In a world where there are many things being said about Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and ChatGPT, it is easy to get lost and overwhelmed in trying to understand what it all means for the Hospitality Industry.
Many in the Hospitality Industry are crying out for an organization that can cut through and filter out all the technology hype to find the relevant value for the Operators in the industry, whatever level they may operate at. This is the space where BOOK ME BOB and its creators see themselves occupying.
New Zealand-based Co-founders David Thompson and Andy Dharmani, started myma.ai at the beginning of 2019, a company that develops relevant AI technology dedicated to servicing the global Hospitality Industry. Their first and flagship product is BOOK ME BOB, created utilizing their deep knowledge and understanding of hospitality operations and AI software capability by engaging with the Industry, innovating and developing a relevant affordable software and AI solution that is customizable and empowers Operators in the Industry. David, with 27 years experience as a trainee working his way up to senior management level in the Hospitality Industry, and Andy Dharmani, with 22 years experience in the development of software solutions, including 15 years experience in start-up technology, including the development of AI products, they are well placed to meet the need of the Hospitality Industry to understand and adopt new technologies that will assist the Operators’ businesses.
They launched BOOK ME BOB in early 2019, and the product was well received throughout the Industry. Despite the significant challenges the Industry faced with the emergence and spread of Covid-19, David and Andy were undeterred and determined to succeed as they understood and had faith that on the other side of the global crisis, the Hospitality Industry being adaptive, robust, and too important to fail, would survive and benefit from their product more than ever.
Their hard work and determination is being rewarded with BOOK ME BOB experiencing growth last year of around 400 percent and accelerating with expected growth for the first half of this year of at least 250 percent for the 6 months to June 2023. As part of their growth plans, Andy has relocated to the USA to be closer to that market, where he can collaborate with others on other relevant technology developments.
The company has also benefited from the support and mentorship of Microsoft, having been selected by them early in their company development to participate in their Highway to 100 Unicorns and Project Amplify Programs. Now with the release of the ChatGPT technology, BOOK ME BOB’s further product development and enhancements appear boundless.
David Thompson said, “Our commitment to Operators in the Hospitality, Tourism and Recreation Ecosystem, is to empower and assist them to take back a position of greater influence and ownership of their customer base and drive their direct revenue channels. This is the soul and purpose of our business. We are very excited about ChatGPT, and our integrating with it boosts and deepens that commitment to a previously unobtainable level. This is one of those wonderful game-changing moments that enables our business to innovate, engage with, and empower Operators in the industry and those who choose to journey with us, to a whole new level. Our message to the industry is simple, integrating with ChatGPT elevates and accelerates our ability to empower you. Whilst we are not the only players in this space, others make things sound complicated, where we are dedicated to keeping it simple but highly effective and with us involved, that is how things will be.”
Andy Dharmani adds, “We were granted early access to Open AI, the developers of ChatGPT, last year and have been working on our integration since then. It is like the missing piece of a technology puzzle when creating a seamless conversation flow with our industry chatbot. The ChatGPT capability utilized within the BOOK ME BOB chatbot will draw on our over 500,000 and rapidly growing inventory of industry-specific phrases, developed in consultation with Operators within the Hospitality, Tourism and Recreation Ecosystem, to give a customer experience like never before. Conversation with the BOOK ME BOB chatbot will be significantly more fluid flowing, and natural feeling, with the engagement being much more efficient and meaningful for the Industry Operators’ guests. This is a pivotal moment; I get excited just talking about it, we are equipped and committed to delivering product and service excellence to our customers, and this new technical capability will elevate the empowerment level of our customers to take a position of greater influence and ownership in their relationship with their customer base.”
Andy went on to say, “We understand this new and other AI technology very well; our original development work was deliberately set up so we can adapt and pivot new technologies into our systems without having to recreate anything all over again or take systems down for maintenance, enhancements and upgrades, it is all Cloud-based and seamless. We also understand that some might want to adopt this new ChatGPT technology at a different rate to others, so the integration has been designed and structured to be a key feature of our product that can be turned on or off, as the Operator requires at the site level. There will also be no waiting or wait lists. When launched, which is just around the corner, access to it will be instant and as easy as a flick of the switch for any user already using our technology who wants the new feature. Our customers will choose when to switch it on. This means that anyone who adopts our product now will have the new feature instantly available to them when launched; it will be as easy as that.”
The integration with ChatGPT is not the only exciting development this company is working on. David says, “There are other very exciting developments in the pipeline coming in the next few months, including new features added to existing products, new products, other integrations and collaborations. We are continuously engaging, innovating and evolving in the interest of our customers to empower them, which is what motivates us.”
For further information, anyone can contact the company through the BOOK ME BOB website at https://www.bookmebob.com/ or by direct email at hello@bookmebob.com.
