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itive and rules-based. Considering  industry, including travel. By utilis-  service.  RPA’s  applications  are
         the number of roles across an air-  ing computer vision, the software  also expanding past rules-based
         line’s back office that have a high  replaces human interaction and  tasks to automate more complex
         percentage of activities related to  takes over tedious and mundane  operations by allowing airlines
         data collection and processing,  tasks that are previously done by  to improve the quality and time-
         the impact on airlines will be pro-  people.                           liness of their services. With the
         found. Moreover, RPA is popular       In  general,  travel  agencies  growing application of Artificial
         among airline carriers who wish to  have many high volume, transac-    Intelligence  (AI)  and  its  ability
         provide a higher level of customer  tion-based processes and they  to handle much larger amounts
         service, especially when it comes  routinely deal with multiple air-   of unstructured data, customer
         to speed of service delivery with  lines, from legacy carriers with  experience is only expected to
         100 per cent accuracy. With 95  obsolete IT systems, to newer low-     rapidly improve.
         per cent of tasks within mature  cost carriers. As such, employees  The collaboration between RPA
         organisations being repetitive ,  often must interact with different  and AI, also known as intelligent
         organisations will be able to uti-  management systems, styles of  automation, is bound to create
         lise UiPath’s RPA solution to mimic  invoice, itineraries, processes and  an even more personalised
         the activity of humans and free  data, in turn increasing the proba-   travel experience. AI can tackle
         their employees from tedious and  bility of human error. Upon RPA’s  tasks that require complex deci-
         mundane tasks, thus concentrat-    incorporation, this large amount of  sion-making and analysis, such
         ing more on client interaction.    data can be immediately logged in  as natural language processing,
           For established legacy carriers,  the correct place and monitored  providing recommendations and
         RPA will allow them to overcome  at any time, with easy access.        offering online customer support.
         many of the challenges that their     With staff only being deployed  RPA  can  autonomously  adjust
         older IT systems pose. For newer  to carry out the final checks, both  prices  of  flights  depending  on
         carriers, RPA will allow them to  time and costs are significantly  demand, weather, seasonality etc.
         scale at a much more rapid pace,  decreased. This enables airline  Simultaneously, marketing auto-
         potentially out-manoeuvring their  companies to assign their staff  mation will also be incorporated
         more established rivals.           to more front-line and custom-      to further personalise messages,
                                            er-centric parts of the business.  such as sending pop-up remind-
         AAA: What particular challenges  Moreover,  RPA  supports  rapid  ers to passengers to return to
         is RPA able to tackle for airlines?  expansion. Airline companies will  their abandoned cart.
         With rising consumer demands  be allowed to scale at a rapid rate
         and expectations, many airlines  and with much ease, from the  AAA: Where does AI fit into this?
         face  much  difficulty  in  dealing  automated workflows that have  From the present data on custom-
         with such situations, especially  been created and distributed  ers’ preferences, the software will
         with their old, inefficient legacy  across the organisations’ multi-   be able to independently predict
         IT systems that are prone to fail-  ple departments, with the help of  upcoming  holiday  destinations,
         ure.  Coping  with  this  bane  not  RPA. This enables them to expe-   offer restaurant recommendations

         only incurs costs for the airline  rience a surge in travel frequency.  and go beyond to suggest recre-
         but also affects the company’s                                         ational activities for the consumer.
         flexibility,  growth  and  level  of  AAA: What additional value can  On top of the usual back-office
         customer service. Due to whole-    RPA bring?                          functions, RPA, together with AI,
         sale revamps of IT systems being  Airline companies’ primary aim  can enable chatbots and support
         excessively costly and disruptive,  is to drive a seamless and con-    call centres, further enhancing
         many airlines are turning to RPA  venient consumer-oriented  customer engagement and ser-
         as a solution.                     experience across various  vice, by gathering feedback and
           Essentially, RPA is a technol-   touch-points. Studies state that  continuing to enhance the con-
         ogy solution which aims to put  88 per cent consumers expect  sumers’ experience.
         people back at the heart of the  a seamless transition between
         travel industry. It can automate  automated self-service technol-
         many repetitive and monoto-        ogies and a human agent during
         nous tasks that are carried out  a booking, making a purchase
         by employees in almost every  or while contacting customer



        ASIAN AIRLINES & AEROSPACE                                                                 March/April 2018 | 39
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