American Express Co. is joining the virtual assistant race.

The credit card company announced today that it has acquired Mezi, a travel and shopping chatbot that is powered by human-assisted artificial intelligence. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Mezi has raised at least $11.8 million since it launched in 2015.

Mezi’s chatbot answers questions from customers about transportation, lodging and other travel needs, and it can handle all of the necessary booking arrangements. Mezi said its chatbot can fully automate more 60 percent of conversations initiated by travelers, and it rarely requires human intervention. The startup claims this allows travel agencies to reduce training time for new agents “from months to a matter of days.”

In addition to setting up reservations, Mezi’s app also uses machine learning to offer users personalized recommendations to help them choose hotels, airlines and more. According to Mezi, its “Proprietary Travel Genome” wades through thousands of travel service providers to match customers with the best options for them.

Mezi seems like a good fit for American Express, which emphasizes travel as a major part of its business. American Express launched its own travel division more than 100 years ago, and the company has partnerships with businesses throughout the travel industry, including Hilton Hotels, Best Western, British Airways and others. Mezi also has a few of its own travel partners, including Expedia and Priceline.

“With messaging emerging as channel of choice for many, and the demand for unique experiences increasing, we believe the combination of Mezi’s capabilities with our global network of expert travel counselors creates a differentiated, high-touch service experience for our Card Members,” said Phil Norman, vice president of American Express Digital Labs.

The acquisition seems to have been a long time coming for American Express, which co-led Mezi’s $9 million Series A funding round in 2016. The company also ran a pilot program with Mezi called AskAmex. American Express said today that Mezi will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary that will “continue to develop its core technologies and enhance its capabilities in digital travel concierge services.” Mezi’s co-founders will continue to lead the company, but they will now report to Norman.

Photo: Mezi