How an AI assistant helps Stena Line Ferries reinvent travel for millions of customers

Key challenges

One of the largest ferry operators in the world today, Stena Line has always been an early adopter of AI. Almost a decade ago ― way before it was even a buzz word, the team were keen to explore what was on the horizon for AI-powered travel assistance, but there was a lot of ground to cover.

• They have 37 vessels that sail across multiple routes around Europe
• Millions of passengers with highly specific travel details need individual attendion
• Information from many other business systems is needed to resolve enquiries

Notable breakthroughs along the way

• Stina has been trained to assist in many ways over the years, on the Stena Line website, their app, and even as a hologram
• AI helps the ferry operator uncover patterns in passenger behaviour that transforms their insight
• The customer service teams benefit just as much as customers do from the use of AI

It takes just 10 minutes to launch an AI assistant

Years ago, it was a long-winded, expensive and highly technical process for Stena Line to launch their AI assistant. Now, things are far quicker, easier, and cheaper:

• Any member of your team can manage your AI assistant (you don’t need any technical skill)
• You can easily add new features to scale AI-driven support over time
• Your security and compliance responsibilities are all taken care of
• There’s a human in the loop to help continuously improve your AI assistant’s performance

All you need to get started is your website url ― it’s that simple!

Stena Line creates waves in the travel industry using AI to make an impact

Using an AI assistant to navigate the ebb and flow of enterprise and technology systems in travel and tourism, Stena Line relied on our long history in data engineering to help catch every AI opportunity in the net.

They chose the name and avatar, and have full control over every response Stina sends out to their valuable customers, which can be edited any time.

All they need to check Stina’s progress is on their client dashboard:

Stena Line now easily adapts to what passengers need on the go and in real time

Stena Line’s AI journey began with a Facebook messenger chatbot in the early days of artificial intelligence. As live chat and smartphone technology progressed, so did our AI assistants. Stina became more than just a chat widget, bringing AI power to Stena Line’s Travel Mate app and their UK website.

Our conversation review service means Stina is always at peak performance

Stina has artificial intelligence, so doesn’t learn in the same way we do. It’s our team of psychologists, analysts, designers and writers that makes sure Stina gives out the correct information to customers, every time and without fail. They’re continually reviewing conversations between Stena Line passengers and Stina (any personal information is automatically removed), looking for patterns to see where improvements can be made. Having this human in the loop performing vital conversation review helps guide the decisions the ferry company makes, showing where travel services can improve and what takes priority.

Stena Line can easily change direction

Keeping a constant check on conversations means it’s spotted straight away if questions start to come in that are new, say there’s a situation local to a particular port or a global change to travel restrictions. Our review team is the first to see this shift and can quickly give Stina new, relevant information to keep the chat flowing.

Every Stena Line customer can have their say

Using an AI assistant brings Stena Line closer to their customers because they talk more often and in real-time. As well as using the data they get from the things people say to Stina to keep the exchange fresh, they can also ask for in the moment feedback at the end of every chat. This means they can take on board the emotional impact of the customer experience to tweak any aspect that can be improved.

Stina can appear on any device, anywhere

Modern ferries might not look too different to when they first set sail at the beginning of the nineteenth century, but the technology used to run them sure does. For Stena Line, the beauty of using AI to speak instantly with any customer passing through their terminals is Stina can appear on land or at sea on any device. As times change (and so do those devices), the ferry company can quickly change direction whenever they need to, making use of precise knowledge about every passenger.

Launch an AI assistant today (or ask us to do it)

It’s easy to use our AI Studio to create and manage your own AI assistant, or you can choose our managed service and ask us to do it all for you. AI assistants are now used across all sorts of industries to transform customer service, and every organisation is different.

Improve your travel operations today

Get an AI assistant working around the clock to instantly resolve passenger queries:

• Automate up to 90% of routine enquiries*
• Reduce your average cost per enquiry from £5 to 5p*
• Increase customer satisfaction by 67%*
• Move your support team onto higher value tasks

*all results we’ve delivered for our clients

Get started now or book a discovery call with our pro team.