Travel Forward
Chatbots have not yet taken off in travel as some predicted they would. But research specialist Phocuswright says improved technology and greater consumer experience mean a tipping point is approaching
Chatbot to trot S
everal years have passed since the initial burst of excitement over chatbots. Hailed as a cost-effective, personalised solution for marketing, customer service and sales, chatbots were suddenly on the to-do list for travel companies across all segments. It soon became clear that there were many things chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI) couldn’t do (yet). Even Facebook was forced to shut down its virtual assistant, M, in early 2018. Yet, despite the growing popularity of image-based messaging and voice as conversational interfaces, text-based messaging continues to play a key role in the social media landscape. Chat apps collectively have more global users than the leading social networks, with younger
COMFORT WITH USING TEXT MESSAGING/CHAT
Contact a hotel front desk Customer service
Interact with customer service Get local recommendations Interact with a concierge
Compare/choose travel products
Chat with a computer-powered “assistant”
Book travel products Booking Book-in destinations activities
Question: On a scale of 1-5, 1 being not comfortable at all and 5 completely comfortable, how comfortable would you be using text messages or chat-based messaging apps on your smartphone to do the following? Source: US Traveller Technology Survey Eighth Edition
Planning Human touchpoints
users driving adoption. WhatsApp’s move to open its platform to businesses and Apple’s Business Chat give further signals that the conversation is far from over. As voice-based personal assistants such as Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home advance, hybrid approaches are likely to combine conversational (text or voice) and graphic user interfaces in innovative ways. Early efforts at deploying any emerging technology often include failures, and chatbots are no different. Chatbot design must be incrementally improved, based on user interactions and the resulting outcomes. In theory, self-learning, AI-based chatbots have the capability to do some of this work on their own (for better or worse), but strategic planning, oversight and adjustment will always be needed. Admittedly, early chatbots have a laundry list of problems. Traveller requests typed out in natural language are often misunderstood. Many chatbots offer only a limited number of preset choices, and a limited depth and breadth of services, which frustrates travellers. However, all of these problems will be solved over time.
Big improvements The depth and breadth of chatbot services have been limited hitherto, but are likely to improve signifi cantly 36 07.11.2018
First, natural language processing (NLP) is crucial for understanding what travellers are asking for. It has already vastly improved, and it will eventually be difficult to distinguish between a bot and a live customer service representative. Sentiment analysis – the ability to interpret positive, negative or neutral attitudes – is growing more sophisticated, making it easier to address problems when they arise. Second, consumers in 2018 now have more chatbot experience under their belts, whether through standalone apps, a messenger/chat app, their smartphone or home- based assistant. Having
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