ZUMATA expands AI-powered customer service beyond travel with IBM Watson

SINGAPORE – 11
November 2016 –ZUMATA, a Singapore-based travel technology company,
today announced they are working with IBM Watson to deliver more personalized customer
experiences. The company will use the Watson Developer Cloud to develop and deliver
conversational interfaces for a cross-section of industries, including travel,
finance, insurance, and others.

Watson is a cognitive computing technology platform that uses natural language
processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of
structured and unstructured data, such as text and images. Watson’s machine
learning capabilities allow it to continuously learn from previous
interactions, gaining insights and knowledge over time.

ZUMATA is integrating the Watson Conversation, Retrieve and Rank, AlchemyLanguage, and Visual Recognition APIs into its online client
customer services web portals. By training Watson with ZUMATA’s own database
including an inventory of hotels, ZUMATA’s new conversational interfaces with
Watson can accurately determine the intent of customers’ questions and quickly
return high-confidence answers. ZUMATA will also work closely with its client
customer service and technical experts to further develop and refine AI-powered
solutions, and seamlessly transition customers to live agents as and when
necessary.

“Artificial intelligence has
immense capabilities to change the world. We are delighted to be working with
IBM to leverage Watson’s capability to process natural language queries and uncover
insights from massive amounts of unstructured data including reviews, blogs,
news articles, press releases, images and more, in order to match customers
with their perfect travel experience,” Josh Ziegler, CEO of ZUMATA said. “In
addition to providing data-driven advisory services, we’ve also found success
in handling customer service related queries. Over the months that we have
worked with Watson, we have found that through the use of its cognitive
capabilities, we are able to provide higher customer service levels and net
promoter scores, while reducing the cost of customer service operations.”

“In a highly competitive and digitized business environment, customer
experience has undoubtedly become a significant differentiator for marketers.
Customers expect personalized experiences and they want answers quickly,” said
Tony Menezes, Vice President, Cognitive Solutions, IBM Asia Pacific. “With
Watson’s cognitive capabilities including natural language processing and
machine learning, IBM is enhancing the engagement experience between businesses
like ZUMATA and their customers. Put simply, Watson is making it possible for
businesses to reimagine how they connect and engage, and that is how they will
be able to deliver higher value.”