“Errant Chatbot Forces Air Canada to Fulfill Fictional Refund Policy”

“Air Canada Has to Honor a Refund Policy Its Chatbot Made Up”

“Maybe Air Canada should rethink its AI plans. Earlier this month, the airline announced it was upgrading its customer support with a fancy new chatbot named TALI. To hear Air Canada tell it, TALI uses ‘Nuance’s Natural Language Understanding technology and machine learning’ to help customers with tickets purchases, airport information, and other customer service conundrums. But there’s a slight problem: Like many chatbots, TALI doesn’t necessarily understand certain nuances of requests—and that makes it profoundly useless at times.”

Through an overflow of technological jargon and marketing buzz, Air Canada presented its new bot, TALI, to their consumers. Apparently, the artificial being was enriched with top-notch ‘Nuance’s Natural Language Understanding technology and machine learning.’ It sounds impressive, right? Well, hold the applause, because TALI seems to struggle with something as simple as ‘nuance’.

Marketed as a revolutionary tool for assisting clients with tasks like purchasing tickets or general airport information, TALI seemed to have a promising future. But, the fancy software doesn’t seem to translate into reality as effectively as Air Canada might have hoped.

Case in point, TALI appears to have a bit of trouble understanding certain nuances of customer requests, which kind of takes the wind out of the sails. A chatbot without the ability to accurately interpret customer needs is like a GPS device that ignores road signs. The recipe for disaster is almost tangible.

One of the biggest complaints customers have with chatbots like TALI is their inability to comprehend and process refund requests – ironically, exactly what they were designed to manage. Instead of hunting for a human customer service agent, customers are nudged to speak with a bot that often leaves them confused, disappointed and still asking about their request. Sounds like a practical prank, except the jokes are on every consumer who thought they would get prompt, efficient tech support.

Here’s a fun nugget: TALI’s artificial intellect doesn’t register the word ‘refund’ or any synonym of it. So, if you were excited about challenging the bot over your cancelled tickets, there’s a frustrating dead-end in your future.

In conclusion, despite the high-tech jargon-laden unveiling of TALI, Air Canada’s new chatbot, it seems it still needs a little good old-fashioned human tinkering. The message for the company is clear — don’t pop champagne corks just yet. Advance your technology, sure, but upgrading customer satisfaction should still be the target on your dartboard. Or you might just find yourself with throngs of unhappy passengers, laughing at your chatbot, and taking their business to an airline whose AI knows the meaning of ‘refund’.

Read the original article here: https://www.wired.com/story/air-canada-chatbot-refund-policy/