Adding a powerful new tool to the field mechanic’s toolbelt: AI

On this page: Opportunity | Solution | Impact

The Opportunity

Enhancing field service support with generative AI

Ascendum is a Portugal-based global provider of machinery and equipment for the construction, infrastructure, haulage, and agriculture sectors. The company distributes and maintains over 25 different brands of construction machinery, industrial and infrastructure equipment, trucks, agricultural machinery, and specialized gear for forestry. With operations in 14 countries, Ascendum employs approximately 1,600 staff members and generates an annual turnover of €1.3 billion

At the core of Ascendum’s operations is its team of field and service agents, who are crucial in maintaining equipment on-site for construction companies. They ensure rapid mobilization and swift issue resolution to minimize downtime and enhance contractor productivity.

Field agents face several challenges in their daily operations. Machinery is becoming more complex and specialized, making it difficult to identify a customer’s specific machine and issue at hand. What’s more, the technical information agents need to identify machines, diagnose issues, and pinpoint solutions is unstructured; it exists in multiple formats and databases and is frequently updated by manufacturers, making it hard to track. Agents must navigate different customer databases and more than 14,000 pdf documents to identify customer machines and diagnose issues.

Time is money for Ascendum’s customers. Diagnosing an issue can take up to 30 minutes, as service agents search for relevant customer and technical information. Anything that can be done to accelerate issue resolution creates big customer value.

“Simply diagnosing an issue becomes a logistical challenge given the sheer volume of data and information a field agent must comb through to determine what steps need to be taken,” says McKinsey partner David Rockhill. “Building a solution to these challenges has the power to help Ascendum create significant customer value by reducing equipment downtime.”

Ascendum wanted to figure out a way to support field service agents and empower them with the AI tools and capabilities to diagnose and resolve issues much faster and improve customer experience. The company collaborated with McKinsey and Salesforce to develop a solution.

“We are always looking to find value areas. We came up with the intention with McKinsey and Salesforce to cross impact with feasibility,” says Ascendum IT and Business Development Director Rui Galamba.

The Solution

Strategic collaboration and technological integration

Ascendum initiated a transformation to harness the potential of gen AI across its operations. This strategic collaboration with McKinsey and Salesforce focused on identifying and evaluating 30 potential use cases where gen AI could deliver significant value, particularly in enhancing customer service and improving first-time issue resolution.

For example, one use case involved using gen AI to help agents immediately pinpoint equipment repair instructions from a large body of technical documents spread across systems, enabling field technicians to repair machines as quickly as possible.

“We selected one thing that is very important in our industry: to minimize downtime in the field,” says Rui. “Each hour of downtime for our customers costs in the range of $5,000 to $12,000 per hour because it’s very asset-intensive work.”

Ascendum led the mobilization of its business organization and provided essential customer and industry insights. QuantumBlack offered deep industry knowledge, design thinking expertise, and advanced AI capabilities, along with integration support for Salesforce technologies. And Salesforce delivered a seamless user experience through development tools on its platform that give access to customer data.

Over the course of five weeks, McKinsey’s QuantumBlack team of data scientists and software engineers worked together to build the gen AI engine operating on the Salesforce platform that helps agents find information on how to repair customers’ machines. As part of this process, McKinsey collaborated closely with field agents to ensure model output was trusted and in line with what agents expected and needed to best do their jobs.

The Impact

Enhanced efficiency and customer satisfaction

The partnership produced a gen-AI-powered solution that has been seamlessly integrated with Ascendum’s Salesforce Service Cloud. The pilot solution was implemented in just four weeks and led to significant improvements.

The pilot solution improved first-time resolution by streamlining access to information and providing a more accurate troubleshooting diagnosis. This freed service teams from repetitive tasks and allowed them to focus on adding value to customer relationships and driving business growth.

Faster issue resolution directly translated into reduced equipment downtime, unlocking substantial value for Ascendum’s customers. This means construction workers, freight operators, and other workers operating equipment crucial to getting their work done are losing far less time to technical delays and experiencing less disruptions of essential daily work, helping customers save between $5,000 to $12,000 an hour in otherwise lost field time.

The project not only provided a successful proof of concept but also laid the groundwork for ongoing innovation in service excellence through gen AI. This initiative has helped set a new benchmark in the industry in terms of leveraging cutting-edge technology to redefine service standards and deliver unparalleled value to customers.

“Technology enablement offers a new approach to field operations, making the process faster and saving significant time for agents,” says McKinsey senior partner, Peter Dahlstrom. “This work is an example of how our partnership with Salesforce helps to drive real impact at scale.”