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.
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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