Air New Zealand chatbot Oscar completes first year of answering customer queries

4 February, 2018

Air New Zealand reported (02-Feb-2018) its 'Bravo Oscar Tango' chatbot completed its first year of operations and is now averaging 1000 conversations per day. The carrier reported the AI chatbot's performance has steadily improved with every customer interaction. Currently the bot is capable of holding conversations on more than 380 different topics, and is able to successfully answer close to 75% of questions, up from 7% when it initially went into operation. The carrier developed the chatbot in house, rather than acquiring a commercial system, as these "often tend to specialise in a smaller number of topics and can be challenging to customise" said Air New Zealand chief digital officer Avi Golan. Future plans for Oscar include integration with other chat platforms and adding more self-service functionality to help customers manage even more aspects of their bookings. [more - original PR]