Zumata expands Into Asia

By Digital News Asia June 26, 2017

New chatbot can “speak” to customers in a conversational, “human” way
Also allows for product comparisons, as well as payment by e-wallet or credit card

Zumata expands Into Asia

ZUMATA an artificial intelligence (AI) powered hotel distribution and technology company, is expanding into Asia. Part of this expansion will include the introduction of its new technological offering - AI driven chatbots.

Zumata started out with funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF) through a venture capital programme supported by the Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore. This was done alongside investors including 500 Durians and Wavemaker, as part of the Draper Venture Network.

Founded in 2010, Zumata was one of the early movers in the AI travel solutions space. Some of Zumata’s clients include Expedia, Amadeus and Dhisco among others.

With its presence established in North America, Zumata is now turning its sights on expanding its AI capabilities in both hotel distribution and chatbots to Asia. They have also recently established a new and bigger headquarters in the heart of Singapore.

“The trust from our global partners has helped us to grow rapidly in the past few years. We believe that Asia holds many major opportunities and untapped potential,” said Zumata CEO Josh Ziegler (pic).

“As we grow aggressively in the region, we hope to capitalise on the growth of the Asia travel market and the need for companies to undergo digital transformations to remain competitive and expand.”

Chatbots are clearly increasing in popularity across the business-to-consumer industry. However, they are traditionally keyword-focused (i.e. where customer must ask questions in a certain way for it to work), or based on conversation trees like the notorious interactive voice response systems (e.g. ‘press 1 for xxx service’).

The lack of interactivity of these traditional guided systems dilutes the overall customer interaction experience.

Zumata’s new chatbot can “speak” to customers in a conversational, “human” way. This means that customers can ask the same question in a wide variety of ways with the system still able to reply with accurate responses and handle multiple scenarios.

The potential applications of this platform include customer service, personalisation and advisory of sales, as well as transaction handling. Companies like NTUC Income (an insurer in Singapore), are beginning to benefit from Zumata’s interactive chatbots tailored to the specific needs of their products, services, and customer support.

“Zumata’s chatbot platform is an industry-agnostic tool that can provide instant, automated, and most importantly, genuine customer engagement for businesses. I believe it will completely transform the way that businesses interact with consumers,” said Ziegler.

“Here at Zumata, we aim to pioneer this industrial revolution with the integration of our AI technology, and develop elite solutions customised to the needs of our clients.”

Some features of Zumata’s chatbot include the ability to understand local lingo and emojis. It is also able to detect tonality, and can transfer the customer to live support should confusion or anxiousness be detected.

Beyond that, Zumata’s latest innovation also allows for product comparisons, as well as payment by e-wallet or credit card.