Small meetings tech firm Bizly has introduced an artificial intelligence-powered chat function within its meetings contracting and booking app. The feature is an addition to the venue direct messaging function introduced in April as part of Bizly's pivot to an enterprise-focused meetings app. The beauty of the first iteration of the messaging center is that it tracks the negotiation thread, thereby creating a kind of "live" RFP and contract record, rather than using onerous documentation for simple group bookings. By adding the artificial intelligence feature, Bizly CEO Ron Shah told BTN, the technology better supports compliance and relevance for the user, and ultimately efficiency.
"We found bottlenecks in the traditional process that were cropping up in our tool as well," he said. "For example legal addendums still had to be reviewed at the end of the process even for small meetings. Bringing in the lawyers and redlining at that point is not efficient. So we've brought AI in to help automate that: to recognize at what point during the chat conversation these parameters need to be presented and to prompt suppliers to agree to requirements like nondisclosures or insurance limits as part of the workflow."
Natural language processing will recognize chat patterns to trigger other compliance reminders like room rate limits or meal cost limits to keep meeting organizers on the right path. The system will also pull on the user's past bookings and special requests to suggest things like extra water pitchers or other known preferences. Using venue stats and other metadata stored in the technology, Bizly AI can also surface instant-book venues that meet user needs even as they are chatting through requirements with other suppliers.
"Our goal is to limit the time it takes to book a meeting," said Shah, adding that the AI will get smarter with usage. "It really needs to be easy for anyone within a company to book meetings and stay
compliant."