SpeechWorks International Takes Off with First Bilingual, Speech-Activated Flight Information System Powered for Continental Airlines

Early results of the speech system at Continental Airlines show that it has reduced the amount of callers needing to zero out to live agents by over 50%, proving that speech is a reliable way for callers to receive excellent service.

Continental's flight information service is especially convenient for mobile phone users who often check flight information from the road or an airport. As an added safety benefit, instead of having to move the phone away from their ears to access a touchtone menu, callers can just say the flight number or departure city of the flight for which they need information, and get an immediate answer. Further, callers no longer have to remember the corresponding option number (such as, 'press 2 for arrival times') to receive information, making the speech-activated service more user friendly than the previous touchtone system. The new phone service is expected to incur higher user adoption rates as a result of its increased ease of use.

"Our new phone service is a testament to Continental Airlines' commitment to exceed customer expectations, and maintain our #1 in customer service position," explains Donna Schiffert, project manager for Continental Airlines. "We chose SpeechWorks to deliver our flight service because of the Company's track record for providing rapid time-to-market and superior user interface design. Early customer feedback highlights the accuracy, efficiency and user-friendliness of the system. We value SpeechWorks as an important partner in our ongoing customer service efforts."

Continental's service uses a 'barge-in' capability from SpeechWorks that allows callers to interrupt prompts, resulting in faster response. The user interface design was developed based on extensive research SpeechWorks conducted on how people might interact with the service. For example, research for this application suggested that English speaking callers would be more receptive to a female voice and Spanish speaking callers would be more receptive to a male voice. As a result, callers will experience a different voice depending on which language they select.

This flight information service follows the successful deployment of a speech-activated employee travel service that SpeechWorks created and launched for Continental employees in Q2 2000. The employee travel service effectively handles about 1,500 calls each day. Both speech applications run on hardware from SpeechWorks' partner InterVoice-Brite INTV, the leading global supplier of call automation systems.

"We are proud to power Continental's customer-facing flight service," said Stuart R. Patterson, CEO of SpeechWorks. "With the new service, Continental customers can look forward to a more friendly travel experience. Helpful and fast speech recognition systems, such as those we deployed for Continental, are more than a component of customer service -- they are a necessary tool to keep customers coming back."

About Continental Airlines

Continental Airlines is the fifth largest airline in the U.S., offering more than 2,200 departures daily to 127 domestic and 81 international destinations. Operating major hubs in Newark, Houston and Cleveland, Continental () has extensive service throughout the Americas, and to Europe and Asia. Continental recently initiated a strategic global alliance with Northwest Airlines. Continental is in the top half of FORTUNE magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work for in America," and has won first or second place Frequent Flyer Magazine and J.D. Power and Associates awards for four consecutive years. Continental has received numerous awards for its BusinessFirst premium cabin (Condé Nast Traveler, OAG Official Airline Guides, Entrepreneur and Smart Money magazines), OnePass frequent flyer program (InsideFlyer's Freddie Awards) and overall operations and management (Air Transport World's 1997 Airline of the Year). Continental has also been voted as having the best airline web site two years in a row by NDP.

About SpeechWorks International, Inc.

Organizations worldwide rely on SpeechWorks SPWX to delight their callers and provide them with a new level of service over the phone. Complementing the self-service model of e-business, SpeechWorks speech solutions, including the revolutionary SpeechSiteTM product, SpeechifyTM text-to-speech engine and SpeechSecureÔ authentication module, let customers direct their calls, obtain information and complete transactions automatically, simply by speaking naturally over any phone, anytime.

SpeechWorks customers include some of the world's most sophisticated customer service innovators such as America Online, Amtrak, Continental Airlines, E*Trade, FedEx, Fidelity Investments Institutional Brokerage Group, United Airlines and Yahoo! The Company offers the SpeechWorks HereTM Guarantee, the industry's only program that includes a money-back guarantee. SpeechWorks strategic partners include leading corporations such as AT&T, Dialogic, an Intel company, InterVoice-Brite and Net2Phone.

SpeechWorks is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and has offices around the world. To experience the power of SpeechWorks, call 1.888.SAY.DEMO. For additional information, call 617.428.4444 or visit www.speechworks.com . Join SpeechWorks on May 2nd for Global Speech Day, the First-Of-Its-Kind Web Event about speech recognition technology. Information and registration are available at .

SpeechWorks, Speechify, SpeechSecure, SpeechWorks Here and SpeechSite are trademarks or registered trademarks of SpeechWorks International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.