Acciona implements virtual assistant to enhance employee satisfaction

The AI-powered platform developed by Ayesa optimizes HR management anytime, anywhere.

Artificial Intelligence has become a powerful ally for businesses, particularly for Human Resources (HR) departments, as they seek to enhance the employee experience. Each organization faces its own unique challenges—geographically dispersed workforces, diverse roles and employment conditions, or even cultural diversity. Regardless of the case, the solution lies in the strategic application of intelligence and technology.

That is precisely what Acciona has done, in collaboration with Ayesa’s AI-Data & Digital Experience division. The Spanish multinational, a leader in renewable energy and major infrastructure projects, operates in over 40 countries and employs a wide range of professional profiles. One of the largest groups is its nearly 60,000 blue-collar workers in Spain, who perform their duties in environments such as factories, ports, and outdoor construction sites across infrastructure, services, and renewable energy sectors.

These workers typically operate in rotating shifts and at various times throughout the day and night, often without easy access to a computer or laptop. This frequently hindered direct communication with the HR department during standard working hours, and made the use of conventional corporate web tools impractical.

Accessing information or completing tasks such as retrieving a payslip, obtaining a copy of an employment contract, updating personal data, or submitting changes via the Spanish Modelo 145 form was far from immediate. This resulted in a diminished employee experience and frustration among HR staff at Acciona, who—despite their time and effort—were unable to provide optimal service.

Acciona, therefore, required a new service model: more agile, scalable, and better adapted to the specific schedules and needs of its workforce. A system that would enable HR to provide round-the-clock service while also relieving HR teams from repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on higher-value initiatives.

This led to the launch of a strategic project: the development of a virtual assistant based on Artificial Intelligence technologies, accessible to employees via phone and WhatsApp. This initiative has positioned Acciona as a pioneer in the implementation of AI solutions for HR services.

“We needed to provide our field workers with a direct channel to HR. We wanted them to feel supported and heard whenever they had questions about essential matters like contracts or payslips,” said Azahara Medina Anguiano, Head of Shared Services HR Projects at Acciona. “At the same time, we wanted our HR team to focus on more strategic, high-value tasks.”

Through their mobile phones—either by voice call or WhatsApp—employees can now easily interact with a virtual assistant, submitting requests in multiple languages at any time of day or night, thanks to its 24/7 availability.

The AI is fully integrated into an ecosystem of corporate HR platforms such as SAP, Workday, the employee digital file manager, IvCert (for digital signatures), as well as RPA (robotic process automation) systems. This integration allows for seamless orchestration and execution of employee requests in record time. Retrieving the latest payslip, updating bank details, or digitally signing documents becomes a fast and efficient process—for both employees and HR staff.

To build this conversational environment, Acciona and Ayesa—responsible for the design, implementation, and ongoing support—chose Google Cloud technology.

“Google Cloud offers us reliability, scalability, and a future-ready architecture. Partnering with a company experienced in this type of development was key, and that’s where Emergya—now part of Ayesa—provided real added value,” noted Raúl Morueco, Manager of Corporate HR Applications at Acciona.

Nieves Borrego, Business Account Manager at Ayesa, emphasized the project’s complexity due to the number of integrations required. She also underscored the cybersecurity demands, as the assistant handles significant volumes of personal employee data. “This is a real digital transformation project, where the success lies in the team we’ve built together with Acciona.”

Thanks to Google Cloud’s conversational technology, the assistant supports natural, everyday language interactions. It operates in a secure, scalable environment and handles frequently asked HR questions—in multiple languages—about payslips, contracts, vacation days, the Modelo 145 form, and more.

The solution is powered by Google’s Conversational Agents (an evolution of Dialogflow), which offers greater modularity, ease of maintenance, and control over conversational flows. It also provides a foundation for adding new capabilities and scaling the model to other countries and departments.

Next Challenge: Integrating Generative AI

Conversational AI relies on natural language recognition to understand what users say or type. The next step is to integrate generative AI agents, based on Google’s Gemini, to elevate the assistant’s capabilities even further.

This will enable users to resolve more complex queries—for example, consulting details related to their collective bargaining agreement or checking how many vacation days they have remaining.

The HR department also benefits from built-in monitoring dashboards, allowing real-time activity tracking and continuous optimization of the user experience.

Since its launch, the solution has achieved measurable impact:

• Over 80,000 conversations have taken place through the enabled channels.
• More than 72,000 interactions have been successfully resolved, with a resolution rate exceeding 90%, and only 0.89% of queries escalated to human agents.
• Employee autonomy has increased significantly, reducing dependence on managers or supervisors to raise support tickets.
• Response times have been cut from days or weeks to mere minutes, improving employee satisfaction and HR’s internal reputation.
• The HR team has freed up resources, now redirected toward higher-impact strategic initiatives.

A Benchmark and Exportable Model

This project has not only transformed internal operations at Acciona but also set a pioneering standard in the use of conversational AI for employees in Spain. The choice of WhatsApp as the primary channel has been critical to its success and has attracted interest from major retailers and logistics firms facing similar communication challenges with their workforce.

The collaboration between Acciona, Google Cloud, and Ayesa demonstrates how technology can improve the employee experience and optimize internal processes within complex organizations. Most importantly, it proves that innovation and human connection are not mutually exclusive—digitalization can, and should, bring organizations closer to their people.