Did you know airports are just as worried about competing for your business as everyone else? Next time you walk through an airport terminal, think about all the systems and processes swirling around you, or could potentially swirl around you, intended to improve your experience there. If you were the CIO or IT director of the facility, what would be the focus of your efforts?

The airport customer experience happens at two levels – either delivered by the airline or by the airport itself. With evolving technology based upon artificial intelligence and data from the Internet of Things, airports are poised to dramatically increase their delivery of more satisfying customer experiences. At least, let’s hope.

I had the opportunity to sit down and with Mark Gamble, senior director of product marketing for analytics at OpenText at the vendor’s confab earlier this year, to discuss the possibilities. Gamble, who has been focused on employing technology to make customer experiences more engaging, is working with a large Asian airport, helping it to leverage cognitive analytics to deliver a more satisfying experience to transiting passengers.

“The concept what they want to solve is very simple,” Gamble explains. “We’ve all suffered the inefficiencies in airports – the escalator is broken, so you have to lug your bag to the top. Then you get to the restroom, and it’s messy. All these things contribute to lower customer satisfaction.”

In this case, the airport he worked with — like most others across the world — suffered from inefficiencies associated with the usual maladies — security line backups, foot-traffic bottlenecks, malfunctioning escalators and messy or overflowing washrooms. Believe it or not, things like this ultimately cost airports millions of dollars every year in lost passenger revenue. That’s because if an airport gains a reputation as providing substandard experiences, passengers — and eventually the airlines that serve them — begin to try to avoid it.

“What if we built a cognitive system that knew that a plane was coming in early, and knew the connections people needed to make, and knew to put those connection gates as close as possible, and knew to dispatch the gate crews, bathroom maintenance crews, to make sure that the flow of traffic was never blocked?” Gamble asks.

The Asian airport addressed the problem by employing cognitive analytics — part of OpenText’s Magellan platform — to analyze data captured from around the facility and make real-time or near real-time decisions to alleviate or even prevent issues. The system analyzes foot-traffic data captured from hallway/doorway sensors and security cameras, and combines it with weather data and real-time flight arrival data from the control tower, to help manage gates better by automatically opening those closest to connecting gates, dispatching gate crews, and alerting facilities staff when and which washrooms to clean. All decisions are acted upon instantly and without human intervention.

The key to achieving this, Gamble says, “is by listening to, and intelligently reacting to data.” The solution weaves together data streaming through algorithms built on the machine-learning capabilities of Apache Spark.

This holiday season — and the rest of the year for that matter — many of us will be trudging through congested airports, incurring the stress of long lines, missed connections and rushed meals. It’s reassuring to know that IT and data specialists are working to make this a more positive experience.

Source : https://tinyurl.com/ycdf6fzo

International | 24 June 2017, 09:00am

Christopher Elliott

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.

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.

source : https://tinyurl.com/ybw4dcbc