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July 04, 2024

World2Meet: The travel company providing a better customer experience and operations with a new virtual assistant powered by Microsoft Azure

World2Meet (W2M) is a travel company based in Spain. Part of a larger tourism group, it was looking for ways to utilize generative AI (GenAI) to become more productive and further improve its customer service. Together with Microsoft and one of their technological partners Bravent, W2M’s tech team developed a speaking virtual assistant and avatar, able to handle and answer any question from its customers, in multiple languages. Named Mía, the GenAI-powered solution made its debut at the world’s largest tourism trade show and is set to be rolled out to benefit the company’s frontline staff, its customers, and the organization’s technological evolution.

World2Meet

“This technology is setting the standard for the rest of the tourism industry. And I think that says a lot about our company, our department, and about our partners.”

Marc Riera, Head of Innovation & AI at World2Meet (W2M) is reflecting on Mía, the travel company’s ground-breaking virtual assistant and avatar—and the potential it has to transform the travel sector. “Ours is an industry where a lot of people get recruited for the high season, and there is a lot for them to learn in a very short time to get them up to speed—so the more sup­­­­port we can give them, the happier both they and our customers are,” he comments.

Mía, W2M's ambassador, is the go-to resource for supporting employees, agents, and sales representatives, offering precise responses. Available in Spanish, English, and Portuguese, Mía has great internal use potential and is also ideal for fairs, meetings, and events, providing a multimodal experience through text, voice, and images.

“That’s what Mia is giving us: additional support for our workforce, efficiency, and time saved—and very happy customers.”

Supporting a steep learning curve in customer service

W2M is the travel division of the Iberostar Group, a vertically structured tourism organization, made up­­­ of 18 brands which together encapsulate the entire tourism value chain. Based in Spain, W2M has been growing steadily for the last four years, and now consists of around 2,500 employees.

W2M offers a wide range of services to customers, and as a tourist company its business is highly seasonal, which in turn means the company needs to recruit and train frontline staff at specific times of the year, very rapidly.

“Our goal was to find a way to help our team provide customized information to all our customers, in their language, and according to their needs. It’s all about making everyone’s lives easier,” says Joan Barceló, W2M’s Corporate CIO.

Preparing the ground for a GenAI solution

“At W2M, innovation is a strategic and transversal pillar that is part of our DNA,” says Joan Barceló. “We are firmly committed to implementing technological tools that optimize processes and facilitate the day-to-day life of our customers and employees.”

He recalls starting to investigate AI and its potential in early 2023, when the company sensed that this technology was about to explode due to the popularization of ChatGPT and the public availability of the Azure OpenAI Service.

“At that time, we created a specific AI and intelligent automation unit to explore possibilities and understand the technological implications,” he explains.

"Analyzing the potential of this technology, the team proposed using GenAI to create a digital ambassador to support our agents, with deep knowledge of our product, destinations, and brands. At that time, we were very excited to quickly develop the project, and decided to promote our center of excellence to promote good AI practices and also be able to provide support to our team,” explained Joan Barceló.

Once the framework was in place, the W2M team went about choosing partners to help ensure the success of the proposed GenAI-powered avatar, now named Mía. “We have a lot of trust in Microsoft's leadership in the field of GenAI, and the expertise of our partner Bravent. So, we called on their assistance to help make Mía a reality,” explains Marc Riera.

Key to that process was providing Mía with an exhaustive education on every aspect of W2M’s operation. The workload was large, and the timescale ambitious. “Fortunately, at World2Meet we have an excellent relationship and trust with our partners and providers, and this allowed us to deliver such a complex project on schedule,” explained Joan Barceló.

Celebrating a first for the travel sector

Mía made its public debut in January 2024, at FITUR, the world’s biggest travel trade show, which took place in Madrid, Spain. Equipped with a human voice through Microsoft Azure Text to Speech Avatar—part of Azure AI Speech—the GenAI-powered virtual assistant can handle almost any customer or employee question and respond in English, Portuguese, Spanish, or German.

“With this Microsoft Azure Text to Speech avatar, we take a giant step towards creating the first virtual person, which means creating an experience that is as close to a human interaction as possible,” explains Mario López, CIO of Bravent.

Mía has the interpersonal skills to be easily mistaken for a real person. “She can be the bridge between the customer and any system that we could integrate with her. Right now, Mía’s only giving information, but we could ask her to identify a customer, and address any of the details of their trip,” enthuses Marc Riera.

“The bottom line is that the quicker, better-tailored attention provided by Mía improves the quality of customer service. That sends a really powerful message to the market, to the public, but also to our B2B customers. And Mía can provide that superior service, thanks to the dedication of our team, Microsoft technology and support, plus the exemplary GenAI skills of Bravent,” explained Joan Barceló.

Underpinning the technology that drives great customer service

“Mía is the result of an innovative alliance with Microsoft and uses GenAI technology which we developed and executed at W2M. With it, we have taken the customer experience to the next level. This initiative reflects our commitment to what we see as a revolutionary but also responsible AI project, establishing a new benchmark in the tourism sector,” states Riera.

“Above and beyond fulfilling its objectives as a GenAI-backed virtual assistant and avatar, Mía—and the development processes behind it—have had a profound effect on the AI department and on the company," comments Joan Barceló.

“Mía has demonstrated that our culture of innovation and openness to new technologies is genuine and produces tangible results. And I think that has reinforced the commitment to continuous improvement—both in terms of technology, and service excellence," explains Marc Riera.

“It’s been a voyage of discovery. The whole process of creating this solution resulted in us answering questions that previously we had not even thought about. I believe it's only going to make us accelerate our innovation and AI adoption journey. And it’s very reassuring to know that we have the support and tech Microsoft provides to sustain us during that journey," states Joan Barceló.

“At W2M, innovation is a strategic and transversal pillar that is part of our DNA. We are firmly committed to implementing technological tools that optimize processes and facilitate the day-to-day life of our customers and employees.”

Joan Barceló, CIO, World2Meet

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