On the sidelines of the 31st AICEP (International Association of Portuguese Language Communications) Forum of Lusophone Communications, taking place in Macau, under the theme "Creating Value with Artificial Intelligence", João Bento told Lusa that CTT is already using AI tools.

"We launched an AI [conversational] chatbot, Helena, at the end of last year, which has already reduced the number of contacts requiring human intervention by 30%. This means that I have fewer people in the 'call centre' for the same level of response", the executive stressed.

Experts have pointed to 2024 as the year in which the extinction of jobs will begin due to AI tools. But João Bento said that both CTT and the company's trade unions "do not feel this fear".

At the end of March, CTT had 13,574 employees, an increase of almost 800 compared to the same date last year.

"Certainly, in the short term, we will have tasks that are no longer performed by people, which means that we will have less need for labour, but this will certainly generate new opportunities", defended João Bento.

"Historically, all moments of technological disruption have caused disruptions in the short term, but have always generated gains in wealth and well-being", added the CEO of CTT.

João Bento preferred to say that AI already allows the company to "do more with the people it has", giving the example of the recruitment area: "We have a lot of people, we are always recruiting, and a large part of the procedure, resume analysis, is already done automatically".

The executive said that AI is already taking care of "repetitive tasks, which are done either with more quality or with more efficiency", including a tool used in the company to complete addresses.

"When they are incomplete or misspelled, it becomes very dependent on the knowledge of the postmen to know how to interpret an address that is not well written", stressed João Bento.

The CEO said he believes that this is a tool that in the future may even be marketed by the partner company that developed it and that has already received investment from CTT.

João Bento was more concerned about the ethical problems created by the use of AI tools and stressed that, when using Helena, "it is very important that customers understand that they are contacting a 'chatbot' and not a person".

This is one of the requirements that is already included in a regulation approved on March 13 by the European Parliament and which will come into force in all EU Member States, after the "green light" from the European Council.

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