The new AI-powered tool, developed by Sopra Steria and Lektra, will answer visitor questions about beaches in the Spanish region of Andalusia.
Sopra Steria and Lekta develop a voice assistant for enquiries about Andalusia beaches.
Sopra Steria and Lekta, a company specialising in the development of conversational systems based on artificial intelligence (AI), have worked with the Junta de Andalucía (the regional government of the autonomous Spanish community) to develop a conversational assistant that allows enquiries related to its beaches. These features are now available in the General Beach Catalogue application.
Users will now be able to request information and obtain geolocated reference points and personalised recommendations about the beaches in real-time. The assistant currently responds to 37 conversational intents, such as the location of the nearest pharmacies or hospitals in the area, what to do in cases of assaults on the beach, questions about bringing pets, nearby parking, whether a beach has Blue Flag status, capacity, etc.
The voice assistant works by collecting information from different public data sources of the Junta de Andalucía, such as the Ministry of the Presidency, 112, GREA (Emergency Group of Andalusia), NAC (Andalucía Network And Connect), tourism platforms, IECA (The Institute of Statistics and Cartography of Andalusia), and other public sources, such as AEMET (State Meteorological Agency). It uses advanced natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to understand and contextualise conversations, allowing it to provide precise answers.
The project is part of Junta de Andalucía's strategy to bring digitisation closer to people and to make the region a hub of European innovation in AI. It falls within the framework agreement for knowledge transfer signed in 2022 by Sopra Steria and Lekta with the Digital Agency of Andalusia to promote AI.
Antonio Peñalver, General Director of Sopra Steria Spain, said: “This is an AI conversational assistant that understands intentions beyond words, adapting to the user and their familiarity with technology. This allows adding value to all the data that the Junta de Andalucía already has.”
José F. Quesada, founding partner of Lekta.ai and CEO of Lekta Spain, said the successful introduction of such complex functionality relied on three key factors. “Firstly, the involvement and commitment of the staff of the Junta de Andalucía. Secondly, having a company like Sopra Steria for coordination and management. Finally, Lekta has provided a complete and comprehensive technological ecosystem integrating artificial intelligence, machine learning, an omnichannel approach, and user experience,” he said.