Jetstar has extended the deployment of its web virtual assistant, Jess, to Facebook Messenger.

Powered by AI-driven virtual assistant Nuance Nina, Jess is now capable of providing real-time conversations on the platform to resolve customer queries in Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

Jetstar is the first airline in the Asia Pacific region to extend the same AI-powered virtual assistant from the web to Facebook Messenger. Through Messenger, Jess is already showcasing results by achieving an impressive 73% first-contact resolution – defined as resolving the customer query in the chat session – when inbound traffic quadrupled during the recent volcanic activity of Mount Agung in Bali, says a media release from Jetstar and Nuance.

“We have been testing Jess on Facebook since November 2017,” says Jetstar head of customer care Liz McCarthy, “and have been overwhelmed with the response.

“Jess has lowered response times from up to 17 hours to zero minutes and has already assisted thousands of customers with their enquiries.”

Across web and Messenger, Jess engages in close to 250,000 cross-channel conversations per month and has managed over nine million with Jetstar customers to date.

“Jetstar’s deployment on Facebook Messenger is setting a new standard, allowing customers to engage with the brand the same way they would their friends,” says Robert Schwarz, Nuance Enterprise managing director for Australia and New Zealand. “Through natural language understanding, conversational dialogue and advanced resolution techniques, Jetstar customers can converse in real time, everyday language whenever and wherever they are and receive immediate and accurate responses,” he says.