Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air Introduce Virtual Assistant at alaskaair.com

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air today introduced a virtual assistant named "Jenn" at alaskaair.com. With her own voice and personality, Jenn answers hundreds of common questions and helps customers book travel.

The virtual assistant is accessed by clicking the "Ask Jenn" link on alaskaair.com’s main toolbar. When customers type questions in Jenn’s chat window, she responds verbally, asks follow-up questions when needed, provides a written response and related Web links, and displays the site’s most relevant page. To reveal her personality, Jenn also answers many personal questions on topics such as pets and favorite foods.

"With nearly half of our tickets purchased at alaskaair.com, our Web site has become the single most popular way customers interact with us before traveling," said Ann Ardizzone, Alaska’s managing director of customer experience. "Jenn offers customers a more personalized, engaging experience online, while quickly connecting them with the site’s most relevant information."

Jenn is the first virtual assistant introduced by a U.S. airline. Alaska and Horizon also were the first North American carriers to sell tickets online in 1995 and the first airlines worldwide to offer Web check-in in 1999.

Jenn was created using ActiveAgent™ technology from Spokane, Wash.-based technology company Next IT. The software allows Web sites to interact with users using a natural-language interface, often called an agent, that can retrieve information across databases, answer questions and clarify users’ intents by asking follow-up questions. ActiveAgent™ software also was used to create the SGT. STAR virtual assistant at goarmy.com.

"Next IT’s conversational agent provides a new, enhanced way for Web users to interact with companies online," said Fred Brown, Next IT’s president and chief executive officer. "Alaska and Horizon had the vision to see how this technology could improve service to their customers online, and now they’re raising the bar for the travel industry."

Next IT Corporation is an innovator in simplifying communication between people and computers. Its core platform, ActiveAgent™, accurately understands and interprets natural-language questions and delivers exact results across multiple service channels such as the Web, contact center, Intranet and mobile devices. For more information about Next IT, visit nextit.com.

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air together serve 92 cities through an expansive network in Alaska, the Lower 48, Hawaii, Canada and Mexico. For reservations, visit alaskaair.com. For more news and information, visit the Alaska Airlines/Horizon Air Newsroom at alaskaair.com/newsroom.

Note to media: A video demonstrating Jenn’s capabilities is available at alaskaair.com/jenn. High-resolution images of Jenn are available for download from the Alaska and Horizon Newsroom image gallery at http://www.alaskasworld.com/newsroom/ASNews/photos.asp

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact: maria.koenig@alaskaair.com

SOURCE: Alaska Airlines