AutomatedCheckin is an innovative solution created by TenderHut, a Polish developer company, to help travellers check into their flights. Machine learning technology and artificial intelligence have been put to use to create a virtual assistant which learns about the travellers’ flight preferences and performs virtual check-in, using Skype.
In the age of the global economy, business travel is on the increase and ease of travel is critical. The TenderHut Group, an is ready to assist with an innovative solution automating the flight check-in process. Thanks to this technology, you can efficiently check-in with various carriers by having a conversation via Skype.
Necessity the mother of invention
The idea of creating the AutomatedCheckin bot came from the company’s internal requirement to simplify air travel. “ As the head of a company delivering software to clients across practically all continents, I travel a lot. I try to plan my trip as precisely as possible, and I was very irritated by situations where I had to use different applications or www pages in order to change a carrier on a multi-leg journey. Due to the dynamic of my trips, companies specializing in arranging trips of this type were also not a good solution for me, because they proved to be too inflexible, and I had to check myself in with every airline that I flew with anyway. After several such trips, I said that there must be a simpler solution. And so, the idea of a bot that solves the problem of flight check-ins and optimizes the time spent on these activities was born” – says Robert Strzelecki, vice-president of TenderHut.
An application like a personal assistant
“A conversation with a bot resembles a conversation with a personal assistant, who is simply given the information required for performing a task on our behalf. In this case, this is flight check-in, which the bot handles automatically after we provide the most important data. Above all, this is about your choice of seat on the airplane. A bot is simply faster than a human, which is why it has a much better chance of reserving a good spot for us while seat availability will still be high. Of course, we can change our mind during check-in. The bot will also take this into account and suggest another seat if possible, remembering each traveller’s past check-in history” – Robert Strzelecki adds. An important part of the entire solution is the fact that it has been made available in open source. This is because the creators want to make it easily accessible to travel agencies and travellers alike. Download the bot here: automatedcheckin.com
A technological challenge
The solution developed by the software engineers at SoftwareHut is interesting due to the necessity of the bot’s communication on two levels. On the one hand, the programmers needed to teach the machine fluent communication with a human, and on the other, the bot needed to be taught to understand the check-in systems available on carrier websites in order for it to perform its tasks efficiently. – This is a unique solution, because our bot must enter into interactions not only with humans but also other computer systems. In spite of appearances, the second task was the more difficult, since airline check-in systems do not have a so-called open API, and our bot had to “learn” to navigate carriers’ webpages and identify individual options. Our programmers have done a great job, and today, we can freely use a solution that is flexible and makes it possible to react to the user's needs immediately via Skype chat – explains Marcin Skoczylas, the project manager responsible for the bot's development.
User feedback
“One application for generating and storing all my boarding passes, a bot that remembers my preferences? This app will allow me to save loads of time, so that I can enjoy day-to-day life. I can’t wait to try it! – comments Eva Krydowska, Digital Consultant, one of the people testing the Polish bot in London.
Flexibility is key to success, and TenderHut is an excellent example of an organization that creates solutions addressing burning business needs. The company’s products also include Zonifero - the office management app.