Following the announcement
of their partnership in July, Casto Travel and artificial intelligence-powered corporate
travel platform startup Mezi have launched the Marco mobile travel assistant. The
name, according to Casto Travel president Marc Casto, is not a mashup of his
own. Rather, it is a reference to the travel adventurer Marco Polo—and a signal
to the industry that AI-assisted corporate travel services are the heart of its
next technology adventure.
The text message based travel assistant is the delivery
system for an AI-powered travel management company platform play behind the scenes at Casto Travel.
It starts with Mezi's collection of chatbots that work together to provide
instant answers and booking options for end users when they send text message
or voice requests through the mobile travel assistant. If the chatbots can't
deliver, the system automatically alerts Casto's human travel agents to pick up
the request. The chatbots continue to learn as the human agent assists the
user, improving the AI's future success rates.
Casto Travel has dedicated a team of agents to the new AI
system, which has required completely new training in how to collaborate with
the bots. "It's been a force multiplier for us," Marc
Casto told BTN. "Our AI-assisted agents are at least five times more productive
than a traditional agent," and, he said, they are providing a different
level of service to corporate travelers.
"Every TMC will tell you that they hire the best
people, but at every TMC, the GDS skill set has to be the top priority. That's
been a limiting factor because it says nothing about an individual's customer
service skills, and what we really want is the best customer service."
Mezi CEO Swapnil Shinde believes that is the secret to transforming
the traveler experience and the future of TMC technology. "The Mezi
platform unifies corporate travel and consumer travel content into one
platform," he said, referring to Mezi's use of traditional Sabre content,
plus Expedia and Priceline content. "Then, we deliver that content through
intuitive dashboards to the agent."
Casto added that it is much easier to onboard agents to the
Mezi system than it is to a global distribution system platform and that "the adoption and excitement
among the agents has been amazing."
Still, Casto is taking a conservative approach, coming out
of beta testing with a few existing clients ready to launch with the new system
and a handful of new clients looking for a novel approach to servicing their
corporate travel needs. Among Casto Travel's Marco launch clients, about 10
percent of bookings are initiated through the tool.
Even that percentage has necessitated process tweaks at the
TMC level. "Speed-of-response expectation through messaging is much higher
than through email. Travelers want instantaneous communication, so we've had to
adjust our processes."
That means providing subtle indicators to the user when the
bots are processing information and "interim" messages like, "Let me look into that for you," so the user gets the experience of an
ongoing conversation. Behind the scenes, Casto said, Mezi provides immediate
alerts to the agents when they need to take over a message string.
Shinde claimed about 60 percent of requests are handled
without human intervention. "We're looking to shift that to 80
percent in the next three months," he said.
Mezi is implementating with more TMCs, but Shinde wants to keep the pipeline manageable so the company can deliver on the investments its partners are making in the AI space. Shinde looks for daily feedback from
clients and delivers product updates weekly to Casto Travel, sometimes more.
"The rate and speed of the development team
has been stellar," said Casto. "Mezi's ability to consistently update
and modulate the product for our requirements is exactly the kind of partner we
need in this."