Klook unveils AI tools, announce social-media affiliate program

Klook’s new generative AI chatbot and trip planner called K.AI (Klook AI), was launched by COO and co-founder, Eric Gnock Fah. The company has been beta testing the AI tool on its app for some time now. K.AI will be fully integrated into the Things To Do activity page across eight different languages, catering to Klook’s various markets in the APAC region.

According to a report in WebinTravel, Gnock Fah said, “We’re using predictive AI for recommendations. We’re also focusing on fraud prevention and marketing – to be more efficient where we spend marketing dollars.”

He continued: “Generative AI will help us with customer service and translation – the previous translation technology doesn’t use context, it just translates word for word. Translation will allow us to scale faster and better on that front. We also have a lot of merchants that may not be fluent in English. So, when they join us, how do we get them to generate content for us that’s more appealing.”

For now, K.AI is a part of the pre-booking stage of a customer’s journey, something that Klook hopes to expand in the future. “What we have yet to do is provide this chatbot to the post-booking customer experience – hey, I want to cancel… hey, can you change my booking to the next day. That relates to our merchants and there’s a lot of operational things we’ll have to bring before we connect the chatbot into the post-booking experience.”

Ethan Lin, CEO and co-founder of Klook, said: “2023 is proving to be a record year of Travelsilience, where travel and resilience intersect. While we are in the early stages of travel recovery in Asia Pacific with persisting constraints in flight capacities, we’ve achieved astounding growth. Travelers are showcasing their resilience, and our business has surged threefold, primarily driven by a remarkable increase in spending, soaring by over 50% on our platform.

“This growth is underpinned by the diverse variety of additional products and services we’ve introduced, ranging from rail and car rentals to staycations and even more unique experiences. We anticipate that by 2024, as flight capacity fully recovers and travel becomes more affordable, it will unlock even greater demand, further solidifying our position as the region’s leading experience-first platform.”

A recent study by Klook called TravelPulse revealed that experiences have become the new currency for the next generation of travelers, with 85 per cent of millennials and Gen Z willing to invest in unique experiences.

Building Klook Kreators into conversion engine

To cater to this trend, Klook has launched Klook Kreators, an influencer affiliate program with a focus on social media.

Gnock Fah said: “Our focus isn’t just on any content; it’s about diving deep into user-generated content that’s mobile-friendly, snackable, authentic, and highly shareable – everything that ignites wanderlust and enhances travel experiences. As authenticity now shapes the way we travel, our aspiration is to build the world’s largest social travel community, facilitating exploration and discovery of destinations and experiences.

“We’re seeing that social media is able to become a conversion engine,” he added. “Before, social media was more about building awareness and building a network effect, but we were not able to see how it could convert for us. Social media platforms themselves have been innovating towards conversion versus just engagement. That’s why we believe we can spend more marketing dollars on social media.”