Planning a long trip can be a daunting task. Where do you begin? Questions such as destination, length of the trip, tickets, hotel bookings, activity planning, food, insurance, currency leave you over-whelmed and confused.
Thanks to modern technology, travel businesses can now communicate to new and regular customers through bots using chat apps. Chatbots are starting to emerge as a transformative way of interacting with businesses and brands. Artificial intelligence (AI) is disrupting the travel sector, changing the way businesses and individuals organize their transportation and connections.
As to what AI can deliver, this ranges from answering questions about amenities, services and local attractions through to managing the booking process.
Here are a few insights on how chat bots could improve the travel industry as a whole. (Travelport.com, 2018)
Expanding Reach:
Travel brands now grow their reach and communicate with new and current customers through third party channels such as Facebook Messenger, Slack and Skype
Reducing Costs:
Not only are bots more cost effective, they can improve productivity. With the ability to do simple, and at times more mundane routine tasks, it is quite evident to see why they are an attractive option.
Solving Problems and Creating Opportunities:
Bots and AI are starting to chip away at travel problems. From automating disruption alerts and last-minute boarding pass via messenger, bots are beginning to have a top-level impact on some of the industry’s issues. (Virgin, 2018)
With huge amounts of data on previous customers and travel trends, AI can easily spot patterns in booking behaviors and highlight how and why certain demographics book the trips they do. This information can allow travel companies to make smart recommendations—and therefore, present travelers with options that make sense for them.
References:
Travelport.com. (2018). Bots and the future of the travel industry | Travelport. [online] Available at: https://www.travelport.com/blog/bots-and-future-travel-industry [Accessed 20 Sep. 2018].
Virgin. (2018). How bots and AI are changing the travel industry. [online] Available at: https://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/how-bots-and-ai-are-changing-travel-industry [Accessed 20 Sep. 2018].
