Vail Resorts | Emma, Your Epic Mountain Assistant
Overview
Under my leadership, R/GA's Brand AI team designed, concepted and developed the Epic Mountain Assistant for Vail Resorts, the world's first digital mountain assistant to provide real-time information to skiers and snowboarders.
From planning a ski vacation to arrival and all the way through departure, Emma offers guests an unprecedented breadth of information tailored to each resort. Emma's got you covered on topics such as snow conditions and lift line wait times, parking, ski school, lift tickets and equipment rental options, on- and off-mountain dining and activities recommendations and more. Plus, the more you ask her, the more she learns and the smarter she gets.
Key Objective: Create an AI-powered mountain assistant that enhances the guest experience across the entire journey from planning to departure. Consolidate data from multiple enterprise sources to provide guests a streamlined and personalized digital experience.
The Challenge
Guests at any of the Vail Resorts properties often face a variety of challenges that stand between them and the slopes. My team at R/GA was contracted to create an AI-powered chatbot designed to connect guests with the variety of distributed digital resources at over a dozen different resorts.
The Approach
Pre LLMs, we used a combination of natural language processing NLP tools and legacy API integrations to build a chatbot with a wealth of data access.
Key Takeaways
- There's tons of exciting data locked up inside company systems. Breaking down barriers between customers and the data they need creates immediate value.
- Rapid-prototyping and testing with dummy data helped build the user experience in a matter of weeks.
- Context is key. Understanding that the customer's goal is to get the data they need quickly and get on the slopes helped to streamline the experience.