Intelligent flight assistant: Skyscanner among first ever skills launched on Microsoft’s Cortana

Skyscanner has been announced as one of the first ever third party skills to be launched on Microsoft’s Cortana. The flight search skill will allow users to ask a range of handy, direct questions through Microsoft’s personal assistant.

Live from today to users on all Cortana powered devices in the US – including on Windows 10 desktop and phone, Cortana for iOS and Android – the brand new skill will give users the opportunity to get quick and up-to-date information on flight queries.

Skyscanner’s Cortana skill includes the ability to ask about indicative pricing on any flight route, in addition to the best time to book routes, and live flight status information.

Skyscanner has become a pioneer in the bots and conversational search space, having been among the first to launch chat bots on both Facebook’s Messenger platform and Skype, as well as on Amazon’s Alexa voice service. Skyscanner’s latest artificial assistant for Cortana is able to conduct the conversation and surface answers about flights via both voice and visual cues, depending on which device the user engages with the skill on, creating a rich experience for those needing quick and convenient flight information.

Filip Filipov, Product Director at Skyscanner commented, “This is our first Artificial Intelligence skill using short interactions which is uniquely capable of conducting conversations and handling queries over voice and via text on screen. Once again, Skyscanner has taken a trail-blazing approach when it comes to building the most innovative conversational search tools for travel search. We believe that having the ability to ask simple, direct questions relating to flight information on any device enabled with the Cortana personal assistant is another step in offering a truly dynamic and informed eco-system of information to travellers on a unrivalled range of devices and contexts.”

  Notes

• Skill available to those using a US locale in US dollars
• The Cortana skill has been configured for use on Windows 10 (desktop and mobile), Cortana for iOS and Android
• The new skill handles ‘voice native’ and short interaction direct questions, rather than multi-step flight search. It can surface information on Best Time to Book, indicative flight information such as ‘what is the average price to fly to Dubai from Glasgow?’ and live flight status information, for example, ‘Is the flight to Edinburgh on time?’