Chatbot success in Czech Republic
Integrated public transport system of the South Moravian region (IDS JMK) covers all public transport in South Moravia – 8 cities, regional buses and trains, with more than 20 operators. In July 2020, IDS JMK established an e-shop, selling electronic tickets and using a bank card as an identifier.
In the IDS JMK e-shop, passengers can purchase a complete range of season, tourist and single tickets valid in all public transport means in the region. Passengers can buy a complete range of single tickets in public transport vehicle machines and from the driver as well. In case of ticket inspection, a person can show only a bank card. Despite the pandemic situation, the IDS JMK e-shop has approximately 3.500 regular users and another 4.500 users use it to pay fares in towns of Breclav and Znojmo.
The e-shop service was recently expanded by a new service - chatbot. From October 2020, chatbot makes it easier to answer the most frequent questions regarding electronic ticketing. It can answer the most common questions and enables sending more complex questions to operators. The e-shop´s chatbot has been developed by the partnership of KORDIS JMK and two companies – RPSC ideas and Feedyou.
This partnership was chosen by Microsoft to be presented at the annual conference Year of informatics 2020 as a model example of partnership between private and public sector in the field of automated communication and the usage of artificial intelligence.
The conference took place online, on 4th and 5th of November, 2020, where the co-founder of Feedyou company presented partnership results.
Since Microsoft chooses only successful and technologically advanced projects as model examples, this is a great success and a unique opportunity for visibility, not only for KORDIS JMK but also for the South Moravian Region as a country leader in the practical use of innovations in the field of automated communication and artificial intelligence.
The implementation of the chatbot was made possible thanks to the YOUMOBIL project, supported by the Interreg Central Europe program.
