About GEMA
GEMA operates in the music licensing and intellectual property sector, representing over 100,000 members and approximately 2 million professional music consumers. In 2024 alone, GEMA generated €1.33 billion in revenue. As a membership-based organization, GEMA ensures that composers, lyricists, and music publishers receive fair remuneration for public use of their work.
The organization has a strategic focus on improving information accessibility, scaling member services, and modernizing internal workflows. Positioned as a global leader among collecting societies, GEMA is responding to increasing digitalization and service expectations from its growing member base.
What challenge did GEMA face?
GEMA faced structural challenges relating to multiple use cases from members and customers, despite having a comprehensive help site. The volume of service requests placed pressure on support teams and revealed that many inquiries still required personal intervention. Internally, employees struggled to retrieve information quickly due to a fragmented system landscape involving multiple documentation and knowledge platforms like Confluence and SharePoint.
These challenges were exacerbated by complex service documentation and rising expectations for real-time support. Members and customers often needed immediate, 24/7 access to accurate information, which the traditional support infrastructure could not consistently provide.
How did GEMA solve it with CustomGPT.ai?
To address these challenges, GEMA implemented CustomGPT.ai across three strategic dimensions:
- Member & customer support: GEMA launched “Melody,” a 24/7 digital assistant embedded on its public website and member portal. Melody provides immediate, contextual support for licensing, registration, and rights-related inquiries, reducing wait times and improving member and customer experience.
- Internal knowledge access: GEMA integrated CustomGPT.ai with knowledge repositories like Confluence so employees can access relevant information within seconds, streamlining workflows and reducing inefficiencies.
- Service-process automation: Through API integration, CustomGPT.ai was embedded into service processes to automatically draft responses for specific use cases and accelerate ticket handling.
The implementation was executed using an agile collaboration model with iterative feedback from GEMA’s team. A key differentiator was the ability to customize and securely deploy internal-facing bots using a private front-end. Combined with CustomGPT.ai’s citation-backed accuracy and no-code deployment, this resulted in rapid adoption and measurable efficiency gains across the organization.
What results did GEMA achieve?
- 248,000+ inquiries answered via chatbots (external and internal)
- 6,000+ working hours saved, equivalent to freeing up ~3 FTEs
- 88% query success rate, exceeding the 70% industry benchmark
- Estimated €182K–€211K in annual cost avoidance
- Consistent positive feedback from both users and employees
- Improved internal satisfaction: employees report significantly faster access to information
Qualitative impact: enhanced member and customer experience with 24/7 guidance; reduced service-team pressure; improved service-ticket handling through AI-generated suggestions for specific use cases.
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Member support availability | Staffed hours only | 24/7 via “Melody” |
| Queries resolved automatically | 0 | 248,000+ |
| Query success rate | Variable | 88% (vs. 70% benchmark) |
| Internal knowledge retrieval | Slow, fragmented (Confluence/SharePoint) | Instant |
| Working hours saved | 0 | 6,000+ (≈3 FTEs) |
| Annual cost avoidance | €0 | Estimated €182K–211K |
| Answer grounding | n/a | Source-grounded, citation-backed |
| Engineering cost | Dev resources required | Zero — no-code |
Why it Worked
- Strategic fit: aligned with GEMA’s goal to digitize and scale service.
- Speed: seamless deployment across internal and external channels.
- Accuracy: anti-hallucination, contextual understanding, citations.
- Partnership: agile co-creation, responsive support from the CustomGPT.ai team — regular check-ins, mutual roadmap alignment, and technical support enabled a seamless rollout. GEMA valued how CustomGPT.ai adapted to their content ecosystem, feedback cycles, and operational complexity, elevating the engagement into a true innovation partnership.
Conclusion
CustomGPT.ai enabled GEMA to redefine support delivery for both members and staff. What began as a chatbot pilot has evolved into an AI-driven service infrastructure that is transforming how knowledge is accessed and delivered. As GEMA continues to scale, new projects — including document analysis, email automation, and licensing advisors — are underway, with CustomGPT.ai at the center of this intelligent transformation.
What results did GEMA achieve?
- 248,000+ inquiries answered via chatbots (external and internal)
- 6,000+ working hours saved, equivalent to freeing up ~3 FTEs
- 88% query success rate, exceeding the 70% industry benchmark
- Estimated €182K–€211K in annual cost avoidance
- Consistent positive feedback from both users and employees
- Improved internal satisfaction: employees report significantly faster access to information
Qualitative impact: enhanced member and customer experience with 24/7 guidance; reduced service-team pressure; improved service-ticket handling through AI-generated suggestions for specific use cases.
