Most people who have used AirAsia’s services are familiar with the AirAsia Virtual Allstar (AVA), the company’s chatbot that acts as the front desk for its online help centre. After being in operation for four years, the AI-powered virtual customer service assistant is being replaced by Ask Bo, a newer AI chatbot modelled after the carrier’s top executive.
Ask Bo is named after the Group CEO of AirAsia Aviation Group, Bo Lingam, and is even a spitting image of him. The group claims that the new chatbot has “enhanced” AI and machine learning capabilities with several new features being added, including an easier way to talk to an actual person about your issues.
The company explains that Ask Bo will be able to provide live updates on your flight status, any changes regarding your flight, and even boarding information. He is capable of providing concierge service in several languages aside from English, including Chinese, Malay, Indonesian, Thai, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese.
The updated chatbot will also send push notifications on any last-minute changes, give baggage information such as tracking and mishandled baggage reports, and report real-time automatic updates of departure timings into the electronic Boarding Pass. AirAsia states that customers will apparently have more autonomy with Ask Bo when changing flights and requesting refunds.
Most importantly, the company says that by March, users can ask the new AI to talk live to human agents to solve their issues, although it did not give an exact rollout date for this feature. Promising to be more transparent, parent company Capital A is promising to reveal live information on on-time performance and baggage handling on its website and app.
Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A, explains that the reason for this move is that customers expressed their frustration with AVA. Since its introduction in 2019, AVA has handled more than 113 million guests with 43 million queries in 2020 alone.
(Source: AirAsia)
