Ivonne Engemann Lufthansa Group Digital Transformation - Session DES-5199 IBM Interconnect 2017 - Las Vegas 20.03.2017

1. lufthansagroup.com
Digital Transformation:
Session DES-5199
Chatbots on Bluemix – Lufthansa’s
Approach to New Customer Channels
for Best Prices and Service
Ivonne Engemann, Deutsche Lufthansa AG
IBM InterConnect 2017 Conference

2. Digital Transformation DES-5199
Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Ivonne Engemann
Lufthansa German Airlines
IT Project Manager
Sales & Digital Customer
Experience
Product Owner
Chatbots @ Lufthansa Group
Developer
Page 1

3. About the Lufthansa Group
Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 2
Passenger transportation is the core business of the Lufthansa Group. The airlines Lufthansa, SWISS
and Austrian Airlines operate from the hubs in Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich and Vienna. In point-to-point
traffic, Eurowings is set to become number 3 in Europe.

4. Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 3
How our customers perceive
Lufthansa today

5. Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 4
We need to go where our customer is
“Mildred, I would
like to visit the Eiffel
tower in May”

6. Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 5
Messenger Services
Instant messaging, e.g.
WhatsApp, iMessage, Skype,
Facebook Messenger
Chatbot
Computer program which conducts
conversation via auditory or textual
methods
Makes use of Natural Language
Processing (NLP)

7. Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 6
Mildred lives in Facebook Messenger
and helps with Best Price Search

8. Digital Transformation DES-5199
Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Page 7
booking classes
knows airport codes
understands landmarks
very fast and friendly
handover to booking
knows holidays
speaks German and English
based on best price search
forgives typing errors
remembers preferences
What is Mildred capable of?
© One

9. Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 8
Mildred is built on a mashup of APIs

10. Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 9
Mildred deployed in the IBM Bluemix Cloud
compose

11. Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 10
“Natural Language” covers a wide range

12. I want to fly to New York on first Tuesday in May starting from Frankfurt
and returning on Memorial Day. In premium eco if possible
Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 11
Natural Language Processing: intents & entities
location:destination
location:origin
datetime
intent
datetime:return
cabinclass
RequestPrice
Frankfurt
New York
05/02/2017 00:00:00
05/29/2017 00:00:00
Premium Economy

13. Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 12
We listen to our customers to
understand their language
“Premium
Economy Class”
“PEY”
“Economic
Plus”
“in Y+”
“premium
eco”

14. Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 13
Continuously evolves based
on our customers’ feedback
I would love to ask for
connecting tickets like
"from PMI via FRA to
VNO"
Can I search for a
maximum price?
e.g. FRA to Spain
max 100 EUR?
I was actually
surprised how fast
the search was
done
What about one-
way?

15. Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 14
Journey to Digital Transformation
Agile development
Small autonomous team
Cross-domain responsibility
DevOps
Fail-fast and adapt

16. Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 15
Listen to your customers – establish feedback loops
and enhance the service permanently
Embrace “Everything-as-a-service” – build for resilience,
not robustness
Just do it – bend existing processes and ways of working
Think about how your brand is perceived.
Bots allow you to learn what the real needs are
Key Learnings & Takeaways

17. Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 16
Lufthansa Chatbots – Outlook
New search and service options
Improve accurateness
Chatbots could become an ubiquitous service for the Lufthansa Group

18. Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 17
Lufthansa Chatbots will continuously enhanced
New search and service options
Improve accurateness
Chatbots will become a ubiquitous service for the Lufthansa GroupThank you – visit Mildred at mildred.lh.com

19. Ivonne Engemann, Lufthansa German Airlines
Digital Transformation DES-5199
Page 18
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