FCM Travel Solutions has launched SAM 每 the company*s in-house developed Chatbot.
The Smart Assistant for Mobile supports users with aspects of travel via a conversational interface to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions.
FCM said SAM can assist travellers pre, during and post-trip with features including itinerary management, air and hotel bookings, flights updates, local restaurant recommendations and security notifications.
The chatbot picks up on cues such as travel patterns and updates travellers accordingly.
For example when a traveller lands at the airport, SAM will message the carousel number for collecting baggage and ask if the user needs to arrange transport from the airport to their hotel.
FCM said the more a traveller uses Sam, the more intelligent the chatbot becomes, so that information delivered to the user is even more personalized.
※The pace of evolution in mobile and smartphone technology is relentless and tech-savvy business travellers are already feeling the urge to use other consumer apps for booking flights and hotels, instead of their TMC,§ explained Kelvin Kroll, CIO Europe & Africa, of FCM*s parent company Flight Centre Travel Group.
※At the same time, the smartphone era is transitioning towards the conversation era, meaning the way consumers communicate with apps is moving to a message-based approach. In fact by 2020 we predict consumers will start feeling app fatigue and text or voice-based interfaces will be the new norm for communicating with the web.§