AirAsia turns to AI after sacking its chatbot

AirAsia turns to AI after sacking its chatbot

Capital A Berhad, the parent company of AirAsia, held a press conference on Wednesday where the company announced it has sacked AirAsia Virtual Allstar AVA and welcomed the AI powered ‘Ask Bo’.

The AVA was sacked after a series of customer complaints about it.

“Our guests have spoken, and we are listening and learning,” Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A said.

“We felt their frustration towards our first AI chatbot – AVA which was always a work in progress. We recognise she fell short of people’s expectations and we want to do better.”

Fernandes said that the new AI chatbot is named after the airline group’s CEO Bo Lingam.

Bo Lingam, Group CEO of AirAsia Aviation Group said: “I am happy to put my name and my face for this new and enhanced version of our customer concierge service, that promises to be more proactive and attentive. Lower fares doesn’t mean lower service quality and it is very important to us that our guests feel cared for when they choose to fly with us, for the best fares and the best customer experience. The buck stops with me. Ask Bo will make the customer journey easier, simpler, and more informative.”

Kesavan Sivanandam, chief airport and customer experience officer, AirAsia Aviation Group added: “Many new exciting features are being added to Ask Bo – he will be able to provide LIVE updates on flight status (delays, departures) and/or changes and boarding information, in more languages including English, Chinese, Bahasa (BM, Indonesian), Thai, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.

“He will send push notifications on any last minute changes on the day of operations, and give baggage information (tracking, arrival belt, mishandled baggage reports) and report real-time automatic updates of departure timings into the electronic boarding pass for our guests’ peace of mind.

“Our guests will have more autonomy– they will be able to change flights, request refunds, choose Service recovery options. By March, our guests will also be able to talk live to our human agents, during the Ask Bo interaction. We will continue to innovate to ensure the highest standards of customer care in all that we do to best meet our guests requirements.”

Capital A will reveal live information on on-time performance, as well as baggage handling information on its website and its app. It has also vowed to continue to review guests’ feedback from various perspectives across the Group, support cross departmental collaboration and adoption of customer experience programmes into different business entities, while ensuring that leaders lend their full support in the successful implementation of CX enhancement initiatives.


Featured Image: From left to right: Maryanna Kim, Group Head of Corporate Communications & Consumer Affairs , Bo Lingam, Group CEO of AirAisia Aviation Group Limited, Kesavan Sivanandam, Chief Airport and Customer Experience Officer and Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A at the launch of Ask Bo.

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