Last week, I moderated a group of about 60 global industry leaders who had been invited to Geneva by the World Economic Forum to explore the topic, “The Invisible Journey: Reimagining Travel Through Connected Experiences”. It was part of a full day of forum programming related to the theme “Beyond Tourism”.
The sessions were held under the Chatham House Rule: Attendees could subsequently reference what people said but couldn't give clues that might identify the speaker. The attendee list was not made public.
Participants represented a broad spectrum of the travel ecosystem: government, cruise, tour, hospitality, OTAs, destinations, nonprofits and technology companies. A good portion of the conversation in my session revolved around what it will take to give travellers a “connected”, seamless trip.
This is not a new challenge. I had moderated a session at CES exploring seamless travel in 2018 with a panel that included Sanjay Nair, currently managing director and head of AI, data and analytics engineering for United Airlines. “What we're lacking is a common language,” he said at the time, “an application programme interface that can allow different service providers to connect and provide each other with the data that will make an experience holistic.”
Eight years down the road and... are we there yet? My sense is that the pace of complexity seems to move in parallel with the pace of progress. During the forum session, I asked a travel tech executive why, given advances in technology, travel still feels so fragmented. What are the barriers to change, and does AI have the potential to overcome them?
One problem that the executive cited harkened back to the CES panel: It's not a lack of technology but perhaps too much of it. There are too many separate operating models. “AI will help, but it has to have two important ingredients,” the executive said. “The first is access to trusted travel data, and the second is access to reliable connectivity to all the systems that are executing the booking, the servicing and the fulfillment.”
One thing that could help, the executive added, is if each traveller had a unique digital identity.
Again, deja vu. Also in 2018, I moderated a panel at the World Travel and Tourism Council in which universal digital identity was touted as an important component to seamless travel.
Why, I asked the tech executive, if that concept has been floating around for so long, isn't it reality yet?
The answer, the executive said, is that individual governments have developed their own, often conflicting, regulations regarding privacy. Presently, efforts are underway to influence policymakers and international regulating bodies to move it along. “We'll get there. AI will help, but AI will only evolve at the speed of trust.”
Is perhaps calling a travel advisor the easiest way to ensure a seamless trip?
There is, of course, a channel that, right now, is both trusted and can orchestrate all the components of a trip. “Is perhaps calling a travel advisor the easiest way to ensure a seamless trip?” I asked the exec.
“The combination of travel advisors and AI would be great,” came the reply. “Travel advisors will be able to use AI to create better service for their customers. The role of a travel agency will continue to evolve because for them it's about the value they're creating for their customers.”
An executive of another technology company joined the discussion. “Yes, when you try to connect the dots, it becomes complicated. And if something goes wrong, fixing 90% of the problem doesn't really help the customer. You have to get 100% right, and that's difficult with technology. That's where travel advisors come in.
"When I think about AI and travel advisors, I like to think that AI could be their superpower," the second tech exec continued. "Today, the reality is that advisors spend 80% of their time doing repetitive manual work instead of creating value for their companies and customers. My view is, how can we be thoughtful and create solutions that can help advisors do better work? I'm very optimistic about it, and I think we have an opportunity to bring technology and people together to do something better for the industry."
Going into the conversation, I wondered whether tech leaders present would even acknowledge that travel advisors are the best bet for a seamless trip today. And in the age of AI, I was not confident that they could even envision a future involving advisors.
But it seemed clear that, at the highest levels of travel technology, there are leaders who see advisors playing an important role going forward. They're imagining a world where technology-enabled advisors may be critical to getting things “100% right” in situations when technology alone comes up short.
When those immersed in creating better travel experiences through technology recognise the value of advisors within the evolving travel ecosystem, they are providing the answer to any advisors questioning if there'll be a place for them in an increasingly AI-dependent world.
Source: Travel Weekly