Google has released Hangouts Chat - a collaboration tool widely
called Google’s competitor to Slack - and Kayak is one of several companies
that has built bots to integrate into the chat platform.
Hangouts Chat is now available in G Suite, Google’s software
for businesses.
Kayak on Hangouts Chat is a bot intended to make it
easier for co-workers to plan travel together.
The bot can help users find flights and hotels, filter
destinations based on price range and track flights.
Colleagues who want to coordinate travel to a common destination
can create a group channel so each member can take part in the search for hotels
and flights and track one another’s travel.
While the bot is targeted to planning and collaboration for work
travel, it can also be used for personal trips.
The Kayak bot is among 25 others - from companies including Xero, Trello and Freshdesk - that launched with the chat service.