The NBA is all about moving quickly to gain a game-winning advantage. While on-court performance holds the key to victory, Paul Rapier, VP of Information Technology at the Detroit Pistons, recognizes that data plays a crucial supporting role in long-term competitive success.
To this end, the Pistons are using the RingCentral communications platform and an associated AI-enabled transformation to produce new operational efficiencies and fresh customer experiences. Last season, the team reached the NBA Eastern Conference semifinals – and the technology that Rapier and his team have implemented helped ensure everything off-court ran smoothly:
> Towards the end of the season, we had an influx of calls, so getting AI in there helped with our efficiency in time to answer and time to resolve. The FAQ that we built out was handling basic questions for the arena, such as ‘What time do doors open? When's the next game?’ Our agents could then answer more complicated calls quickly to reduce frustration.
The Pistons began working with RingCentral a few years ago when the NBA team’s HQ relocation to a high-tech downtown facility highlighted deficiencies in a decades-old communications platform. Employees in Sales, HR, and Finance functions faced a patchwork of incompatible tools that required manual maintenance and troubleshooting.
The organization recognized it required a fresh approach, and began a project to rebuild the systems that support the Pistons’ fans. RingCentral’s platform lies at the heart of this new approach. Rapier explains:
> Moving our legacy system downtown wasn't a realistic feat. We wanted to get off that older platform and reduce the operational requirements. I was tasked with the move from a technology perspective, and RingCentral made moving the phone system extremely easy.
Since moving to the new facility, the organization has continued to refine its communications strategy. Today, Rapier says the Pistons use multiple AI-powered solutions on the RingCentral platform as part of an ongoing digital transformation initiative:
> What we can do to improve the fan experience is really where we're at now, so anything that helps improve our interactions and drive efficiencies within the organization is crucial for us.
Points scored
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The Pistons’ relationship with RingCentral dates to an original six-month RFP in 2018, where Rapier and his team vetted several communications providers. The organization was impressed by RingCentral’s ability to implement its technology quickly. The Pistons went live with RingCentral in late June 2019.
In addition to its RingCentral platform, the Pistons’ technology stack includes Azure cloud services and a large IT security infrastructure, such as CrowdStrike across its endpoints, Proofpoint email security, and the Abnormal AI behavioral Machine Learning system.
During the past seven years, the Pistons have implemented a range of AI-powered services on the RingCentral platform, including AI Receptionist (AIR), AI Conversation Expert (ACE), and the RingCentral App Gallery. Estimates suggest RingCentral’s AI technology saves agents 30% of their time, allowing the front office to focus on boosting customer experiences.
Rapier cites the impact of RingCentral AIR, an AI-powered phone agent that handles inbound calls, answers routine questions, and routes complex inquiries. AIR cuts answer times from minutes to seconds and is projected to resolve 50% of all inbound fan inquiries without agent intervention. He explains how the technology works:
> Right now, when you call the Pistons, you're interacting with RingCentral’s AI. That's helping field some customer questions with a frequently asked questions database that we built. The tech seems to be working well. We've gotten some pretty good feedback. It's handling quite a few calls for us and giving customers quick answers.
Other RingCentral solutions have helped to improve operational efficiency. RingCentral’s App Gallery, a marketplace where users can add tools to customize their platform, has helped to drive a 20% reduction in daily manual work by automatically pushing post-call transcriptions and activity data directly into the Pistons’ Salesforce platform.
Another key technology is ACE, RingCentral’s AI-enabled conversation tool that automatically creates call transcripts and summaries. ACE saves the team 20% of their weekly time by automatically building a searchable knowledge base within the company’s contact center. Rapier says the integrated approach to communications is producing significant efficiencies:
> That's where we're seeing a large benefit, just with the agents being able to continue taking calls and keep moving forward without having to stop and type up the notes, making sure that they're saved, and all that good stuff. Automating that process with AI was huge for the team.
Lessons learned
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Rapier says the Pistons are eager to use more AI. While employees have access to ChatGPT internally, he’s eager to explore other AI services that can help drive further operational and service improvements:
> We're realizing that our data infrastructure needs some work before we can really take advantage of AI on top of all our fan data. But we're looking to insert AI anywhere where we can get operational efficiencies and improve the fan experience.
Feeding AI systems with data, Rapier suggests, is increasingly the key to success for any modern business. While some organizations are further along their AI transformation journeys than others, he wants the Pistons to ensure it creates a competitive advantage from the data it holds, particularly around the hyper-personalization it offers to the team’s fans:
> Everything we do is tracked and logged and analyzed. If you come to a game, we're going to know what you like, what kind of games you come to, what days, what teams, and what gear. And you take all that data and ingest it, and you can build a very tailored fan profile. I think that's just going to continue. Now, that personalized approach would be very difficult with a human, but with AI, it’s very possible.
It’s also crucial to deal with any cultural concerns upfront. While some people in the business will be concerned about the risks of using data-rich services, others will fear that automation means job losses. Rapier advises that AI implementations must come with dedicated training and guidance:
> Success is about laying out the foundations for acceptable use. Everyone is concerned about the risks associated with AI. It’s crucial to lay out an AI usage policy, ensuring you provide tools and instructions on what people can and can't do, and ensuring people know you’re not rolling AI out to try to replace anybody.