Innovative mobile apps married to increasingly powerful artificial intelligence (A.I.) are rapidly getting smarter -- making them even more helpful for users. These kinds of apps, showcased at VentureBeat's two-day MobileBeat conference here this week, are designed to anticipate user needs. Who knew, for example, that you can use your smartphone to simplify the process of getting a green card to enter the United States or to streamline corporate travel? The program is based on a bot that walks users through a series of simple questions that, when answered, generates a package of documents you can file with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to complete the application process. "When I came to this country, I needed a visa urgently, but it took a month," said Visibot's co-founder and chief operating officer, Andrey Ziniviev.

When you picture a personal assistant, you probably envision a celebrity -- or at least someone very wealthy -- walking around with a "shadow" who takes her messages, makes her travel plans, helps her pick out the perfect outfit, and eliminates other daily tasks from her lengthy to-do list. If you've ever wished you could have a personal assistant of your own, then you're in luck. Personal assistants are quickly becoming accessible to the masses -- thanks to AI and other emerging tech. In fact, technology really has been an equalizer when it comes to providing everyday people access to personal concierge services. Besides Siri or Google on your smartphone, Amazon's Alexa and Google Home may be some of the first digital "personal" assistants that come to mind.

When you picture a personal assistant, you probably envision a celebrity -- or at least someone very wealthy -- walking around with a "shadow" who takes her messages, makes her travel plans, helps her pick out the perfect outfit, and eliminates other daily tasks from her lengthy to-do list. If you've ever wished you could have a personal assistant of your own, then you're in luck. Personal assistants are quickly becoming accessible to the masses -- thanks to AI and other emerging tech. In fact, technology really has been an equalizer when it comes to providing everyday people access to personal concierge services. Besides Siri or Google on your smartphone, Amazon's Alexa and Google Home may be some of the first digital "personal" assistants that come to mind.

American Express announced that it has acquired Mezi, the startup behind a human-assisted shopping and travel agent chatbot. Founded out of Sunnyvale, California in 2015, Mezi launched a personal travel assistant that improves the more you use it. It can automatically check you in at the airport or reschedule flights, request vegetarian meals on the plane, and arrange associated travel services, such as car rentals and restaurant reservations. While some elements of the service are entirely driven by artificial intelligence (AI), other facets combine bots with human agents to ensure users can access additional customization options. The startup had raised around $12 million in funding, the bulk of which arrived via a $9 million series A round back in 2016 that ushered in American Express as an investor, via its VC arm.

Newswire) American Express (NYSE:AXP) today announced it has acquired Mezi www.mezi.com, a personal travel assistant app that helps consumers plan and book trips. The Mezi app allows travelers to simply message their requests for flights, hotel or restaurant reservations, and Mezi provides recommendations and makes travel arrangements at the customer's request. Founded in 2015, Mezi uses artificial intelligence (AI) and human expertise to personalize the online travel discovery and booking experience. By learning travelers' preferences and understanding the way customers make requests using natural language, Mezi gets smarter and more efficient over time. "Mezi's AI-powered experience opens up exciting new ways for us to connect with and serve our Card Members and creates opportunities for us to build more meaningful relationships with them," said Phil Norman, Vice President of American Express Digital Labs.

AI is becoming a way of life for many of us. We check on flights using a chatbot like Mezi, we benefit from the AI within the booking engine used at Hopper's website, and we are sending messages to businesses easier thanks to the machine learning at Yelp. It should not come as a big surprise when the AI improves, advances, and becomes even more helpful. After all, taking a cue from the human brain, AI is always adapting, looking for new ways to help us on a constant iteration cycle. The engineers behind AI are keen to make the technology more powerful and integrated into our daily workflow, even when things get really complex.

For years now, the travel industry has dabbled with artificial intelligence (AI), seeking to unlock the promise of more efficient communications and greater customer service between travel suppliers, travel agents and consumers. So far, most of that potential has remained untapped, with only a handful of companies beginning to introduce AI to the booking process in a meaningful way. But recent investments and beta tests are finally starting to bear fruit. In San Jose, Calif., Casto Travel recently launched the text message-based "Marco," a mobile travel assistant powered by Mezi, a Silicon Valley startup. Marco was introduced for Casto's business travel clients and is already completing 60 percent of the current users' bookings without human intervention, said president and CEO Marc Casto.

Imagine the perfect personal assistant. This partner would understand your needs -- often before you've even expressed them -- and know exactly how to deliver what you're asking for. They would make helpful suggestions without becoming intrusive, and keep you from missing appointments and opportunities. Most importantly, this personal assistant would be someone you can trust implicitly. Now, how do you embody those traits in an artificial intelligence-powered service?

Innovative mobile apps married to increasingly powerful artificial intelligence (A.I.) are rapidly getting smarter -- making them even more helpful for users. These kinds of apps, showcased at VentureBeat's two-day MobileBeat conference here this week, are designed to anticipate user needs. Who knew, for example, that you can use your smartphone to simplify the process of getting a green card to enter the United States or to streamline corporate travel? The program is based on a bot that walks users through a series of simple questions that, when answered, generates a package of documents you can file with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to complete the application process. "When I came to this country, I needed a visa urgently, but it took a month," said Visibot's co-founder and chief operating officer, Andrey Ziniviev.

Innovative mobile apps married to increasingly powerful artificial intelligence (A.I.) are rapidly getting smarter -- making them even more helpful for users. These kinds of apps, showcased at VentureBeat's two-day MobileBeat conference here this week, are designed to anticipate user needs. Who knew, for example, that you can use your smartphone to simplify the process of getting a green card to enter the United States or to streamline corporate travel? The program is based on a bot that walks users through a series of simple questions that, when answered, generates a package of documents you can file with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to complete the application process. "When I came to this country, I needed a visa urgently, but it took a month," said Visibot's co-founder and chief operating officer, Andrey Ziniviev.