Digital transformation is affecting businesses everywhere, even “floating cities” in the middle of the ocean. Sol Rashidi, Chief Data and Cognitive Officer at Royal Caribbean, tells industry analyst Michael Krigsman at CXOTalk how the cruise line is changing, how data and AI are shaping travel, customer service, and more. For more information, see https://www.cxotalk.com/episode/royal-caribbean-ai-digital-transformation Rashidi offers insight on roles of women in technology, how to balance family and work in tech, and explain the responsibilities of a chief data officer. From the transcript: One doesn't usually think about data and artificial intelligence in the context of cruises. So, how do the pieces fit together? Sol Rashidi: (04:31) So, take what we’ve done in the airline industry, take what we’ve done with the hotel industry, take what we’ve done with consumer products and retail, understanding where they shop, what they typically buy, making suggestions… It’s all around enhancing the customer experience by knowing what they’ve done historically with us, and then being able to predict, suggest, or infer what they may like to do with us in the future. What better industry than the cruising industry to be able to apply that same skillset? So, that’s what we’re trying to do here at Royal. Michael Krigsman: Where does the data come from? What kind of data are you using? And then, what happens to that data? Sol Rashidi: (07:25) So, that’s… It’s a phenomenal question in that. The tagline of enhancing the customer experience, and sort of embarking on a more personalized approach, is the glamorous version of everything. The unglamorous version is the work that we actually have to do. With any company, and I’ve had the pleasure of working with the largest and the smallest of companies: financial industries, supply-chain, manufacturing… And as we all know, in all of our environments, there are a ton of applications and systems that capture data. And to unify this information is an extremely overwhelming and daunting task. So, we’re no different from any other company in that. We have multiple touchpoints. We have multiple organizations. We have multiple third-parties that we work with who quite frankly do a phenomenal job of booking these reservations for us. However, do we necessarily have control or influence over how the information is entered? No. Do we get all the information we want, when we want? No. (08:31) So, being able to join all these disparate systems with different formats, types, comprehensiveness of data, the back-end to sort of build a unified layer of who this guest is prior to them embarking is a very difficult task. And that’s what we’re currently doing. Being able to unify the guests. And, everyone loves to call it as like the 360-view or the 360-profile of a guest, but I think that’s like living in the land of hobbits and unicorns. I think we all strive for it, it’s a bit of a fantasy land, but the actual execution of it is very complicated. (09:10) So, the tagline and the glamorous version of it is more a personalized experience across the customer journey. But in order to do that, we have to codify all the different elements and facets and pieces of information that a guest shares with us and being able to make sense of it. And then, we have to be able to provide that into the right hands of the right individuals who are going to encounter our guests at different points of the journey. So, piecemealing it all together is what we’re taking on right now. Michael Krigsman: (09:37) I want to remind everybody that we're speaking with Sol Rashidi, who is the Chief Data and Cognitive Officer at Royal Caribbean. And right now, there is a tweet chat going on using the hashtag #cxotalk, and you can send in your questions, and we'll try to get to them. (10:00) So, Sol, you've got this data, you're building up this profile of the guest, and so, that's the first part of your job title of Chief Data Officer. But then, you're also the Chief Cognitive Officer. And so, where does the cognitive or AI dimension come into play? Sol Rashidi: (10:24) In multiple, multiple layers. Our biggest challenge is not necessarily how to apply cognitive capabilities, but where to apply because there’s just so much room for opportunity. Leveraging video analytics on the ship, leveraging video analytics prior to embarkation and check-in, leveraging past preferences, sailing information, to infer what they may want in the future, or even infer something they never tried but could potentially like based on other feedback. A lot of it is being able to predict, infer, and suggest in advance of the customer asking so that we could either do one of two things: either enhance the experience because they go, “Oh! I’ve never thought of that. That’s amazing!

• published: 02 Aug 2017
• views: 2352