Irish Based Tech Company Build Multilingual COVID-19 Travel Advisor Bot on WhatsApp

VoiceSage, the Irish-based tech company providing mobile communication solutions delivering millions of messages worldwide via Voice, SMS, Email, WhatsApp, and Rich Media Messaging (RMM), unveiled an insightful use case regarding covid travel restrictions.

Using the power of AI and Machine Learning, VoiceSage has built an interactive communication solution on WhatsApp that offers brands AI-powered automated business messaging that is easy to configure using their low-code user interface.

On the back of an internal Hackathon – a program where employees are encouraged to build upon VoiceSage technologies and services, the staff produced a multilingual bot for the travel industry. The bot is triggered when a person types in WhatsApp chat: “I want to go somewhere” in the language of their choice and sends that message to the WhatsApp number. All messages are free, and anyone can experience the travel bot.

The idea of the travel advisory bot came from a need for travel to return to normal while gaining awareness of covid restrictions and changes. As we all know, countries are beginning to open their borders and allow international travel to take the first tentative steps to resume in a post-lockdown scenario.

However, travellers still struggle to find specific information about covid restrictions and rules, as we are dealing with a constant change in policies and ways of living. People have questions regarding flights, regulations in their country of origin, and the country of destination.

To help travellers navigate through this sea of information and to provide access to real-time updates and advisories from countries and their governments, VoiceSage’s travel advisor bot is designed to answer urgent needs. The chatbot provides a repository of frequently updated information from various official sources within a single interface, across any channel, and in any language to help travellers plan upcoming trips amid the ever-changing COVID-19 crisis.

The travel bot is intuitive and easy to use – travellers can ask questions such as:

• I don’t know if my country will allow me to travel.
• What are the current travel restrictions?
• I’d like to know if there are any restrictions at the destination I am planning to visit.

The bot aims to answer basic traveling queries and help ease the uncertainties and stress of travel. A series of simple questions guide the user to the correct information regarding the origin, destination, policies, and the specific travel date.

As consumers, we live in a time when news is changing every hour. It is difficult to respond quickly to these accelerated changes when only relying on manual help. As the “new normal” continues to develop, we want to see more innovative ways of adding intelligent automation and other advanced technologies to our business processes.

VoiceSage’s travel advisor bot offers information in 71 languages. The chatbot is available now for use and it’s continuing to evolve as part of our machine learning project. Please experience the demo by sending the message: “I want to go somewhere” to VoiceSage’s WhatsApp number +447451289920.