OYO, India based network of hotels has recently entered into a partnership with niki.ai, enabling users to book an OYO room using niki.ai’s bot - a unique personal assistant application powered by artificial intelligence. Consumers can now easily search and book OYO hotels using Niki chat interface.
Speaking on the API integration Anurag Gaggar, Head of Product, OYO said, “At OYO, we are constantly innovating with our product stack to add delight and offer convenience to our customers. Niki has developed the first of its kind chat-bot that understands human language contextual to products and services, and offers suggestions accordingly. As the travel industry propels rapid technology integration in aspects of research, booking and on-trip experience, it is hugely exciting for us to collaborate with homegrown Indian brands and create disruptive offerings. Rapid adoption of social and messaging apps has driven user preference for chat based interfaces. This partnership enables OYO and niki.ai's users to accomplish the task of searching and booking hotels seamlessly through a chat enabled interface.”
Sachin Jaiswal, CEO, niki.ai said, “niki.ai envisions providing consumers with the most natural, simple and intelligent mode of transacting online. We are very excited to venture into Hospitality segment with OYO as our partner. The OYO and Niki teams have worked closely in building the experience, which powers one of the most advanced language processing technology. Niki understands complex user filters during the conversation, and comes up with the best hotel recommendations for the user. The interface lets users search, discover, select and pay thereby booking their hotel, all within a single chat interface. ”
OYO’s recently launched a new feature that assures early check-in at hotels across the country. The company’s vision is to standardize and build efficiency into all forms of real estate such as budget hotels, apartments, guesthouses and resorts using technology and innovation. OYO is focused on bringing in standardization and consistency in every aspect of guest experience across all touch-points.
niki.ai, an AI technology startup based out of India launched their bot in October 2015. The bot utilizes natural language processing and machine learning to help users accomplish tasks like food ordering, phone recharges, cab bookings, bus bookings, bill payments etc. through automated chat interaction. Niki had recently launched the bot on messenger too thereby available to users on Android, iOS, Web and Windows platforms as well.