Powered by Priceline Partner Network, Halo Travel is First to Allow
Hotel and Airfare Booking with Voice AI Technology
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 10, 2019--
WEX Inc. (NYSE: WEX), an industry-leading global provider of corporate
payments solutions, today announced a partnership with AI.io to launch
Halo Travel, powered by Priceline Partner Network, an intelligent,
voice-activated chat bot for travel. Halo Travel is the first app
allowing booking hotels and flight strictly through voice. AI.io, named
as one of the Top 10 AI solutions providers in 2018 and one of the Top
50 Best Companies to Watch in 2018, created the voice-activated product.
Halo Travel is device agnostic and can be used by anyone who has
internet access, via Google Assistant, which makes it accessible by more
than 500 million people. Users can simply say, “Hey Google, Talk to Halo
Travel,” and their entire travel transaction can be processed via voice
– without having to reach for a laptop. WEX’s virtual payments
technology is a key component to conducting the purchase by facilitating
the payment from Halo Travel to the Priceline Partner Network.
“Halo Travel is all about customer acquisition through innovation in one
of the largest mass market consumer segments in the world. Booking
travel will be redefined with our advanced, artificial intelligence
powered chat bot. Our partnerships with Priceline Partner Network and
Google Assistant mean that hundreds of millions of people will have
unfettered voice access to one of the largest travel inventories in the
industry. After more than a year of development and testing, it gives me
great joy that it will be our AI system that consumers will be engaging
with,” said Terence Mills, CEO AI.io Incorporated. “This wouldn’t be
possible for us to bring this to market without WEX’s virtual payments
technology.”
Halo Travel users can book flights or hotels quickly and efficiently.
The intelligent AIs learn travel habits and patterns of users leading to
extreme personalized travel assistance. The result is an engaging, and
speedy way to book travel on any device at any time – and all you need
is a voice.
“WEX is proud to help bring this travel innovation to market, adding
convenience to booking travel by providing our best-in-class virtual
payments technology,” said Jim Pratt, Senior Vice President, Travel, WEX
Corporate Payments. “Exclusively through voice command, WEX will process
Priceline transactions for Halo Travel users, ensuring a seamless
payment process.”
“We are very enthusiastic about the potential of Halo Travel,” said
Randy Schartner, president of Priceline Partner Network. “We tested the
platform at this year's CES, which was a resounding success. We are
ready to go!"
United States travelers are interested in using voice for travel-related
tasks. According to Phocuswright’s The
State of Voice In Travel, more than half of travelers are
comfortable requesting general information using a voice-powered digital
assistant. However, only a fifth to a third of travelers are actively
using voice for tasks like searching for or booking travel products. For
the first time, Halo Travel’s proprietary machine learning and
artificial intelligence neural network allows travelers the opportunity
to personalize their travel needs using complex voice tasks – placing
the entire Priceline travel inventory, including Booking.com, at their
fingertips.
About WEX Inc.
Powered by the belief that complex payment
systems can be made simple, WEX Inc. (NYSE: WEX) is a leading provider
of payment processing and business solutions across a wide spectrum of
sectors, including fleet, travel and healthcare. WEX operates in more
than 10 countries and in more than 20 currencies through more than 3,500
associates around the world. WEX fleet cards offer 11.5 million vehicles
exceptional payment security and control; purchase volume in its travel
and corporate solutions grew to $30.3 billion in 2017; and the WEX
Health financial technology platform helps 300,000 employers and more
than 25 million consumers better manage healthcare expenses. For more
information, visit www.wexinc.com.
About AI.io Incorporated
AI.io is creating a very exciting
road ahead with a new class of AI - one that is explainable, and that
builds trust by providing evidence; AI that can help manage bias, safe
interruptability, and provide cognition at scale that allows for extreme
personalization and ultimately leads to a better customer experience,
better decision making and increased revenue growth. The company is
helping businesses leverage AI as a strategic capability to augment, and
amplify human, and process intelligence - changing the nature of work
and how people live their lives in ways they could only have imagined.
Visit https://ai-io.io
and https://halo.travel.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190110005112/en/
Source: WEX
WEX Inc.
Elisabeth Andrews
elisabeth.andrews@wexinc.com
(207)
523-6121
Priceline
Devon Nagle, Head of
Communications
devon.nagle@priceline.com
(203)
299-8692
AI.io
Amalia Rosa
Amalia@ai-io.io
(646)
755-3717