AirAsia fires AI chatbot 'AVA' and replaces her with Bo

AirAsia will be replacing its AI chatbot, AirAsia Virtual Allstar (AVA), with an enhanced version called ‘Ask Bo’. The design of Ask Bo is inspired by and emulates Bo Lingam, Group CEO of AirAsia Aviation Group Limited, which is the aviation arm of Capital A.

AirAsia claims that this version has better AI built in with machine learning capabilities. Ask Bo provides detailed and customised information to guide customers along their journey, and enables self-service functions for faster access to resolutions.

To date, since AVA’s launch in 2019 she more than 113 million guests and over 43 million queries at the peak of Covid-19. As such, the decision to replace AVA with Ask Bo came after the company recognised the bot’s shortcomings in making customer experiences smoother. Tony Fernandes, CEO of Capital A shared that the Ask Bo will offer a more “proactive, attentive and hassle-free experience to all guests within the Capital A lines of businesses.”

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Fernandes said that AirAsia’s customer experience team zeroed in on what its guests need and want, and what their top complaints are and created Ask Bo as the solution.

Lingam added, “I am happy to put my name and my face for this new and enhanced version of our customer concierge service, that promises to be more proactive and attentive.”

Kesavan Sivanandam, chief airport and customer service officer of AirAsia Group gave insight into Ask Bo’s features, which include providing live updates on flight status and changes in boarding information, communicating in more languages - English, Chinese, Bahasa (BM, Indonesian), Thai, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese, sending push notifications on any last minute changes on the day of operations, giving baggage information, and report real-time automatic updates of departure timings into the electronic Boarding Pass.

“By March, our guests will also be able to talk live to our human agents, during the Ask Bo interaction. We will continue to innovate to ensure the highest standards of customer care in all that we do to best meet our guests’ requirements,” he added.

AirAsia, along with other Malaysian airlines, has recently been in the hot seat for inadequate customer service.

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