RTL+: 98% Customer Service Automation with AI

About the Company

RTL+ is Germany’s largest streaming provider and part of the RTL Group. The platform combines series, films, live TV, music, and podcasts under one roof and stands for cross-generational entertainment. In recent years, RTL+ has gained around one million new subscribers annually.

RTL+ at a Glance

• Industry: Media / Streaming
• Number of employees: 17,000 (RTL Group)
• Market: DACH
• Target group: Streaming-oriented users who want to watch classic RTL content such as reality TV, soaps, live sports, and shows, as well as movies and series

Key Facts about the Project

• Over 1 million conversations per year
• Human takeover rate: only 2%
• 45% fewer service contacts despite continued customer growth

Video Testimonial

Christiane Konrad, Vice President CRM & Customer Care at RTL+, shares in this video how RTL+ achieved 98% customer service automation with LoyJoy and why the partnership has been a milestone from the very start.

Initial Situation

As RTL+ grew, so did the demands on customer service. Inquiry volumes rose steadily, especially in the evenings and on weekends during live events. Traditional structures reached their limits:

• Tickets were predominantly handled manually via email and forms
• 70% of written inquiries required human support
• Earlier automation attempts using keywords or rule-based systems fell short of expectations
• Inquiry peaks around live events are difficult to staff

The goal: a solution that is intelligent, scalable, and high-quality at the same time.

Our Project

In the second quarter of 2023, RTL+ and LoyJoy began designing a generative chatbot for customer service. Generative AI at the customer interface had only just become viable, and RTL+ was among the early pioneers. Together with the legal department, a GDPR-compliant AI framework was developed.

After initial tests in the account area, the chatbot was gradually integrated into central support paths. The foundation is a curated, AI-capable knowledge base containing the most common user questions and answers.

Rollout timeline:

• Q2 2023: Conception and testing of the first generative chatbot
• Q3 2023: Launch in the account area (~25,000 conversations / month)
• Q1 2024: Integration in front of the contact form (~80,000 conversations / month)
• Q3 2024: Full rollout in the help center as the first point of contact (~150,000 conversations / month)
• 2025: Evolution into an AI agent with extended capabilities

Customer satisfaction has remained at the same level as classic email support throughout. Many users said they took the AI agent for a human conversation partner.

The LoyJoy Solution

Today, the AI agent handles the first communication with customers across the entire help area:

• Generative AI models deliver context-aware answers to common service questions
• Responses are grounded in curated knowledge from a structured knowledge base, with no open web search and no self-learning models
• Iterative optimization based on customer variables and user feedback
• GDPR-compliant operation within the existing infrastructure

Extension with Personalized Content Recommendations

In Q4 2024, RTL+ launched a second project with LoyJoy: the Streaming Buddy, an agentic content advisor. Despite a very diverse catalog, 95% of users watch only 5% of the offering.

Challenges:

• Existing recommendation engines push popular content like reality TV or soaps
• New target groups, for instance sports fans, do not see themselves represented and cancel their subscription
• Goal: move beyond classic machine-learning recommendation logic and suggest relevant content on user request

Initial prototypes revealed that insufficient metadata limited recommendation quality. For example, a search for “Julia Roberts” did not surface “Pretty Woman”. After targeted metadata enrichment and intensive testing, the PoC went live in Q1 2025 on two format pages: football and the reality show “Temptation Island”.

Initial results: noticeably broader usage patterns and positive user feedback on the new recommendation experience.

Testimonial

”I was particularly impressed by LoyJoy’s innovative drive and how dedicated they were to us as a customer. The way the AI agent communicates with our users and solves their problems is fascinating!”

Christiane Konrad, Vice President CRM at RTL

What’s next?

RTL+ continues to expand the Streaming Buddy as a central element of its AI strategy. In the next stage, the Buddy will be able to start content directly from the chat and access additional metadata and usage signals.

In parallel, a pilot with telephony via the LoyJoy Phone Agent is in preparation, so the dialogue-driven user experience will also be available through spoken interaction.

In the long term, RTL+ is positioning itself as a pioneer of a fully AI-driven user journey: from individual advice through seamless content access to case-closing customer service.