Rise of the machines: When bots take over the workplace

Myra and Gia were godsend. If tourists start booking Shimla holidays to enjoy the snow and traffic outstrips the number of rooms, the duo sends alerts to hotel chains in the region to increase online inventory. They forecast demand, answer customer queries and can even update on flight delays. The duo has been at the travel portal's headquarters in Cyber City, Gurgaon, for just a year but has already moved on to solving more difficult tasks such as managing loyalty programmes. Whether cancellations or refunds from 12,000-15,000 customer interactions every day, about 60% are resolved by the duo and some of their other techsavvy mates.