Mandai Wildlife Group is the steward of the Mandai Wildlife Reserve, a unique wildlife and nature destination in Singapore that is home to world-renowned wildlife parks including Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, Bird Paradise and River Wonders. As part of the Group’s digital transformation towards smart, integrated wildlife park experiences and operations at the Mandai Wildlife Reserve, a dedicated department - the Transformation Office - was set up three years ago. To realise this vision, they receive support from the Singapore government through grants which actively encourage organisations to innovate, test, and collaboratively share insights on the implementation of new technology.
I spoke to Edmas Neo, vice president of the Transformation Office, and his managers Khairulnizam Zulkifle and Moh Ai Wei. AI was initially incorporated into wildlife care such as monitoring habitat perimeters and assessing the body condition of animals in the Group’s care.
More recently, the Transformation Office has adopted generative AI to enhance the guest’s experience. Using Chat GPT via the Microsoft Azure package (which provides an added layer of protection for confidential customer and organisation data) enables them to sift through and categorise thousands of visitor comments in a matter of minutes, a task which previously took days and was open to variances in human interpretation. The categorised comments are then automatically routed to the respective departments for their necessary follow up and action. The increased speed allows them to provide prompt responses to visitors and provides a more nuanced interpretation of the comments, helping better inform future operations decisions.
A key responsibility of the Transformation Team is holding workshops and training sessions for the Group’s workforce to encourage the use of new technology and demonstrate how to get the best out of AI tools. Acknowledging the impracticality of banning the use of generative AI tools, the team has written a policy paper outlining guidelines on how to use such tools responsibly and teaches staff how to disable permissions to share data publicly.
For the future, AI is seen as an important tool to improve the operation of the visitor sites, enabling the Group to drive operational efficiencies.