AirHelp has unveiled a breakthrough in legal technology with the launch of Herman, the world’s first artificial intelligence powered lawyer in the travel industry.

Designed and built specifically to help process claims for flight disruption compensation as quickly as possible, Herman has the potential to revolutionise the legal claims process by making it more accessible and cost effective for the consumer.

Herman has been developed over the past four years by AirHelp’s global legal team and technology engineers, and has been fed with experience from thousands of court proceedings in almost 30 jurisdictions.

When a claim is submitted into the system, Herman’s artificial brain feeds through the relevant details such as operating airline, departure airport, arrival airport and passenger country to suggest the best options for legal action, removing any possibility of human error.

The process for claiming flight disruption compensation is complex.

There are multiple rules and factors to consider before taking court action for a passenger; such as the departure and arrival airports of the booked flights, the date of the disruption and the terms and conditions of the operating airline.

If done manually, this can be a lengthy process, taking up to twenty minutes per claim depending on its complexity.

Using Herman will reduce this time by 1,200 per cent and significantly cut costs of the legal service, making it more affordable for those who would have otherwise had to forgo taking legal action.

With so many factors to consider, it is not surprising that only two per cent of the eight million passengers entitled to flight disruption compensation will file for the compensation they deserve, resulting in more than £2 billion in reimbursement being left untouched each year.

The development of Herman is part of AirHelp’s mission to make the process for filing compensation simpler and cost effective, meaning less time for the consumer.

Commenting on the development of Herman, Christian Nielsen of AirHelp, said: “AirHelp’s mission is to help consumers get the money that they are legally entitled to following disrupted or delayed flights.

“As a business, we cannot change the regulatory rules and laws that govern flight compensation, but we are determined to see how we can make the process smoother, faster and fairer for consumers.

“Herman is an industry first, using AI in a way that will transform the speed of making claims and hopefully encourage more consumers to claim what is rightfully theirs.”

Testing of Herman on 35,000 claims revealed the AI-powered lawyer could identify a jurisdiction in less than a second.

It can even run more complex bookings with several flight segments and has a worldwide database of airline headquarters and branches.