 revealed a shopping assistant—powered by artificial intelligence (AI)—called “Kian.” Kian will help prospective buyers learn valuable details about Kia vehicles via Facebook Messenger. Kian will inform buyers on local inventory, product information, comparable competitive vehicles and current pricing. […] "'Pin It")
AI Assistant Takes Shopping for Kia Vehicles to Next Level
Photo: Kia Media
Buyers interested in a Kia vehicle will have a unique shopping buddy. Today, Kia Motors America (KMA) revealed a shopping assistant—powered by artificial intelligence (AI)—called “Kian.” Kian will help prospective buyers learn valuable details about Kia vehicles via Facebook Messenger. Kian will inform buyers on local inventory, product information, comparable competitive vehicles and current pricing. Kia is planning to eventually roll out Kian’s services on Kia’s website.
Some of the things Kian is available to answer and happy to assist buyers with includes: “What’s the MPG of the Optima Hybrid?”; “Does the 2017 Cadenza have more horsepower than the 2017 Acura TLX?”; “Show me Kia vehicles that seat seven people”; and “Show me the current inventory at my local Kia dealer.”
Kian is the second source of “chatbot technology” that KMA has debuted; in November 2016, KMA introduced NiroBot, and since its introduction NiroBot has interacted with more than 33,000 consumers.
“Kian consists of tools that understand and can respond to natural language and is coupled with the industry’s most comprehensive automotive database. It also has a sophisticated analytics engine that optimizes the experience based on user input and data. The CarLabs’ platform enables Kian to answer questions contextually in a conversation,” reports Kia Media.
Kian is designed to provide consumers with the answers they want about Kia vehicles in an engaging, conversational way; Kian will serve as a Kia expert consumers can access at any moment.
“In our ever-changing digital world, Kian is programmed to understand individual customer needs and then provide shopping decision support instantly and intuitively,” said Saad Chehab, vice president, marketing communications, Kia Motors America. “Shoppers and Kia owners can chat with Kian on their own time, with no pressure and on the mobile messaging platform they use the most.”
Kian is a creative collaboration among Kia, CarLabs, and Ansible.
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