Asia’s largest low cost carrier AirAsia on Monday unveiled a new digital assistant AVA (AirAsia Virtual Allstar) and a revamped mobile app and website.
Aireen Omar, the airline’s deputy group CEO (digital, transformation and corporate services), said at the launch the updates were designed with its guests in mind — to give them easier and faster navigation around its ecosystem while browsing for deals, booking flights, shopping online or getting customer support.
AVA at work
AVA, powered by artificial intelligence, is able to answer queries from customers instantly on both the app’s new live chat feature and revamped website in eight languages – English, Bahasa Malaysia, Thai, Bahasa Indonesia, Vietnamese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
Developed by Ada, a Toronto based company that specialises in AI-powered customer experience. AVA was built by the AirAsia Software Engineering and Technology (AASET) and Customer Happiness team.
The redesigned homepage has several new features including upcoming flight notice, search shortcut and recent searches, links to the best hotels, travel, duty-free shopping and activity deals, recommended destinations and link to BigPay, AirAsia’s money app.
iOS users now can do more with the AirAsia app that includes using an interactive map to choose and pin destinations in a single page. A combined station picker’ allows them to select the nearest departure and arrival airports and filter by number of stops and flight duration without remembering the airport codes. According to AirAsia, both these functionalities are a “first among airline apps.”
Siri is integrated in the iOS app, and travellers can ask the Apple virtual assistant to check their upcoming flight status by just clicking on the ‘Add to Siri’ button under Flight Itinerary or My Bookings.
However, it was not revealed when the iOS functionalities will be available for Android users of the app. AirAsia said it was developing the map feature for Android and mobile website.
Another new feature is integration with FACES (Fast Airport Clearance Experience System) on the mobile app for guests to clear security and board their flight seamlessly. The system was first launched at Senai International Airport, the low cost airline’s southern hub in Malaysia, on February 6, 2018. To use it just click on My Account and My FACES to take a five-seconds video of your face.
There is also a built-in Low Fare Calendar in the mobile app for travellers to search for the lowest fares, earn and pay using BIG Points and enjoy instant member discounts when they log in.
“We are always working to enhance our guest experience, and we will be adding more mobile app features in the months to come so it is no longer just a flight booking platform but your complete travel companion,” said Aireen.
• Featured image: AirAsia executives Introducing AVA (3rd from left) head of innovation & product transformation Kenneth Andersson, group head of software engineering Elias Vafiadis, chief customer happiness officer Adam Geneave, deputy group CEO (digital, transformation & corporate services) Aireen Omar, chief product officer Nikunj Shanti
