Jetstar has launched a new virtual assistant service on its website that allows customers to get answers to queries relating to their travel experience including booking, baggage and seating.

The new customer service application – Ask Jess – uses Nuance Communications technology to deliver a conversational experience that simulates a human interaction.

This technology allows the Ask Jess system to not only understand what a customer says (the words) but also what they want (the intent).

Jetstar Group Chief Commercial Officer David Koczkar said the introduction of Ask Jess offered customers the best in online self-service technology.

“We know time is valuable to every single one of our customers and Ask Jess is about giving people answers to their queries immediately,” Mr Koczkar said.

“I’m really pleased we’re the first airline in the world to offer our customers Nuance’s Nina virtual assistant product.

“We’ve always looked to adopt the latest technology to help us deliver for our customers and today’s launch is a continuation of this tradition.”

Ask Jess’ superior comprehension draws from Nuance’s industry-leading natural language understanding technology and has been developed in concert with expert Jetstar staff.

Mr Koczkar said that Jetstar had invested more than 1,000 man hours in the development of the Ask Jess knowledge bank to ensure it meets the needs of its customers.

“Ask Jess is unique in the complexity and breadth of questions it can respond to,” Mr Koczkar said.

“Some virtual assistant products offer little functionality beyond pointing a customer to existing content on a website.

“Ask Jess is a completely different proposition because it links directly into Jetstar’s booking system and provides personalised responses across more than 20 different topics.

“Customers can ask Jess to look up their flight status, find their booking reference or re-send their itinerary.”

Nuance Senior Vice President Asia Pacific Jason Stirling said Jetstar was bringing the online virtual assistant concept to a whole new level with the introduction of Ask Jess.

“We’re confident that Jetstar customers will see incredible value in the service that Ask Jess provides in terms of the natural, engaging and personalised experience it can deliver,” Mr Stirling said.

The introduction of Ask Jess follows the successful launch of live chat back in March 2013. Since launching, Jetstar has assisted more than 200,000 customers via the live chat platform, powered by LivePerson.

Ask Jess is fully integrated with the existing live chat service providing customers with a seamless handover to contact centre support where required.

Ask Jess is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to customers on the Australian version of Jetstar.com.

The service will be rolled out in New Zealand, Singapore and all other English versions of the site early next year. Japanese, simplified and traditional Chinese versions of the service are also in development.