Capital A introduces new AI-powered 'Ask Bo' virtual assistant

Its chief executive officer (CEO), Tony Fernandes, said the company reiterates its commitment to transparent communications and better customer experience for its guests as part of its vision to become the most communicative, responsive and answerable brand in the region.

"Our guests have spoken, and we are listening and learning. We felt their frustration towards our first AI chatbot, AVA, which was always a work in progress. We recognise she (AVA) fell short of people's expectations, and we want to do better.

"Over the last eight months, the customer experience team have zeroed in on what our guests need and want, what their top complaints are, and today we are happy to introduce 'Ask Bo', named after our CEO of AirAsia Aviation Group, Bo Lingam," he said after the launch of Ask Bo here today.

As part of the group's efforts to be more open and transparent, Tony said Capital A would reveal live information on on-time performance and baggage handling information on its website and Super App.

Chief airport and customer experience officer, AirAsia Aviation Group Kesavan Sivanandam said many new exciting features were being added to Ask Bo, including being able to provide live updates on a customer's flight status as well as changes and boarding information in several languages, including English, Chinese, Bahasa Malaysia and Bahasa Indonesia, Thai, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.

"Ask Bo will send push notifications on any last minute changes on the day of operations, and give baggage information (tracking, arrival belt, mishandled baggage reports) and report real-time automatic updates of departure timings into the electronic boarding pass," he said.

Kesavan added that guests would be able to talk live to human agents during the Ask Bo interaction by March this year.

"We will continue to innovate to ensure the highest standards of customer care in all that we do to best meet our guests' requirements.

"Our guests will have more autonomy where they will be able to change flights, request refunds, choose service recovery options," he said.

As at December 2022, AirAsia has refunded 98 per cent of the total claims made since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and US$2.1 billion has been paid out to guests in various forms, including cash, credit account, travel voucher and AG Credit. (US$1 = RM4.30)