Widgety launches AI cruise assistant to ‘fundamentally change’ how agents work

Widgety has launched an AI cruise assistant designed to “fundamentally change” how agents work on enquiries and bookings.

Its introduction follows an eight-month trial with agencies of different sizes to test out various capabilities, including the use of live pricing for enquiries, comparisons across ships and itineraries and summarising conversations.

Travelpack, USAirtours, Beyond Cruising and Swindon Travel Hub have been using the assistant to help with research for customer queries.

Widgety founder Damian Gevertz said the new browser tool can support agency tasks across sales, marketing, social media and IT, adding cruise lines’ in-house sales teams have also been using it.

“It has fundamentally changed the way agents work,” he said, arguing the tool saves time on quoting, comparisons and post-booking questions.

He added: “We very much see it as a tool to help with training, get people into cruise that haven’t already done it before, help people that have always sold the same thing move into a new area and also help agencies onboard new cruise lines.”

He emphasised the AI assistant only uses information from 70 cruise lines and 20 tour operator partners on Widgety’s system to help guarantee accuracy, rather than pulling from multiple sources in the style of other AI platforms.

“We made mistakes all the time, but we’ve spent so long trialling it, we’re confident it’s quick and accurate,” he said.

Gevertz said he believed “no one has built a tool like this”, adding the assistant would in future have more information from cruise lines on current promotions and selling tips. He noted there would also be a mobile version, more currencies and more personal branding options.

He said the “potential is enormous” for future growth as the assistant has 400 users signed up and he would like to see that grow to a thousand active users within a few months.

Agents can sign up for a 14-day trial and there are options for individual and enterprise subscriptions which cost around £10 per seat per month.