Chatbots – Airport Benchmarking

Chatbots Are the Future of Meeting and Event Communication and Networking

Karima Kouidri — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 11:09:27 +0000

The increased acceptance and use of chatbots and AI is changing the way event

and meeting professionals connect with attendees and making events more efficient for the planners and the attendees.

— Sheryll Poe

Frank, a feature in the event’s app, is an experimental chatbot that used artificial intelligence (AI) to interact with event attendees over messaging apps, and was capable of answering basic event questions via the event website and Facebook page. Armed with the goal of using “IMEX as a test bed for piloting new ideas under controlled and managed conditions and in a real-life environment,” IMEXlabs partnered with messaging platform Scen.sio to develop Frank.

Frank passed his debut with flying colors, according to Miguel Neves, digital content and community manager at IMEX Group. Frank was “largely successful in answering the many questions fired at him. … We saw a significant improvement of the responses from the chatbot technology throughout the period it was in use. This was due to the Sciens.io team re-programming Frank during this period, and Frank’s ability to constantly improve its answers,” Neves said.

Improving Event Experiences

Over the past five years, artificial intelligence and machine learning have made substantial inroads into the mainstream and into our daily lives. Products such as Siri, Amazon Echo, and Google Home are fulfilling our desires for immediate answers, resolutions, and general information, and that has led to the surging popularity of chatbots. Messaging apps, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Slack, all incorporate some text-based AI to help us connect.

With the AI market expected to grow to $4.05 billion by 2020, according to research firm Markets and Markets, it is clear these new self-learning and ever-improving technologies have limitless potential in a variety of industries, including events and conferences.

“AI and cognitive computing are impacting areas customer service in a big way,” said IMEX’s Neves. “Chatbots are still somewhat experimental, but many of the basic questions around events can be answered in a polite, personalized and accurate way 24/7. This is not too far from creating a well thought-out responsive website for the event, but goes much further in terms of usability.”

With text-based services like meeting agendas, scheduling, floorplans, feedback polls and surveys, chatbots like Scens.io’s Concierge EventBot, Event2Mobile’s Eva, ConfBot, and
Morph.ai, can help event planners customize and personalize information to fit attendees’ needs in an easy-to-use manner, allowing attendees and organizers make the most of their time and resources.

Enabling Smarter Networking

Another use for AI in the meetings and events industry is to facilitate networking between participants during events. For example, U.K.-based Grip is a smart event matchmaking app that is transforming some high-profile events, including the Cannes Lions Awards. Grip uses AI to process attendee profiles and behavior data to make matchmaking suggestions for professional networking.

“Overall, we believe that artificial intelligence enables us to enable people to network smarter with the goal being to spend less time looking at their phones at events and spend more time face-to-face,” Grip co-founder and CEO Tim Groot said. “Just as Google enabled people to spend less time searching for information online our mission is to do the same thing for networking at events: more networking for your work.”

Just how good is Grip’s AI? At the Cannes Lion Awards, the event’s Grip-enabled app had more than 750,000 swipes and made more than 10,000 digital “handshakes.”

“We’re delighted with the response to the new app, which transformed the way people met. With over 15,000 attendees this year, it was vital the right connections were made with the right people,” said Cannes Lions digital project manager Richard Boswell.

Making the right connections — whether it’s with potential clients or with the right information — is where AI can help events run smoother, save time and provide a personalized experience, Neves said. “Better designed events, with better technology will certainly produce even more valuable face-to-face interactions.”

source : https://tinyurl.com/yaohhole

Skychat – the Chatbot designed for airport

Karima Kouidri — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 19:38:12 +0000

The first chatbot tailor made for airports. Explore more on this new technology! find out more: https://www.skychat.ai/

Airline counters
– Easily help the passenger to find the airline counters to check-in or drop their baggages
Real-time flight information and notification
– Gate change, final call and flight delay are pushed to the passenger instantly
Recommend the best dining options
– Passenger can interact with the chatbot to find their favorite food
Shopping guide
– Send promotion coupons to passenger to encourage them to spend money in the shops
Finding Facilities
– Passengers could talk to Skychat to locate lounges, coffee shops, nearest restrooms and other facilities
Announcement
– Make announcement to all passengers instantly
Belt information
– Inform passengers where to pick up the baggages upon their arrival
Transportation
– Show passenger the options how to get to and leave the airport, car rental information and parking etc
Other information
– Information about security check procedures, lost and found, etc.

Use Chatbots to Connect with Customers in a More Personal Way

Karima Kouidri — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 11:57:18 +0000

Chatbots can create a more personalized user experience.

An increasing number of brands and companies are turning to chatbots as a means of enhancing user experience and reaching customers in new ways. With many such chatbots popping up on the widely used platform of Facebook, the spread of chatbots is gaining considerable speed.

Aside from being an obvious step forward for technological advancement, chatbots are surprisingly useful for and centered around enhancing user experience-more so than you might think.

Chatbots are a simpler alternative to building an app. Shifts in browsing behavior have made mobile-first accessibility of paramount importance for brands and businesses of all disciplines. While the norm has long been to build an app, that’s a process that demands a lot of assumed engagement from users (downloading the app, creating a username and log in, allowing push notifications, etc.).

In place of apps, chatbots are a way to reach users in a more direct way that actually requires much less effort for them. Instead of going through the process of downloading an app, users can simply shoot a text to a chatbot to get what they need. The chatbot can then respond to the users with what would be the app equivalent of push notifications, but in a more conversational tone.

While users have long had the ability to set personal preferences within news, shopping, and gaming apps, the effect is much more personal when it’s coming in a personalized message via chatbot. This worked especially well for makeup giant, Sephora:

By naturalizing the experience between brand and customer, brands are able to take the easily recognizable sales-pitchy aspect out of the communication process. In doing so, brands can engage with consumers on a more personal level at a rate much cheaper than the cost of an app.

Chatbots offer utility with a twist. The performance of a chatbot is in many ways entertainment-based, which is something users notoriously respond positively to. The capabilities of chatbots provide expected services-customers queries, troubleshooting, promoting content and products-but in a way consumers can relate to.

Perhaps what’s most effective about chatbots are that it puts a name and face (sort of) to brands, making them more acknowledgeable by their users. The customer experience then becomes much less like talking to a sales or brand rep, and more like getting suggestions from a knowledgeable friend.

source : https://tinyurl.com/he7sgx5

Chatbots in the travel industry: Are they helpful?

Karima Kouidri — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 16:38:32 +0000

7 Tips for Creating a Travel Bot That Travelers Will Actually Want to Use

There’s no denying that there’s a lot of hype around chatbots right now. Even though the rise of the chatbots is apparently in full swing, chatbots are not really new.

Surely, you’ve been on a website and attempted to converse with the automated customer service agent who pops up. Here I am talking to Julie, Amtrak’s virtual assistant/chatbot:

While chatbots aren’t necessarily new, they seemed to explode in popularity earlier this year when Facebook began allowing businesses and developers to build chatbots for Facebook Messenger that can provide customer support and other interactive experiences for users in a variety of industries.

Chatbots in the travel industry: Are they helpful?

One industry in which chatbot development is booming is the travel industry. Big Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), such as Expedia and Skyscanner, have developed travel bots that help users search for flights and hotels. The bots can answer simple customer service questions using conversational language. These bots, in many ways, simply provide users a different, more interactive experience—for performing the same task the users would be performing on an OTA’s site. Sure, there are a few benefits: If you want a more friendly experience or to avoid having to switch between 30 different travel apps, these bots might be appealing to you. But they have a long way to go before they are truly useful.

Many users report that these bots have difficulty understanding simple requests. Most of the bots require you to leave the bot’s chat window and visit the OTA website to actually book, which many users find annoying. Some also argue that bots are reactive, rather than proactive. This doesn’t separate bots from OTA websites, but human travel agents can anticipate concerns in a way bots can’t; so, for complex travel such as corporate bookings, some argue that we still need travel agents or travel management companies. Ultimately, while bots are still in their infancy, they don’t solve many problems right now.