nir-vana innovation network

This Italian company is a web-oriented company operating in the IT Industry since 1998. It has consolidated an important know-how in managing and developing several projects, thus becoming a reference point for Italian SMEs. The main markets where they operate are banking and financial services, energy and utilities, automotive, manufacturing, media & entertainment, retail, transport and logistics. The services provided range from the design of information systems, corporate networks, management software, websites, to system integration and outsourcing.

They have designed and implemented an innovative artificial intelligence search engine for planning and booking touristic packages. This technology offered consists of a new search engine in the booking sector. It is based on an algorithm which, through a virtual assistant supports the users of a booking system for holiday facilities.
It aims to be the ideal virtual partner for those who need to book their holidays through a booking portal. Once a user shows up the search engine will ask him to express his "wishes" in natural language about what he expects from the holiday he would like to book, submitting also a questionnaire.
This search engine has a “brain” based on sentiment analysis, opinion mining and optimization techniques using key performance indicators, in order to propose to users a list of accommodation facilities in the portfolio that best express the "matching" between what the user requires and what those facilities can offer.
In a multiuniverse created with axes given by the identified key performance indicators, the positions of all available structures will therefore be identified, (identification of the feasible solutions). At that point, the system will use its own, previously mentioned, ability to analyze the available facilities using many sources of information (e.g. websites of the facilities, social channels, tourism sector portals), in order to understand among the structures that obviously respect the constraints declared by the user which are the ones that best "match" with the users “desiderata”, that have been declared directly or indirectly by him. The research algorithm developed calculates the results basing on the distances in this multiuniverse, choosing the solution which is located at the minimum distance from the point provided by the identified KPIs.
Search engine's intelligence will also be self-adapting, since its ability to "match" between offers and demands improves over time. It considers the texts associated with the descriptions of the "holiday packages" offered by the structures in the portfolio together with general descriptions of the sites concerning the holidays, reviews and opinions left on social channels or other websites. The search engine can also request feedback "when the holiday is complete" to users who have confirmed reservations.

The Italian company is interested in companies interested in adopting the solution through commercial agreement with technical assistance.

Advantages & innovations

Unlike the systems proposed by competitors, this search engine is able to apply sentiment analysis or the opinion mining, i.e. the ability to extract knowledge from texts relating to opinions, reviews, information, needs expressed in natural language by users and available on social networks and on the web. It is equipped with an operational "brain", an algorithmic method that provides the virtual assistant with the answers to be given to the user, It is based on an innovative algorithm in the holiday booking sector. The competitors' search engines are based on "search through filters" that no evaluation make about the quality of the proposed solution compared to what is "desired" by the customer to whom only the evaluation of the best solution is given. In other words, they manage to exclude everything that is certainly not required by the customer, defining the "feasible solutions", but no support is provided regarding the search, among them, for the “optimal” solutions. It is a one-dimensional research. Approach overpassed by the company's solution which instead is based on a multi-criterion optimization algorithm. Finally, the project can be replicated, after appropriate adaptations, in all those online business sectors in which can be exploited the capability of this search engine of analyzing and interpreting user needs, expressed in natural language, integrating it with analysis of a number of information available on the web and social networks.

Stage of development

Prototype available for demonstration

Partner sought

The Italian company is looking for online booking agencies that are willing to integrate the technology in their booking system. The cooperation will be carried out through commercial agreements with technical assistance. The Italian company is also available to develop customized solutions in other sectors on the specific needs and requirements of the partner. Even in this case the prototype will be adapted to the desired requirements under commercial agreements with technical assistance.