Communications tech company Norwood Systems (ASX: NOR) is set to utilise artificial intelligence to transform legacy voicemail technology into personal assistants that can screen your calls, route them to relevant contacts, take messages or simply tell callers to bugger off. 

The tech will be driven by a new partnership entered into with artificial intelligence company Amelia which will provide the cognitive intelligence that can take the call and then screen them to then perform the tasks of a traditional receptionist or assistant. 

“We are really excited to be partnering with Amelia to bring this new and truly leading-edge AI technology to the telco industry,” said Norwood CEO and Founder, Paul Ostergaard. 

“In particular, the new service offering that we have jointly conceived with Amelia will provide telcos with a revolutionary pathway to upgrade their legacy call completion platforms, by replacing those ageing platforms with a dynamic and personally configurable answering service, powered by Amelia, that we predict will deliver deep value and joy to a telco’s subscriber base.

“This partnership further cements our position as the vendor of the world’s most advanced telco voicemail service platform, and we anticipate the output of the partnership will translate into tangible contract wins.”

The jointly-offered tech will be a new service that will be an upgrade option from Norwood’s existing message transcription service and be customisable by users. Once assigning topics such as customer service, sales or appointment, calls can be routed to alternative contacts where the user cannot answer the call themselves. 

The agreement will commence initially on a 1-year term between Norwood and Amelia with no commercial terms disclosed. 

“Amelia is already helping many such organisations innovate the call centre and transform customer services. No doubt, this partnership will drive measurable business benefits through cost and time savings for Norwood customers, present and future,” said Amelia Australia and NZ Managing Director, Andrew Winlaw.