New Zealand-founded Snapper Services has launched an artificial intelligence assistant designed to reduce public transport network analysis from days or weeks to minutes.
Ask Mosaiq is built into Mosaiq Insights, part of the company’s Transit Intelligence Suite, and allows users to ask questions about network performance in plain language.
The system selects the appropriate workflow, analyses the operator or authority’s Mosaiq data and provides an evidence-based answer without requiring users to manually apply filters.
It can also draw on third-party information, including weather data, where relevant.
Mosaiq Insights processes more than 12 billion vehicle positions each month. Snapper says converting this volume of information into material suitable for operators, boards, unions and elected representatives has traditionally required extensive work with spreadsheets, screenshots and manual filtering.
Ask Mosaiq is aimed at transport authorities and operators requiring evidence for committee papers, contract monitoring and service planning.
The system can compare performance across different periods while accounting for seasonal variation and monitoring data quality alongside on-time performance.
Snapper Services chief executive Miki Szikszai says the tool is intended to make network information easier to access and act on.
“Ask Mosaiq takes this to a whole new level, making it even faster and easier to understand and improve performance,” Szikszai says.
“I can’t wait to see what public transport operators and authorities can do with the power and simplicity of plain language, reliable evidence, and direct answers.”
Snapper says operators can also use the assistant to identify capacity already available within existing timetables.
This could include buffer time allowed for delays that do not regularly occur or running times based on road conditions that have since changed.
Recovering that time could allow operators to improve service frequency and reliability without adding another vehicle or driver.
Translink Belfast area manager Damien Bannon says dynamically updated analysis could help operators improve services.
“If we’re using Ask Mosaiq, it’ll surface those insights for us to act on,” Bannon says.
“That’s utopia for a bus operator, using data that updates dynamically to improve performance and the customer experience.”
Ask Mosaiq is available for public transport operators and authorities to trial through the Mosaiq platform.
