York's newest big investors are on the road to making millions - thanks to a brainy cyber-beauty called Alexa.

Alexa is a smart computer system capable of hearing and responding to the human voice. She is set to revolutionise call centres - and she is being dreamed up here in North Yorkshire.

She is an intelligent 3-D virtual "helper" who can appear on-line to guide customers through and out of their problems - and she is ready to bring call centre companies and customer service organisations under her wing to corner a share of an estimated £5 billion market.

That includes the likes of York-based Card Protection Plan and Norwich Union, which employ thousands of people in the city.

Alexa is the creation of Lexicle, a high-tech company which, with the help of the York Inward investment Board, has moved into a new extension at the York Innovation Centre near to the University of York.

Lexicle consists of three breakaway executives from Micromuse, a London-based seven-billion dollar software company, combined with the expertise of two lecturers in York University's department of computer science plus two top graduates from York.

And Alexa, a prototype "helper", is used to demonstrate Lexicle's first product, known as agentX. She is capable of having a one-to-one conversation with Internet users and provide solutions.

Nick Bolton, director of Lexicle, said: "Let's say that you have just bought a washing machine but you're having difficulty plumbing it in. You beam in the manufacturer on the Internet and call up Alexa or a creation like her.

"You tell her your problem and she responds by telling you what pipe needs to be plumbed where, and if necessary she shows you a diagram to illustrate."

But the system is best used in financial services, he said. "For example, Alexa can help you navigate the stormy waters of selecting a mortgage, pensions or investments, and inevitably she is programmed to give you legally necessary best advice. She cannot tell a lie!

The introduction of Alexa could have an effect on the call centre jobs market.

"The implications for the growing call centre market are huge because Alexa can do much of the front-line work, while still giving the customer the option of talking to a human being.

"The cost to call centres in time and money for each call can be as much as £10. We can effectively slow down the need to address extra staff. We calculate that typically a £200,000 price tag for a tailored service can be recouped in six months. Our marketing programme has begun"

Mr Bolton was the former product manager of Micromuse. He and its commercial manager Garry Avery and technical manager Andy Ormsby broke away to pioneer the new venture.

They were lured to York by the five-star grading of the university's computer science department and were joined by lecturers Patrick Olivier and Suresh Manandhar who between them are experts in computational linguistics, artificial intelligence and 3D computer graphics.

Their numbers swelled with the arrival of brilliant York graduates Pete Stock and Iain Crampton.

Updated: 12:57 Tuesday, February 13, 2001