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Lakeland Electric’s newest customer service employee won’t sit in a cubicle or clock in at 7:30 a.m.
Her name is CayLa — a hyper-realistic, artificial-intelligence call agent designed to answer billing questions, set up payment plans, and transfer service when customers move.
On Monday, March 2, the City Commission unanimously approved a five-year agreement with Cayenta, the company providing the AI platform. The system is expected to roll out this summer.
Utility leaders say the goal isn’t to replace workers but to help them keep up, allowing human representatives to focus on more complex or sensitive situations.
21,000 calls a month
As the city has grown, the demands on Lakeland Electric’s agents have also grown. Lakeland Electric’s call center fields about 21,000 calls a month — nearly 262,000 last year — serving both electric and city water customers.
Assistant General Manager of Customer Service Korey Bush told the Utility Committee that the call center is “unique to any other piece in the utility and even in the city.”
The team of 27 call center representatives and four supervisors handles everything from balance inquiries and outage reports to 56,000 move-ins and move-outs a year and nearly 18,000 payment arrangements totaling more than $5 million annually.
“This group is very niche in what they do … It’s not somebody at a reception desk answering phones and passing on information,” Bush said. “There’s a lot of business transactions that are taking place there.”
Long wait times are, by far, the top customer complaint, according to Bush.
“People are impatient these days. They want instant gratification,” he said. “A 30-second wait time or a 90-second wait time … feels like an eternity sometimes.”
CayLa is designed to chip away at that frustration.
Not your typical phone tree
Unlike traditional automated systems that force callers to “press 1 for billing” or “press 2 for outages,” CayLa is conversational. Callers can simply explain what they need in plain language, the way they would with a live representative.
During a demonstration for commissioners, CayLa verified an account using a texted authentication code, provided a balance, offered payment-plan options, and scheduled a move-in and move-out — all in a natural back-and-forth exchange.
At first, CayLa will be limited to routine transactions such as balance inquiries, payment arrangements, and service transfers — the shorter, more repetitive calls that make up a significant share of daily volume. Bush said the AI agent is expected to handle about 20% of calls initially, though it could scale up if needed.
“We’re going to start out very slow,” he said.
The contract approved Monday outlines a first-year cost of $92,500, which includes implementation and setup. Ongoing costs are projected at $70,000 in years two and three, $73,800 in year four, and $75,712 in year five.
No layoffs planned
Bush said there are no plans to eliminate current positions. Instead, the utility hopes the AI tool will help manage continued growth without adding staff as call volume increases.
Lakeland Electric serves more than 210,000 meters, including water accounts. As the city grows, so does the number of transactions — particularly during billing changes, assistance programs, or extreme weather events.
Bush acknowledged that many people have had frustrating experiences with automated systems — including him.
“The heartburn for me is I’ve dealt with AI calls and gotten super frustrated, wanted to scream at the phone,” he said. “And that’s not what we want to create.”
If a caller becomes frustrated or if the issue falls outside CayLa’s capabilities, the system will transfer the call to a live agent. Customers can also request a human representative at any time.
CayLa will initially operate only during regular business hours so staff can monitor the rollout closely, even though the technology is capable of running around the clock.
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