We’re entering into an exciting new era of travel. Due to the highly seasonal nature of the industry and its advanced level of digitalization, brands have quickly begun integrating automation and artificial intelligence (AI) into their operations. The large-scale adoption of AI in the industry will introduce a new type of customer experience and set a benchmark that other sectors can imitate.
Enhancing travel with AI
Online travel agencies (OTAs) are leading the way by incorporating GenAI into their mobile apps. This move streamlines the discovery and booking process, allowing travelers to interact with chatbots similarly to human advisors. This interaction, where travelers provide a brief to a chatbot instead of navigating through complex filters on metasearch sites or OTA platforms, improves how journeys are found and booked, bringing greater efficiency and personalization.
With advances in AI, including generative AI (GenAI), machine learning (ML) and analytics, travel experiences are set to transform. AI is already making its mark, from improving flight and hotel price forecasts and itinerary recommendations to predicting flight delays and sending personalized updates during disruptions. AI technology has allowed some companies to aggregate internal and third-party data, giving them a better understanding of their customers. The result? The delivery of highly personalized recommendations, making customer behavior more predictable than ever before.
The future potential of GenAI
GenAI for trip inspiration is already impressive, but operators can truly set themselves apart by making it significantly better than what the GenAI public model creates. This can be done by using unique traveler data or guiding customers into a transaction flow for something else that offers additional value. Using travel-specific knowledge along with internal and external data, brands will be able to make better recommendations to create the perfect trip, personalized in a matter of seconds.
Now and in the years to come, there will continue to be a need and desire to work with human agents as they offer the value of specialists with real-world experience. GenAI can support their recommendations by identifying opportunities for cross-selling and upselling products and services.
These skills will be crucial as the roles within the customer support landscape evolve with AI integration.
The top 6 most vital “essential employment skills” anticipated to be most in demand by employers in the future:
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Problem-solving
- Organizing, planning and prioritizing work
- Creative thinking
- “Information literacy” (skills related to gathering, processing and using information)4
The top 6 most vital “essential employment skills” anticipated to be most in demand by employers in the future:
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Problem-solving
- Organizing, planning and prioritizing work
- Creative thinking
- “Information literacy” (skills related to gathering, processing and using information)4
GenAI can support human agents by identifying opportunities for cross-selling and upselling products and services.
Transforming customer support
The integration of GenAI into customer support roles is already providing significant benefits in terms of efficiency, cost reduction and improved customer experience. As we look to the future of work and the continued transformation of customer support roles by GenAI, there will be opportunities for more meaningful work that impacts both individuals and organizations positively. The agent skill profiles will evolve, emphasizing abilities in maintaining, monitoring and improving the performance of GenAI systems. Effectively managing diverse customer experiences will be important to overcoming challenges such as disjointed travel experiences, ensuring a seamless journey for all customers.
AI isn’t just revolutionizing the pre-trip and planning experience — it’s also improving the travel experience itself. Chatbots and virtual assistants use natural language processing (NLP) to understand customer queries better, providing solutions based on context. The next generation of GenAI-powered customer service will deliver with greater patience and empathy, reducing the workload of employees and allowing them to handle more complex issues. This contextual understanding will enable chatbots to make more relevant suggestions and improve customer satisfaction by ensuring swift and accurate responses.
Businesses across industries are embracing the transformative potential of GenAI to drive innovation in their CX strategies. This has led to innovative solutions such as:
- More customer insight Generating predictions of trends and interests
- Sentiment analysis Deriving insights from subjective markers
- Call intent prediction Helping to anticipate customer needs in advance
- Agent performance analysis Using metrics to identify agent skill levels
- Virtual assistants Supporting customers with more self-service capabilities
- Modernization tools Rewriting legacy software more easily with newer technologies
- Multilingual support Providing fast and accurate translation capabilities
The future roles that support teams anticipate being created by AI
- Chatbot developers
- Chatbot analytics
- Chatbot data collection
- Conversation designers
- Chatbot strategists5
These solutions help individually to improve CX operations, but when bundled together, can transform a contact center into a one-stop technology shop, with the ability to holistically manage, monitor and analyze their operations.6
The integration of AI represents a significant shift in how companies interact with their guests and optimize their contact center operations. This transformation will enable operators to offer increasingly personalized and efficient services, ultimately redefining how travelers plan, book and experience their journeys.
Key takeaways
Embrace AI for personalized customer journeys. Apply AI tools to aggregate and analyze customer data and enable hyper-personalization of the entire customer journey from trip planning to booking and during travel, ensuring customized recommendations and solutions.
Empower agents with GenAI support. Use GenAI to enhance agents’ recommendations and empower them to focus on high-impact customer interactions, delivering empathy and specialized expertise where it’s needed most.
Collaborate with HR for updated human agent profiles. As roles evolve with GenAI integration, work with your HR team to develop agent roles with essential employment skills such as communication, problem-solving and information literacy.
4 - National Foundation for Educational Research, “The skills imperative 2035: An analysis of the demand for skills in the labour market in 2035,” nfer.ac.uk.
5 - Intercom, “The state of AI in customer service,” intercom.com.
6 - Foundever and ISG, “Navigating disruption with generative AI strategies,” foundever.com.