Finnair unveils its first artificially intelligent chatbot

Finnair has launched its first artificially intelligent chatbot, Finn, on Finnair’s Facebook global account.

Finn has a mission to help Finnair customers on Facebook during their Finnair journey.

Finn knows how to sell flights, knows if flights are on time, helps to calculate how much baggage can be taken on a flight, and helps to redirect the customer to the Manage My Booking page to add more services to an existing booking.

Finn also answers frequently asked questions, and if Finn cannot answer a question, the message will be delivered to a customer service agent for further actions.

Finn is constantly learning and Finnair customers have an active role in its training.

“Exploiting artificial intelligence is an integral part of our transformation strategy.

“We are growing and constantly looking for new ways to improve our customer service and developing new sales channels using New Distribution Capability technology,” said Rogier van Enk, vice president distribution, Finnair.

“We believe that fast developing digital tools will greatly benefit our customers.

“Finn understands and communicates in English, but later it will learn more languages and functionalities. Finnish and Chinese are coming this year.

“After the initial stage, Finnair is looking to find a home for Finn in other social media platforms such as WeChat in China.”

The chatbot is one example of the new distribution channels enabled by IATA’s New Distribution Capability XML-based messaging standard.

Finn is the most technologically advanced NDC-solution in the aviation sector, because it offers the possibility to book flights across the whole Finnair network.

It also brings rich product content like videos and images to instant messaging.

Finnair is a Level 3 certified airline in IATA’s NDC program.

Finnair worked with Caravelo, a solutions company for the airline industry, to develop the chatbot.