Vail Resorts has created a helpful digital mountain assistant for its numerous ski resorts named Emma.
Vail Resorts says Emma is the world’s first digital mountain assistant. The feature is available to guide guests at nine Vail Resort properties, including Lake Tahoe ski resorts – Heavenly, Northstar California and Kirkwood.
The ski company also has four Colorado resorts – Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone – plus Park City in Utah and Whistler Blackcomb in Canada.
Skiers and snowboarders can text Emma their questions at 77477.
Emma, an “Epic Mountain Assistant,” uses artificial intelligence (AI) through natural language processing to answer questions, 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the ski and snowboard season through short message service (SMS) text.
If Emma cannot answer a question, she will connect guests to a live agent for further assistance. In an effort to continuously improve Emma’s capabilities, guests can text “feedback” to share their open-ended ideas and comments for Emma.
“(Emma) is the collective knowledge of every lift operator, groomer, snowmaker, ski school instructor, ticket counter attendant and ski patroller,” Vail Resorts wrote about Emma. “It can help (skiers and snowboarders) with weather, lift status, terrain, EpicMix stats, parking, traffic, shuttles, rentals, lessons, lift tickets, resort experiences, planning and more – just ask.”
A first-generation technology, Emma launched in November 2018 at Keystone and spent the early season getting to know what typical questions skiers and snowboarders ask at the resort. Emma will spend the rest of the 2018-19 ski season in beta and will get smarter the more it interacts with guests and expands her knowledge base and insight.
“We are excited to offer guests a one-stop source for the information they need, when they need it, in order to create an experience of a lifetime for our guests,” said Kirsten Lynch, chief marketing officer for Vail Resorts. “Emma has (same) passion and first-hand experience you’d expect from someone who’s lived and worked in the mountains their entire life. Her expertise will continue to grow as guests interact throughout the season.”
In addition to answering questions on everything from available terrain to lift line wait times, Emma can give guests their EpicMix stats when they text her simple questions like – “How much did I ski today?” or “What are my stats?” – and then provide Emma the 11-digit number located on their season pass or lift ticket.
Emma is one of the latest innovations from Vail Resorts designed to help simplify and improve the guest experience. Recently, the company announced plans for a new handheld, mobile technology to allow skiers and snowboarders who purchase tickets in advance to bypass the ticket window altogether.
That technology is expected to be available during the 2019-20 ski and snowboard season at all 17 of Vails’ North American resorts.
More information on Emma can be found at www.EmmaIsEpic.com.
