這篇來自於旅館業專業媒體─ eHotelier.com 所刊登的文章雖然來自於產品開發商，且具有廣告編輯文的目的，但卻是人工智慧(AI)實際應用在旅館業的案例，有分享的意義。

現今聊天機器人常見於手機、電腦等裝置藉由軟體App或網頁以文字或語音方式進行溝通、解決問題或需求。早期的語音助理如iPhone的Siri、谷歌語音助理、亞馬遜的Alexa(可配置物聯網功能與裝置)發展至今已被不少使用者(甚至上述科技業者)感到笨拙，而ChatGPT的橫空出世更是大幅拉開語音助理與「具人工智慧」的聊天機器人的差距。至於台灣鴻海公司和日本軟銀合作的 Pepper機器人、華碩的 Zenbo機器人、則是「具體存在、可見可觸摸」的服務型機器人，亦可聊天互動(→不過，Pepper機器人因公司商業策略考量已於2020年停產，而Zenbo仍存續著)。另外，目前已在台灣餐飲業常見的送餐機器人、旅館業的自動送物機器人等，則有台灣廠商引進或生產製造，偏重於制式工作性質。關於聊天機器人(Chatbot)的概念釐清，可再參考相關文章。

今年3月底的【驚鴻一瞥的新時代將指引旅館業前往何方？】文章中，除了提及未來生活研究院(Future of Life Institute)的公開呼籲「暫停開發比 OpenAI的GPT-4高階的AI系統至少6個月」的聲明獲科技業界人士(包括伊隆 ‧ 馬斯克)共同簽署外，另就ChatGPT平台在旅館業實務運用上也提供相關建議的文章。

不過，時隔沒多久，就有外國媒體揭露當時呼籲暫停人工智慧開發的伊隆 ‧ 馬斯克早已規劃AI新創公司X Corp (原名 X. AI)，企圖建立起另一個比擬Open AI的公司並開發人工智慧產品TruthGPT，而馬斯克對此表示這是一種平衡與反制過度開發人工智慧的方式。至於 ChatGPT 在旅館業實務上的運用，則可見本文下方案例產品 Book Me BOB 旅館業聊天機器人與ChatGPT平台的整合運用。

目前在國內各產業(如金融業、零售業，甚至是科技公司)所使用的客服聊天機器人(Chatbot 或 Instant Messaging Bot)較常是依照預先規劃好的情境劇本而設計出相對應的回覆(反應)，就國內科技行銷業者的看法，建議運用 chatbot 的方式：透過設計「機器人與顧客對話的腳本」 去整理與過濾大部分的問題，讓用戶能在第一時間先得到機器人的解答，而剩下無法處理的部份再轉交給真人客服接續協助；一來真人客服不需回答重複性的問題，二來公司企業經營者也能減少客服人力、降低成本。 而採用「機器自我學習」(即人工智慧)似尚待後續的開發整合與普遍應用，比如下方文章所述的產品整合。

Microsoft mentored BOOK ME BOB’s Hotel AI Chatbot now integrating with ChatGPT

(由微軟公司所培植、指導的旅館業 AI 聊天機器人「BOOK ME BOB」現在與 ChatGPT 平台整合)

Posted on 5 Apr at 1:10 pm eHotelier.com by BookMeBob

In a world where there are many things being said about Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and ChatGPT, it is easy to get lost and overwhelmed in trying to understand what it all means for the Hospitality Industry.

在現今紛紛討論人工智慧 (AI)科技和 ChatGPT的世界裡，想要理解這對於旅館產業有何意義時很容易感到茫然與不知所措。

Many in the Hospitality Industry are crying out for an organization that can cut through and filter out all the technology hype to find the relevant value for the Operators in the industry, whatever level they may operate at. This is the space where BOOK ME BOB and its creators see themselves occupying.

旅館產業的許多業者都迫切需要一個「能夠快速因應且釐清所有當前熱議的科技話題」的組織、機構，以便為自家公司找到具關聯性的應用價值，不論是經營哪種定位的旅館產品。 這就是聊天機器人「BOOK ME BOB」及其開發公司所見的商機所在。

New Zealand-based Co-founders David Thompson and Andy Dharmani, started myma.ai at the beginning of 2019, a company that develops relevant AI technology dedicated to servicing the global Hospitality Industry. Their first and flagship product is BOOK ME BOB, created utilizing their deep knowledge and understanding of hospitality operations and AI software capability by engaging with the Industry, innovating and developing a relevant affordable software and AI solution that is customizable and empowers Operators in the Industry. David, with 27 years experience as a trainee working his way up to senior management level in the Hospitality Industry, and Andy Dharmani, with 22 years experience in the development of software solutions, including 15 years experience in start-up technology, including the development of AI products, they are well placed to meet the need of the Hospitality Industry to understand and adopt new technologies that will assist the Operators’ businesses.

總部位於紐西蘭的 myma.ai 公司於 2019 年初由共同創辦人大衛 · 湯普森 (David Thompson) 和安迪 · 達瑪尼 (Andy Dharmani) 所成立，這是一家致力於為全球旅館業開發相關的人工智慧科技服務。 他們的第一個暨旗艦級產品就是 BOOK ME BOB，藉由他們對於旅館營運及 AI 軟體的運算能力之深度知能與了解，透過與業界合作、創新及開發相關且可支付得起的軟體及 AI 解決方案。該公司的產品可為不同的業者量身定制及授權服務。 myma.ai公司的共同創辦人大衛 · 湯普森擁有 27 年旅館業界的背景從旅館實習生直至高階經理人，至於安迪 · 達瑪尼則具備 22 年的軟體解決方案之開發經驗，其中15 年的經驗在新創科技，包含開發 AI產品，這些AI產品相當契合旅館業的需求，因其有助於旅館業者了解及採用新科技。

They launched BOOK ME BOB in early 2019, and the product was well received throughout the Industry. Despite the significant challenges the Industry faced with the emergence and spread of Covid-19, David and Andy were undeterred and determined to succeed as they understood and had faith that on the other side of the global crisis, the Hospitality Industry being adaptive, robust, and too important to fail, would survive and benefit from their product more than ever.

大衛 · 湯普森和安迪 · 達瑪尼在2019年初推出了BOOK ME BOB 聊天機器人，而該產品受到整個旅館業的認可、好評。 儘管全球旅館業面臨著新冠肺炎疫情出現與大流行的重大挑戰，但 myma.ai 公司的共同創辦人並未被嚇倒並決心取得成功，因為他們清楚並深信在這波全球危機的反面會是─旅館產業所具有的適應性、堅韌性與關鍵重要性，將得益於他們的產品並較以往更能生存下來。

Their hard work and determination is being rewarded with BOOK ME BOB experiencing growth last year of around 400 percent and accelerating with expected growth for the first half of this year of at least 250 percent for the 6 months to June 2023. As part of their growth plans, Andy has relocated to the USA to be closer to that market, where he can collaborate with others on other relevant technology developments.

他們的辛勤工作與毅力獲致了回報，BOOK ME BOB 在去年(2022年)實現了近4倍的業績成長，而在今年上半年的6個月內，預期將至少加速成長2.5倍。作為公司業務擴展計劃的一部分，共同創辦人大衛 · 湯普森搬遷至美國以更接近當地市場，而遷移至美國的好處之一在於可與其他業者合作開發其他相關的技術。

The company has also benefited from the support and mentorship of Microsoft, having been selected by them early in their company development to participate in their Highway to 100 Unicorns and Project Amplify Programs. Now with the release of the ChatGPT technology, BOOK ME BOB’s further product development and enhancements appear boundless.

Myma.ai 公司還受益於微軟的支持和指導，在公司的發展早期就被微軟選中參與其「 Highway to 100 Unicorns 」和「 Project Amplify 」計劃。 如今，隨著 ChatGPT 技術的發佈，BOOK ME BOB 的進階產品開發與強化似乎是無限的。

David Thompson said, “Our commitment to Operators in the Hospitality, Tourism and Recreation Ecosystem, is to empower and assist them to take back a position of greater influence and ownership of their customer base and drive their direct revenue channels. This is the soul and purpose of our business. We are very excited about ChatGPT, and our integrating with it boosts and deepens that commitment to a previously unobtainable level. This is one of those wonderful game-changing moments that enables our business to innovate, engage with, and empower Operators in the industry and those who choose to journey with us, to a whole new level. Our message to the industry is simple, integrating with ChatGPT elevates and accelerates our ability to empower you. Whilst we are not the only players in this space, others make things sound complicated, where we are dedicated to keeping it simple but highly effective and with us involved, that is how things will be.”

大衛 · 湯普森說：「我們對於旅館、旅遊和休閒產業生態系中的業者所做的承諾是授權並協助他們重新取回對於客戶群更大的影響力及所有權，並將客戶導向至業者的直接收益管道。 這是我們的事業的核心與宗旨。 我們對於 ChatGPT 感到極大的興趣，我們與ChatGPT的產品整合將可以促進與深化我們的企業承諾至前所未有的水準。 這是改變市場規則的精彩時刻之一，ChatGPT能使我們的事業創新，並且參與及授權旅館業者，以及那些選擇與我們共同成長的人，一同達到一個全新境界。 我們想對旅館業傳達的訊息很簡單，『與 ChatGPT 的產品整合可以提升並加速我們為您提供技術支持的能力』。 雖然我們不是這個領域的唯一業者，不過其他業者是把AI聊天機器人複雜化，而我們卻致力於將其變成簡單好用但效率高的工具，同時又有我們從旁協助，就是這麼一回事。」

Andy Dharmani adds, “We were granted early access to Open AI, the developers of ChatGPT, last year and have been working on our integration since then. It is like the missing piece of a technology puzzle when creating a seamless conversation flow with our industry chatbot. The ChatGPT capability utilized within the BOOK ME BOB chatbot will draw on our over 500,000 and rapidly growing inventory of industry-specific phrases, developed in consultation with Operators within the Hospitality, Tourism and Recreation Ecosystem, to give a customer experience like never before. Conversation with the BOOK ME BOB chatbot will be significantly more fluid flowing, and natural feeling, with the engagement being much more efficient and meaningful for the Industry Operators’ guests. This is a pivotal moment; I get excited just talking about it, we are equipped and committed to delivering product and service excellence to our customers, and this new technical capability will elevate the empowerment level of our customers to take a position of greater influence and ownership in their relationship with their customer base.”

安迪 · 達瑪尼補充說：「去年我們獲得了 ChatGPT 開發商 Open AI 公司的早期使用平台的權利，而就從那時起，我們就一直致力於雙方系統平台的整合。 當我們與旅館業聊天機器人建立起無間隙的對話流時，這就好比技術拼圖中缺少的那一塊。 BOOK ME BOB 聊天機器人所使用的 ChatGPT 功能將可以運用我們與旅館、旅遊和娛樂業生態系中的業者們所諮詢出超過 50萬個並且仍快速增長中的業界術語資料庫，以提供前所未有的客戶體驗。 與 BOOK ME BOB 聊天機器人的對話將更加流暢和自然，這對於旅遊娛樂相關業者的顧客們來說將更有效率及意義。 這是一個關鍵時刻； 談到ChatGPT會讓我感到很興奮，我們有能力並致力為我們的顧客提供卓越的產品和服務，這種新技術能力將提升我們對於業界客戶的授權程度，使得這些業者對於其客戶群的關有更大的影響力及所有權。」

Andy went on to say, “We understand this new and other AI technology very well; our original development work was deliberately set up so we can adapt and pivot new technologies into our systems without having to recreate anything all over again or take systems down for maintenance, enhancements and upgrades, it is all Cloud-based and seamless. We also understand that some might want to adopt this new ChatGPT technology at a different rate to others, so the integration has been designed and structured to be a key feature of our product that can be turned on or off, as the Operator requires at the site level. There will also be no waiting or wait lists. When launched, which is just around the corner, access to it will be instant and as easy as a flick of the switch for any user already using our technology who wants the new feature. Our customers will choose when to switch it on. This means that anyone who adopts our product now will have the new feature instantly available to them when launched; it will be as easy as that.”

安迪接著說：「我們非常了解這項新的及其他人工智慧技術； 我們最初的開發工作是有意設置的，這樣我們就可以將新技術應用在我們的系統內而無需重新建置整個系統或關閉系統以進行維護、強化與升級，這一切都是運用雲端平台並且是無縫接軌。 我們也清楚有些AI技術業者可能希望以與其他人不同的速度採用這項新的 ChatGPT 技術，因此系統整合的設計和建置是我們產品的一個重點特色，可以根據業者用戶的要求開啟或關閉網站功能。 不會有操作層面的等待或候補名單。 當這項新功能推出後，任何已經在使用我們的產品且想要有新功能的用戶都可以立即登入使用它，就像輕按一下開關一樣簡單。 我們的客戶將可選擇何時啟用它。 這表示我們目前的任何用戶都可以在新功能發佈時立即使用； 就是這麼簡單。」

The integration with ChatGPT is not the only exciting development this company is working on. David says, “There are other very exciting developments in the pipeline coming in the next few months, including new features added to existing products, new products, other integrations and collaborations. We are continuously engaging, innovating and evolving in the interest of our customers to empower them, which is what motivates us.”

與 ChatGPT 的整合並非該公司正在進行中唯一一項令人興奮的開發計劃。大衛 · 湯普森說：「在接下來的幾個月內，還有其他非常令人興奮的開發工作正在醞釀中，包括增加到既有產品的新功能、新產品、其他的整合與合作計劃。 為了公司用戶的利益，我們不斷參與、創新和發展自家產品以授權給客戶，這就是我們的動力。」

For further information, anyone can contact the company through the BOOK ME BOB website at https://www.bookmebob.com/ or by direct email at hello@bookmebob.com.

想了解更多的資訊，可直接到Book Me BOB官網洽詢或以電子郵件詢問。