Meet Zoe, MSC Cruises’ Virtual Cruise Assistant

ZOE, the world’s first virtual cruise assistant will launch on MSC Bellissima and will then be available on each new ship following this, including MSC Grandiosa and MSC Virtuosa in 2020.

Virtual Cruise Assistant

ZOE is poised to take MSC Cruises’ Guest Services to an exciting new level with guest-centric technology enhancing the cruise deals for guests. Developed in partnership with HARMAN and Samsung Electronics, ZOE is a voice-enabled artificial intelligence (AI) found in every cabin that can speak seven languages.

Guests just say, “OK ZOE”, and she’s ready to help and provide information about onboard services, suggestions or help to book a service and more. To ensure ZOE responds effectively to all guests, she has been programmed and trained to respond to more than 800 of the most commonly asked questions with thousands of different variants of each question.

Gianni Onorato, MSC Cruises’ CEO commented:

The cruise experience is constantly evolving to become ever-richer, offering an increasingly wide choice of services and facilities. In 2017 we introduced MSC for Me, an industry-leading digital innovation platform that revolutionised the way that guests were able to customise and personalise their experience. The technology was built into the very design of the new ships, incorporated into every step of the development process of each prototype, from conception and construction.

Mr Onorato continued:

This was just the starting point in providing a connected cruise experience. There was a core guest need to be met, which was to find answers to common questions in a quick and easy way, enabling guests to make the most of their holiday. We researched the latest connected technologies and identified voice assistants and Artificial Intelligence as the way to meet this need and the work on ZOE began.

ZOE’s Design

ZOE features advanced audio with far field microphones and a professional quality speaker to provide the best audio experience. Guests will enjoy fast response times and also have the opportunity to connect their phones directly to the device through Bluetooth to enjoy music, podcasts and more in their cabin.

ZOE is not designed to replace human interaction between crew and guest, but rather to provide guests with the flexibility to communicate and discover information from the comfort of their cabins.