Planning a trip nowadays tends to go extremes: making endless queries on search engines to try and find the best deal or taking good, old advice from only a few people you know well but with limited options. The result: a vacation that’s not really what you want. IBM Travel Concierge strikes the balance by interacting with you through natural conversation to understand your preferences and helping you narrowing down the top choices with personalized recommendations, from destinations and attractions to flights and hotels. This novel combination has been beta tested by a major international travel company. In this talk, we will demonstrate how it works and the lessons we’ve learned from the test, including app performance, user experience and business impact.

1. IBM Travel Concierge
—
Guang-Jie Ren, PhD
Manager, re*THINK Enterprise
IBM Research - Almaden Lab
gren@us.ibm.com
Team: Sunhwan Lee, Bob Moore, Shun Jiang,
Lei Huang, Eric Liu, Saurabh Mishra
Guang-Jie Ren / gren@us.ibm.com / IBM Research - Almaden / Mar 12, 2019 / © 2019 IBM Corporation

2. Today’s travel
shopping experience
is designed around
machines
Guang-Jie Ren / gren@us.ibm.com / IBM Research - Almaden / Mar 12, 2019 / © 2019 IBM Corporation

3. Users are presented with
standard search forms
Guang-Jie Ren / gren@us.ibm.com / IBM Research - Almaden / Mar 12, 2019 / © 2019 IBM Corporation
Minimum personalizationLimited engagement

4. Conversational agents seem
to be a promising alternative
Guang-Jie Ren / gren@us.ibm.com / IBM Research - Almaden / Mar 12, 2019 / © 2019 IBM Corporation
Users are familiar with messaging interfacesUsers can express needs in their own terms
SMS iMessage Facebook
Tencent (China) Line (South Korea)
Apple Siri Google Now/Home
MS Cortana Facebook M Amazon Alexa
IBM Watson

5. Yet very few “conversational agents”
support natural conversations
Guang-Jie Ren / gren@us.ibm.com / IBM Research - Almaden / Mar 12, 2019 / © 2019 IBM Corporation
System-Centric
(developer)
A: Hello, I am MedicareBot. To find answers to
Medicare questions, type your question in
natural language. Include whether you have
Original Medicare or Medicare Advantage. For
example: "Original Medicare coverage for
influenza vaccination."
U: Original Medicare coverage for influenza
vaccinations
A: Medicare covers tests to screen for diabetes
as well as services and supplies to help
treat the disease. Medicare will pay for
100% of its approved amount for the test
even before you have met the Part
B deductible. You will pay no copay or
deductible for these tests if you see
doctors who take assignment... more
U: thanks
A: There are no results for this question. To
find answers to Medicare questions, type
your question in natural language. Include
whether you have Original Medicare or
Medicare Advantage. For example: "Original
Medicare coverage for influenza
vaccination."
Content-Centric
(subject matter expert)
A: Hello, I am an automated Medicare Assistant.
I can answer questions about Medicare
insurance. What is your question?
U: am I covered for diabetes screenings?
A: Medicare covers tests to screen for diabetes
as well as services and supplies to help
treat the disease. Medicare will pay for
100% of its approved amount for the test
even before you have met the Part
B deductible. You will pay no copay or
deductible for these tests if you see
doctors who take assignment. Doctors and
other health care providers who take
assignment cannot charge you more than the
Medicare approved amount. Medicare
Advantage Plans cover all preventive
services the same as Original Medicare. This
means Medicare Advantage Plans will not be
allowed to charge cost-sharing fees
(coinsurances, copays or deductibles) for
preventive services that Original Medicare
does not charge for as long as you see in-
network providers.
U: thanks
A: You can ask a question the same way you
would ask your doctor.
Visual-Centric
(graphical UI designer)
A: Hi, I'm Melanie, your virtual nurse! I can
answer your Medicare questions. To start,
which plan do you have?
A: Okay, Medicare Advantage. What is your
question?
U: am I covered for diabetes screenings?
A: Medicare covers tests to screen for diabetes
as well as services and supplies to help
treat the disease. Medicare will pay for
100% of its approved amount for the test
even before you have met the Part
B deductible. You will pay no copay or
deductible for these tests if you see
doctors who take assignment.
A: Was this answer useful?
Conversation-Centric
(conversational UX designer)
A: Hi, I'm Alma. I'm here to answer any
questions you have about your Medicare
insurance. How can I help you?
U: I have a question about diabetes screenings
A: Okay, what's your question?
U: am I covered for them?
A: Diabetes screenings are covered at 100% of
the approved amount so there is no copay or
deductible if you see doctors who take
assignment.
U: what do you mean by take assignment?
A: Oh. Assignment means that your doctor,
provider or supplier agrees to accept the
Medicare-approved amount as full payment.
U: ok thanks
A: You're welcome! Is there anything else I can
do for you?
• web-like, mobile-like
• buttons, visualizations
• agent-driven, linear
• text only
• command- or search-like
• user conforms to system
• user-driven
• voice or text
• document-like
• long, detailed responses
• user-driven
• text only
• conversation-like
• bite-sized responses
• back-and-forth, non-linear
• voice or text

6. And none of them offers personalization
based on direct user input
Guang-Jie Ren / gren@us.ibm.com / IBM Research - Almaden / Mar 12, 2019 / © 2019 IBM Corporation
Traditional personalization based on transactionsTraditional personalization based on user profile

7. IBM Travel Concierge
Guang-Jie Ren / gren@us.ibm.com / IBM Research - Almaden / Mar 12, 2019 / © 2019 IBM Corporation
An engaging, personalized travel shopping experience, through natural conversations and advanced analytics

8. IBM Travel Concierge
Guang-Jie Ren / gren@us.ibm.com / IBM Research - Almaden / Mar 12, 2019 / © 2019 IBM Corporation
Live Demo Video: Jason, Expert User

9. Solution Architecture
Guang-Jie Ren / gren@us.ibm.com / IBM Research - Almaden / Mar 12, 2019 / © 2019 IBM Corporation
Conversational Interface
Service Engine
Watson Assistant Platform
Travel Service
Booking Engine &
Catalog DB
User Profile &
Preference DB
Overall UX/UI
Service
Transaction DB
External Data
Sources
Travel Service Provider
IBM Travel Concierge
External Services
Natural Conversation Framework
Dynamic Feature Tagging Personalized Recommendation Conversation Analytics

10. Value Propositions and Business Impact
Guang-Jie Ren / gren@us.ibm.com / IBM Research - Almaden / Mar 12, 2019 / © 2019 IBM Corporation
Increase in Number of Visitors
Increase in Conversion Rate
Increase in Value/Transaction
More Informed Decisions
Increase in Lifetime Spend
KPIs AffectedValue Proposition
Unique User Experience
Earlier in Purchase Tunnel
Personalized Recommendation
Extra Customer Intelligence
Persistent Interaction Records
Increase in
Revenue &
Margin
Bottom Line