-time integration of contextual data, the assistant delivers precise answers and seamlessly escalates unresolved cases to the contact center team with full interaction history. The entire system is designed for scalability, with real-time monitoring and rapid iteration ensuring it continues to evolve.