Creators of the world’s first AI-powered chatbot designed exclusively for travellers, Bespoke, recently announced the official arrival of their “Bebot” bot for the Tokyo Metro. Starting on the Ginza Line, Bebot is now offering support for commuters and tourists alike. Users can interact with the AI bot by visiting a simple URL, or scanning a QR code – there’s no need to download an external app.
Almost a million riders each day will now have access to local information, navigation tools, and other helpful features when they’re travelling through the entire Ginza line. This includes support for hub areas like Ueno, Asakusa, and Shibuya. Whether waiting at the station or riding on the train, riders will be able to get real-time information about train status, as well as recommendations for nearby cultural spots, directions, and more.
The New Bebot Experience for Travellers
Bebot offers a wide variety of useful features for modern travellers, including helping them to find barrier-free facilities around stations, and receive useful transfer information. Visitors can also travel more confidently from overseas with Bebot’s help. The chatbot can take peak times and delays into account when making suggestions too, reducing congestion and making crowd management easier.
The Bebot interface helps to maximise and improve the user engagement between a company like the Ginza line and a user through an easy-to-use environment. When a customer interacts with Bebot, they can discover landmarks, local attractions and stores that they might have missed. This means that the AI improves local in-market spend. Additionally, by introducing travellers to less explored attractions on the Ginza line, hub traffic is reduced and spread across different stations, alleviating the issues associated with over-tourism in the Tokyo region.
Partners that deploy the Bebot tool will also get access to travel insights that reveal things like venue opportunities, customer preferences and trends.
Changing the Travel Landscape
According to the CEO of Bespoke, Akemi Tsunagawa, whether travellers are simply trying to find a transfer at a platform, or they’re exploring what Tokyo has to offer station by station, Bebot gives them the information they need. The AI bot was designed to help people discover more when they’re in Japan.
As the year comes to an end and adoption of the Bebot robot continues to develop, opportunities are becoming more significant for Bespoke. The country is now preparing for the 2020 Olympics, and Bebot promises to be at the heart of a new strategy to provide Japanese hospitality solutions to visitors across the globe from an easy-to-use interface.
