The oneworld airline alliance says it has completed initial trials of a state-of-the-art booking tool that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to help users navigate the complex process of planning a “Round the World” ticket.

With hundreds of possible destinations and millions of possible flight combinations, “Round the World” tickets are some of the most complicated products in the industry, says oneworld, adding that in contrast to the general shift towards online channels, the majority of these trips are still booked with human agents.

oneworld says it challenged partner and artificial intelligence (AI) company Elemental Cognition to build a solution that combines the power and flexibility of the best human agents with the convenience and efficiency of a self-serve technology solution.

Leveraging EC’s breakthrough reasoning, natural language understanding, and dialog capabilities, the solution understands a customer’s needs, helps them weigh options and trade-offs while proactively warning them of potential issues. All while navigating the complex product rules and ever-changing flight availability.

The airline alliance, which includes American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, amongst others, says the initial results are very promising, noting that customers using the new tool are four times more likely to create bookable itineraries that meet their requirements than those using the standard interface.

Elemental Cognition CEO Dr. David Ferrucci saidd, “We are excited to partner with oneworld to deliver a transformative digital experience to its customers. Accommodating customer preferences while navigating complex product rules and ever-changing flight availability is a perfect demonstration of the power of our AI technology. It is great to see it help oneworld’s customers transform their travel ideas into their dream trip.”