Next IT, the intelligent interface company, today announced that Amtrak’s intelligent assistant, Ask Julie, won Awards.AI’s Global Annual Achievement Award for Best Consumer Application of AI. Awards.AI’s prestigious industry awards “celebrate the various achievements of the AI community in developing new algorithms, products and services across a number of different categories and industries.”

Ask Julie’s advanced integration and transaction capabilities have transformed customer experience at Amtrak by making waiting for service a thing of the past. Julie is easily capable of simultaneously serving the needs of every Amtrak.com visitor. Travelers can book rail travel by simply stating where and when they’d like to travel, and Julie assists them by pre-filling forms on Amtrak’s scheduling tool and providing guidance through the rest of the booking process. What’s more, she’s easily capable of providing information on what items can be carried on trains or helping make hotel and rental-car reservations.

“In an A.I. landscape filled with prototypes and proofs of concept, it’s rewarding to be recognized for a real-world implementation that is driving business results for a major brand,” said Rick Collins, President of Next IT. “Amtrak’s Julie is a fine example of how A.I. is transforming business today, and going forward. We are enjoying the opportunity to work with Amtrak and build on their long legacy of innovation.”

Amtrak serves over 375,000 customers on their website each day and over 30 million passengers on over 300 trains each year. As a result, it’s critical to deliver seamless customer service at scale. Amtrak’s Julie has delivered an 8X return on investment and is serving customers 24 hours, seven days a week. Additionally, email costs for customer service have been reduced by $1 million.

Ask Julie’s most impressive results stem from successful customer engagement with the intelligent assistant. Customer interactions with Julie generated 30 percent more revenue and resulted in a 25% increase in booking compared to customer interactions without Julie. The results continue to pile up as Julie’s usage with Amtrak customers has increased 50 percent year over year.

Amtrak travelers can interact with Julie instantly on Amtrak.com. Because Julie was designed to scale, she can simultaneously serve hundreds of thousands of customer requests in periods of peak demand. Using natural language and a conversational interface, Julie delivers the personalized experience that customers expect with an efficiency greater than traditional customer-service channels.

For more information, or to learn more about Amtrak’s implementation of Ask Julie, please visit: http://www.nextit.com/case-studies/amtrak/

To read more about the Global Annual Achievement Awards for Artificial Intelligence, please visit Awards.AI.

About Next IT

Next IT is the intelligent interface company. We deliver the right outcomes through A.I.-powered solutions for customer engagement and workforce support.

Our customers, including Alaska Airlines, Amtrak, Charter Communications, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the U.S. Army, set the bar for innovation in their markets, and they trust our solutions to resolve the most challenging barriers to exceptional customer and workforce support.

Next IT Enterprise is headquartered in Spokane, Washington.

Learn more at www.nextit.com