Across all sectors, technology is changing the way in which companies and workers operate. Fiona Murchie asked Robby Wogan, CEO of global mobility software developer MoveAssist, joint winner of Relocate’s 2017 Technological Innovation award, for his thoughts on current and likely future developments in the mobility sector.

Over the next five years, what will be the major trends in technology for global mobility?

Most mobility technology systems perform similar tasks: producing cost estimates, managing vendors, reporting, and so on. What will change is the way in which we access the systems, and the uses we will find for the data we hold.AI (artificial intelligence) will play a larger part in making sense of the seemingly limitless amounts of data we process. The web has allowed us access to unprecedented amounts of information, and we store more and more, daily, in the cloud. With the available increase in computing power, AI algorithms can be used to enable powerful predictive analytics.

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Related technology articles:

• Are businesses prepared for Artificial Intelligence?
• Joint winner: Technological Innovation 2017 – MoveAssist
• WEF: Mobility crucial to solving technology-led jobs crisis

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AI can also assist in automating many mundane tasks. Modern cognitive systems can understand, learn and interact not unlike humans; a chatbot like MAIA [the global mobility online chat tool for which MoveAssist was joint winner of Relocate’s Technological Innovation award 2017] is a simple example of the use of this concept.MAIA ‘understands’ questions that an assignee may raise, and, with access to all of the data relating to that assignee, can provide timely answers without tying up the mobility team’s resources.

How will this impact on the development of your MAIA chatbot and how it relates to mai-assignment and your other technologies?

We initially focused our efforts on improving the assignee experience with our chatbot, MAIA, but are now expanding MAIA’s capabilities to serve a wider audience.For example, management and HR can ask MAIA for instant reports, vendors can post quick updates, and dependants can learn about their new environment – all via voice commands on mobile devices.MAIA will therefore act as a conversational interface to the vast range of data held in mai-assignment [MoveAssist’s cloud-based assignment management app, which allows global mobility specialists, assignees, dependants, HR, line managers, finance, management, and vendors to share data from a single source]. 

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Related articles from the autumn edition of Relocate Magazine:

• Talent and technology: creating a modern, mobile workforce
• Global mobility programmes and compliance: latest trends
• Group moves: Raising employee engagement

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What are your clients’ biggest challenges, and how are you responding to them with technology solutions?

In order to get meaningful analytics and insight into their programmes, mobility teams need access to all of the data relating to their assignees. This is problematic when the data is often spread across multiple providers’ systems.To address this, we are building simple integration tools that use web-based interfaces (RESTful APIs) to enable clients to integrate with their providers, removing the barriers to data access and improving efficiencies. These tools can be used to create a web of tightly coupled businesses, sharing data securely.Read more about how technology is changing global mobility in the Autumn issue of our magazineFor related news and features, visit our Technology section.Access hundreds of global services and suppliers in our Online Directory  Get access to our free Global Mobility Toolkit ^{© 2017. This article first appeared in the Autumn 2017 edition of Relocate magazine, published by Profile Locations, Spray Hill, Hastings Road, Lamberhurst, Kent TN3 8JB. All rights reserved. This publication (or any part thereof) may not be reproduced in any form without the prior written permission of Profile Locations. Profile Locations accepts no liability for the accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein.}