Tripadvisor Chatbot

TripAdvisor asked me to check out its chatbot.

I am always thankful when companies ask me for my feedback. Given that the world is inundated with the news about AI taking over, I tried it out. I tend to be curious too.

Here is how the conversation went.

Me: What to do in LA?

Bot: Shows me bunch of LA places and also other places.

Ok, I don’t know why you are showing me Barcelona because it is really far away from here.

Then I asked for free things to do in LA.

Bot answers back with bunch of stuff that costs money…I started laughing.

I asked about getting discounts on hotels. Bot took time and then said to go talk to customer service!

Haha. I am glad that the bot knows when to hand over to real people.

So I learned that chatbots are still far from perfect and that humans will be needed. Also, we tend to love human better. That is why some credit card companies such as Discovery Card have always people handling issues.

But what I liked about the chatbot was that it knew its limits. When it got lost, it asked for me to call a human customer service. That was nice 😀

So my short time with the chatbot, I learned that AI has developed a lot but has some time to go. Also, good communicators will have a job in the future as well. There will be situations that human touch, wit, and empathy will win the day.

PS

I hope this chatbot works well. It will save a lot of cost and provide value to customers. Look forward to checking out more innovative products from TripAdvisor and other companies. Thank you TripAdvisor for the chatbot experience.