Chatbots to spearhead Zumata's expansion into Asia

Zumata, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered hotel distribution and technology company, is expanding aggressively into Asia. The expansion will include the introduction of AI-driven chatbots.

With its presence established in North America, Zumata is now turning its sights on expanding its AI capabilities in both hotel distribution and chatbots to Asia. The company recently established a new and bigger headquarters in the heart of Singapore as well.

“The trust from our global partners has helped us to grow rapidly in the past few years. We believe that Asia holds many major opportunities and untapped potential,” said Josh Ziegler, CEO of Zumata. “As we grow aggressively in the region, we hope to capitalise on the growth of the Asia travel market and the need for companies to undergo digital transformations to remain competitive and expand.”

Zumata is leading the way in terms of deploying AI solutions across industries with its advanced chatbot platform. Chatbots are increasing in popularity across the business-to-consumer industry, but are traditionally keyword-focused or based on awkward conversation trees. Conversation trees provide a specific response depending on the option chosen, and are typically used by interactive voice response systems (e.g. ‘press 1 for xxx service’). The lack of interactivity of these systems dilutes the overall customer interaction experience.

Zumata’s new chatbot intends to change the game with natural language conversation. This means that the system can reply accurately and handle multiple scenarios even when customers ask the same question in a wide variety of ways. Zumata’s chatbot can understand the local lingo and emojis. It is also able to detect tonality, and can transfer the customer to live support should confusion or anxiety is detected. Beyond that, Zumata’s latest innovation also allows for product comparisons, as well as payment by e-wallet or credit card.

The potential applications of this platform include customer service, personalisation and advisory of sales, as well as transaction handling. Forward-thinking companies like NTUC Income, a Singapore insurer, are beginning to benefit from Zumata chatbots which have been tailored to their specific needs.

“Zumata’s chatbot platform is an industry-agnostic tool that can provide instant, automated, and most importantly, genuine customer engagement for businesses. I believe it will completely transform the way that businesses interact with consumers,” said Ziegler. “Here at Zumata, we aim to pioneer this industrial revolution with the integration of our AI technology, and develop elite solutions customised to the needs of our clients.”

Winner of the IBM Choice Award as IBM’s top new business partner for 2017, Zumata started out with funding from the Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF) through a venture capital programme supported by the Prime Minister’s Office of Singapore. This was done alongside prominent investors including 500 Durians and Wavemaker, as part of the Draper Venture Network.  Zumata clients include Expedia, Amadeus and Dhisco.