Musement unveils beta Facebook messenger bot

A beta version of a Facebook messenger bot has been developed by activities and ticketing specialist Musement.

A beta version of a Facebook messenger bot has been developed by activities and ticketing specialist Musement.

The aim is to transform the way independent travellers discover things to do and places to see as they travel.

The artificial intelligence powered chatbot is an example of early technology adoption to support travellers.

The firm claims this signals a “game changing shift for what lies ahead in the travel industry and in the way people approach travel thanks to machine learning”.

The bot will initially function across the 26 most popular of Musement’s 350 worldwide cities – Milan, Florence, Rome, Dublin, Dubai, Venice, Barcelona, Budapest, Madrid, Bologna, Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Naples, Pisa, Lisbon, Prague, Rio de Janeiro, Verona, Vienna, Turin, with more to follow.

It will be trained using future customer interactions and requests.

The chatbot acts as personal concierge, providing travellers and locals alike with suggestions of the best places to stay, visit, eat and drink on-the-go and will operate alongside Musement’s human concierge service.

Co-founder and chief executive Alessandro Petazzi said: “With the beta launch of our messenger bot, Musement is demonstrating its vision is for users to be able to have a virtual ‘local friend’ in any city around the world and to maximise travellers’ time in new cities or undiscovered areas.

“The local knowledge and information held by Musement’s experts will automatically recommend the best places to go or see in order to take full advantage of any vacation. It’s an incredible early demonstration of how bot technology can be used and adapted by different sectors.”