Brands
Thomas Cook India launches AI-powered chatbot ‘TeeCee’
MUMBAI: Thomas Cook (India) Ltd announced the launch of ‘TeeCee’, a first-of-its-kind AI-powered chatbot, reiterating the company’s digital evolution strategy in its journey towards a seamless digital customer experience.
According to a report by Bain & Company and Google, India has the second-highest active internet user base globally at 390 million in 2018. The report also indicates that the share of online travel booking spends, having increased by 25 per cent in 2018, is anticipated to grow to 35 per cent in 2021.
Thomas Cook India’s growth reinforces this with over 27 per cent of its overall holidays being booked online.
The launch of Thomas Cook India’s chatbot ‘TeeCee’ is part of a strategic initiative to service today’s impatient, digital-native customers, with a seamless near-human experience, across digital devices. The multi-use case and context-aware TeeCee is equipped with superior NLP (Natural Language Processing) capabilities for better understanding of user intent and offering appropriate services.
TeeCee is built in association with Senseforth’s proprietary conversational AI platform for intelligent assistants that mimics human cognitive ability in understanding and actionising user intent.
Speaking on the launch, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd president and group head – information technology and ebusiness Amit Madhan said, "Thomas Cook India has always been at the forefront of cutting-edge digital innovation that focusses on seamless customer experience. I am hence truly excited with the launch of TeeCee – a first of its kind chatbot offering customers a near human experience. Our phased roll out in this digital evolution will enable end-to-end Forex transactions, which will be followed by Holiday and Visa service capabilities.”
He concluded with, “TeeCee is a key step in our transformational journey to serving Digital First customers better."
Senseforth.ai CEO Shridhar Marri said, “Today’s traveller expects a user-friendly, real-time, consistent and intuitive experience for their travel requirements and TeeCee is designed to address these needs. It is great working with Thomas Cook India, a leader in this space to create a virtual travel assistant that is poised to transform the way travel is serviced and fulfilled today.”
Ola has a new voice. The ride-hailing giant has appointed Shirsha Majumder as senior manager for PR and communications, bringing in a seasoned hand to sharpen its brand narrative and media relations.
Majumder arrives from Acko, where she spent close to four years playing a central role in shaping the insurance company’s communications strategy. Before Acko, she built her credentials across a string of well-regarded organisations including HDFC Life, Adfactors PR and Edelman, accumulating over nine years of experience across reputation management, media relations, strategic messaging and stakeholder engagement.
At Ola, she is expected to bring that breadth of experience to bear on the company’s communications function at a time when the brand is navigating an increasingly competitive and scrutinised market.
For a company that has rarely been far from the headlines, getting the communications right matters. In Majumder, Ola has picked someone who knows how to manage a narrative under pressure.
