Jetstar introduces ‘Ask Jess’, the virtual travel assistant

Airline Jetstar has unveiled a new virtual assistant called Ask Jess which can simulate ‘human-like’ conversations with customers.

Airline Jetstar has unveiled a new virtual assistant called Ask Jess which can simulate ‘human-like’ conversations with customers.


Ask Jess is based in Nuance Nina Web, an intelligent virtual assistant developed by NASDAQ-listed Nuance Communications.


Jetstar believes the innovation will offer website visitors an easier way to access information and make bookings of seats and ancillaries.


It used Nuance’s Natural Language Understanding (NLU) technology allows applications like Ask Jess to understand a customer’s intent through an interactive, text-based chat experience. 


Ian Watson, head of customer care, Jetstar said: “It’s clear that consumers want greater levels of service on the Web.


“Our aim with Ask Jess was to deliver a truly innovative experience with a virtual assistant – to not only provide information more quickly, but to provide the right information, based on an understanding of what the consumer needs. 


“Jess has already been quite busy handling requests that would have otherwise gone straight to our contact centre, and she’s doing great work.


“In fact, in just her first five days on the job, she has successfully answered over 77% of all requests.” 


Ask Jess is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to customers on the Australian version of Jetstar.com.


The service will be rolled out in New Zealand, Singapore and all other English versions of the site early next year.


Japanese and simplified Chinese versions of the service are also planned.