Artificial intelligence to make travel smarter

Published Jun 24, 2017

Share

Washington - New artificial intelligence (AI) technologies promise to

make travel a little smarter. The latest entrant is Aeromexico's new AI-based

customer-service bot, billed as a "smart brain" capable of machine

learning. It launched earlier this year in Spanish on Facebook, and an English

version is being rolled out now.

But do they really live up to the billing? It depends.

There's little doubt that AI is improving the bottom line for airlines, hotels

and car-rental companies, which are aggressively integrating this technology

into their operations. But for consumers, there are only a few AI-enabled apps

and sites that offer a meaningful improvement, if any.

Nearly 85 percent of travel and hospitality professionals

are using AI within their businesses, according to a recent survey by Tata

Consultancy Services, which is based in India. So far, the use is largely

limited to their information-technology departments, with 46 percent of

companies saying they use it for functions such as processing bookings and

credit-card transactions. But within four years, 60 percent of companies

surveyed said that AI would expand to their marketing efforts - persuading you

to book their products.

Read also:  Google eyes driverless ride sharing 

Indeed, most of the AI firepower is reserved for the

back-end systems designed to squeeze more profit out of an airline seat or

hotel room, or to improve the efficiency of airport operations. For example,

flight disruptions cost airlines billions each year, so airports are deploying

AI systems to quickly deal with irregular operations. A company called SITA is

working with airports to create an algorithm to forecast airline delays.

"This is a huge cost for the industry," says Jim

Peters, SITA's chief technology officer. "There is a strong desire to

remove as much uncertainty as possible."

For customer-facing AI systems for travellers, there are

several standouts. One of the most prominent examples of AI is Hopper, which

uses a variety of artificial intelligence to power its site and booking engine.

That includes machine learning to analyze pricing data and

suggest the best times to book a trip to a destination, a system that alerts

you when ticket prices drop, and a "conversational chatbot" that

understands written queries and generates relevant results. Another site,

Hipmunk, also has a well-known conversational chatbot capable of understanding

queries and offering relevant search results.

"The idea here is to leverage AI strategically at the

right moment in the customer journey," says Étienne Mérineau, the

co-founder and head of conversation design at Heyday.ai, a chatbot developer

based in Montreal.

At Kayak, when you access its price forecast tool, you're

using an intelligent system that's more than a simple search. Not only does it

offer a more accurate price prediction, says Giorgos Zacharia, the chief

technology officer for Kayak, "artificial intelligence also allows us to

combine flights from different carriers for more savings for our users."

And while the sites that offer it are popular, the

technology can be a little glitchy. Take the Aeromexico AI, called Aerobot.

Like the Terminator's mythical Skynet, it goes far beyond offering scripted

answers, learning as it goes by scanning and analyzing previous customer

service transcripts.

The system, currently only available in Spanish, is still

primitive. I accessed the AI through its Facebook page and asked it for help

with a reservation. The response? "Let me transfer you to a human

agent." Its developers said Aerobot can answer simple questions, such as

"What is your pet fee?" and "I have to change a flight,"

but is still learning the rest. Who said customer service would be easy?

Certainly not Nina McGouldrick, a medical writer from Richardson, Texas.

She recently used Hopper to book a flight on American Airlines, with

frustrating results. When she called the airline to check on the status of her

flight, American claimed she had cancelled her ticket and that its records

indicated that someone using her number had called.

"All we could see on our side is that it was cancelled

by the airline at the flier's request," says Brianna Schneider, a Hopper

spokeswoman. "It pains us to hear, though, that this traveller didn't

intend to cancel her trip and we will reach out to her to get more

details."

But McGouldrick may be in the minority. Artificial

intelligence is increasingly palatable to a majority of travellers. A new

PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of consumer and business attitudes toward the

technology suggests that in the next five years, 56 percent of respondents

would be willing to embrace an artificial travel agent.

To which human agents

say: Nonsense

"Would you trust the Terminator to tell you where to

see the best sunset on the Amalfi

Coast?" asks Erika

Richter, a spokeswoman for the American Society of Travel Agents. "I don't

think so."

For now, the dream of an AI making travel better seems

closer to becoming a reality for a company's back-end systems, where

intelligent applications can improve efficiency and cut costs. But when it

comes to the systems travellers use, there's a long road ahead - at least

before you can call a machine to book your next vacation.

WASHINGTON POST 

 

Related Topics: