SOUTHLAKE, Texas, Feb. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sabre Corporation
(NASDAQ: SABR), the leading technology provider to the global
travel industry, today launched a pilot program of an A.I.-powered
chatbot that leverages Microsoft's Bot Framework and Microsoft
Cognitive Services, a set of tools that organizations can use to
add intelligent and conversational features to their applications.
Sabre is initially piloting the chatbot with the travel agency
Travel Services International USA
(TSI) and the travelers they serve.
"We are excited to start pilot testing for the bot," said
Chad Callaghan, head of the Sabre
Studios incubation team. "We believe the self-service convenience
the bot offers will improve travelers' ability to resolve routine
support requests. At the same time, we are happy to help our travel
agency customers ensure agents can focus on supporting more complex
traveler requests. We will be interested to track how travelers
learn about and interact with the bot."
TSI will test a white-label version of the chatbot with their
corporate travelers, who will access the chatbot via Facebook
Messenger to address common service and support requests related to
existing flight reservations. Using the bot, travelers will be able
to ask trip-related questions, make voluntary changes to existing
flight reservations, request a special meal, select and pay for a
seat, and request an emailed copy of an itinerary. The chatbot will
divert to a live travel agent if it is unable to fulfill a
request.
"We've named the TSI bot, Ella," noted Claire LeBuhn, vice president, support services
at TSI USA. "Ella represents TSI's
heritage of innovation and commitment to exploring new technologies
and tools that can help our corporate customers and their busy
employees. Travelers can access Ella via the TSI app or directly
from TSI's Facebook page. Ella supports reservations originated by
TSI. We are eager to understand how corporate travelers engage with
Ella and the kinds of emerging conversational interfaces that she
represents."
Throughout the test, Sabre and TSI will evaluate travelers'
preferences for how often and when they engage the chatbot and when
they are likely to divert to a live agent. The companies expect to
gain a better understanding of the best way to engage travelers
with chatbots and solve for some of the most common friction points
associated with chatbots, such as how travelers will initially find
the bot.
In developing the chatbot, Sabre is leveraging Microsoft Bot
Framework and a selection of Microsoft Cognitive Services,
including Language Understanding Intelligent Service (LUIS). One of
the key challenges in human-computer interactions is the ability of
computers to understand what people want and find relevant
information that connects to their intent. Travel applications must
recognize a plethora of unique terms and phrases, which adds
complexity for industry applications. LUIS provides simple tools to
build language models that allow any application or bot to
understand commands and act accordingly.
About Sabre
Sabre Corporation is the leading
technology provider to the global travel industry. Sabre's
software, data, mobile and distribution solutions are used by
hundreds of airlines and thousands of hotel properties to manage
critical operations, including passenger and guest reservations,
revenue management, flight, network and crew management. Sabre also
operates a leading global travel marketplace, which processes more
than US$120 billion of global travel
spend annually by connecting travel buyers and suppliers.
Headquartered in Southlake, Texas,
USA, Sabre serves customers in more than 160 countries around the
world.
SABR-F
Media contact: sabrenews@sabre.com Investor
contact: sabre.investorrelations@sabre.com
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SOURCE Sabre Corporation