American Express has acquired Mezi, a tech startup which developed an artificial intelligence powered travel chat bot.
Amex had already invested in Mezi in 2016.
It is a human-assisted personal travel assistant bot which allows users to make hotel room requests, book or reschedule flights and make restaurant reservations.
Results are filtered based on the user’s existing preferences.
Where requests cannot be fulfilled, a travel assistant takes over, although the bot takes on board all interactions to improve future results.
"Mezi’s AI-powered experience opens up exciting new ways for us to connect with and serve our card members and creates opportunities for us to build more meaningful relationships with them," said Phil Norman, vice president of American Express Digital Labs.
"With messaging emerging as channel of choice for many, and the demand for unique experiences increasing, we believe the combination of Mezi’s capabilities with our global network of expert travel counselors creates a differentiated, high-touch service experience."
Mezi had already collaborated with American Express on a similar iPhone service called AskAmex, which assist cardholders to search and book travel services.
The backing of Amex will allow the Mezi app to ‘develop its core technologies and enhance its capabilities,’ the company said.
