Retail giant NEXT has teamed up with global cloud communications provider Infobip in a move to tighten the screws on SMS fraud and supercharge its customer messaging.
The partnership merges AI-fuelled fraud detection with next-gen messaging tech, arming NEXT with new tools to keep its communications clean, secure, and engaging.
Fraud is no small threat in the UK, with annual estimates topping £219 billion. That translates into a pressing need to secure customer touchpoints without compromising experience. This is where Infobip Signals comes in: an AI and machine learning based engine that identifies and intercepts artificially inflated traffic (AIT) before it reaches consumers.
Since implementing the solution, NEXT has been blocking roughly 175,000 illegitimate messages each month, slamming the brakes on SMS fraud and ensuring that only legitimate communications reach its customer base.
Raz Razaq, head of customer contact experience technology, at NEXT, said: “At Next, we are committed to protecting our customers from fraud while continuing to provide the rich, responsive, and reliable communication that they expect from us. To benefit from the latest anti-fraud technology, we partnered with Infobip to help keep both our customers and infrastructure safe from new and emerging threats. Combined, Infobip Signals and RCS will create secure conversational experiences for our customers.”
The retailer is also rolling out Infobip’s Rich Communication Services (RCS) for Business, a multimedia messaging solution that brings verified sender profiles and richer content into the mix. This means branded messages with images, video, and interactivity, helping NEXT cut through the noise while reinforcing trust.