Finnair has launched its first artificially intelligent chatbot, Finn, on Finnair Facebook global account’s Messenger.
“Exploiting artificial intelligence is an integral part of our transformation strategy. We are growing and we constantly look for new ways to improve our customer service and developing new sales channels using New Distribution Capability technology”, says Rogier van Enk, Vice President Distribution, Finnair.
“We believe that fast developing digital tools will greatly benefit our customers. Finn understands and communicates in English, but later it will learn more languages and functionalities. Finnish and Chinese are coming up this year. After the initial stage, Finnair is looking to find a home for Finn also in other social media platforms such as WeChat in China”
The chatbot is one example of the new distribution channels enabled by IATA's NDC (New Distribution Capability) XML-based messaging standard. Finn is the most technologically advanced NDC-solution in the aviation sector, because it offers the possibility to book flights in all Finnair network. It also brings rich product content like videos and images to instant messaging. Finnair is level 3 certified airline in IATA’s NDC program.
Development for chatbot has been made together with Caravelo, a solutions company for the airline industry.
“We are very proud to partner with Finnair to bring Finn to life. Finn represents a big step forward for chatbot technology in the airline industry, turning the messenger platform into a channel for servicing and sales.” says Jonathan Newman, Commercial Director, Caravelo.