Speech Has Industry Talking

<B> Speech Has Industry Talking</B>

By Cheryl Rosen

Speech recognition software has not proved nearly as useful as the travel industry expected when it debuted two years ago, but a flurry of recent activity shows that suppliers have not given up the quest to allow customers to interact by talking rather than typing.

Computer applications that understand the human voice--and not just word by word, but in full sentences--are sprouting again. In the past month alone, United Airlines rolled out a speech recognition system that allows customers to check arrival and departure information, and another from Delta Express provides information on schedules and lowest available fares, and allows users to make a reservation by speaking into the phone.

The new United system is the next logical step in a program that has deployed a number of speech applications since 1997. The previous one, for tracking mishandled baggage, debuted this summer as United's first speech system aimed at customers rather than internal travelers. United spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch called the rollout "one of the smoothest, quickest and most trouble-free deployments of new technology we've seen."

United rolled out its first speech application in October 1997, moving calls from its employees onto an automated system that recorded the information on which flight they planned to travel, to "let us know they were coming without pulling an agent away from customers," Ebenhoch said. By July 1998, the system could handle multiple bookings and tell users how full the flight was and by summer 1999, it was deployed to the airline's internal travelers. It now handles more than 2,000 calls a day from 30,000 users.

Delta Express, meanwhile, still is "encouraging customers to use the system for research" rather than allowing full automation of the process. The system prompts travelers to reply in a single word and lets them look but not truly book.

"You can partially book a reservation, but then it is sent to a Delta Express sales representative to complete," said spokeswoman Stacy Geagan. "Our research shows that travelers still want that human contact." While "it's too soon to document savings," three months of testing and 10,000 calls that made it through to the reservationist have shown that the voice system shortens the time needed to make a reservation for both the caller and the agent, Geagan said. And, she noted, "We've been testing the system on Delta Express to gauge the feedback--and if it's positive, we'll pass it on to all of Delta."

Still, these are not quite the front-end booking applications that American Express, Sabre and Via World Network envisioned when it first became possible for computers to understand full spoken sentences (<I>BTN</I>, July 28, 1997).

"We've taken it slow," acknowledged United's Ebenhoch, noting that the abilities of the technology are not the issue.

Charlie Rutledge, vice president of solution services for SpeechWorks, the Boston-based company that produced the United system, noted that the question has changed over the past two years from whether speech-recognition technology works to whether the travel industry is ready to adopt it. While the new United and Delta Express systems prompt primarily one-word responses from customers, "we certainly have systems deployed that can recognize full sentences," he said. "But speech recognition systems are relatively new, and we want to make things easy for customers, so they'll be willing to use the system again."

For the online booking systems, meanwhile, the realities of the marketplace have pushed front-end speech applications further down the to-do list than once expected. Said Sabre director of channel marketing Wendy Gibson, "The technology is ready to go, but customers are more focused on ensuring that the graphical user interface is fast, easy to use and reliable. They may make changes through a cell phone, but they are more comfortable making full reservations through their laptops."

For now, the main focus of Sabre BTS's customer base of corporate travel managers is on pushing up adoption rates, Gibson said. "But as we get through the adoption phase, they'll start to look for further enhancements. I think we'll see speech recognition in 2000."

American Express, which in 1997 announced a partnership with Nuance Communications to produce a speech-recognition front-end for its AXI online booking system, also has shelved the concept, at least for now. "We've put that whole project on hold," said spokeswoman Melissa Abernathy. "We've developed an application, but the main stumbling block is justifying the expense. It has to either replace labor or be a plus-cost."

Still, progress continues in the airline arena, where the return on investments in the technology is quicker and more easily tracked. SpeechWorks' Rutledge said the United system is expected to save $3 million a year "by reassigning customer service staff to revenue-generating customers, not to mention the added level of customer service agents can give to other callers now that its 415,000 employees are not calling in."

SpeechWorks already is working on a similar bilingual flight information system for Continental Airlines and a speech recognition system for MapQuest that will allow travelers to phone in from their cars to access detailed driving directions. "When people call in for driving instructions, they're often already driving," Rutledge said. "That makes it difficult for them to look things up on their laptops."

New applications also are in the works for United. In "a couple of months," members of United's Mileage Plus frequent flyer program will be able to speak into their cell phones to check award inventory.

Continental, meanwhile, has 10,000 frequent flyers testing a speech system for ticket refunds and reissues developed originally by Via World Network (see Tech Talk).