I noticed, to my amusement and irritation, that United.com (website for United Airlines) employs a chatbot with the same name as my project, Alex. I always meant to give it a try, and finally got the chance the other day. (Our interaction is below.) Gotta say, the bot performed well. It loaded precisely the webpage I needed.

It might be simple word recognition, but in the limited domain of an airline website, perhaps that is sufficient. I may run it through its paces in the future. Anyone else encounter this bot? Or others that seemed to work well for your needs?

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Alex: Hi, I’m Alex, your united.com guide. I’ve been designed to make your time on our website as fast and efficient as possible. Just type in a question, keyword or phrase below and I’ll take you to the information you’re looking for.

You Asked: Can I access receipts for my travel from my account?

Alex: You can print your itinerary or ticket receipt for a current reservation by entering your confirmation number and last name in the spaces provided at the bottom of this Web page.

Once you have retrieved your reservation, you can select the link for Print Itinerary at the top of the page under Reservation Tools or the Request Receipt link under the Price section.

To request a receipt or to print your boarding pass, select from the links below.

> http://twitter.com/airlinesagent

“Next IT conversational virtual agents for airlines deliver perfect web customer service, offering a direct connection to the information your customers need.”

> http://twitter.com/mendicot/status/252770686404268032

Watching videos .. @Next_IT Human Emulation Technology (1of2) http://youtu.be/Qd1C50XfxyQ .. (2of2) http://youtu.be/kk2rWIxegME .. by @chuckw

Aha, I wondered what the company behind Alex was. Thanks for the links, Marcus.