AI will make trusted industry brands even more powerful but should not dominate company strategy, travel firms have been told.
The Travel Network Group chief executive Gary Lewis said it was vital high street travel agents used AI in order to stay relevant in the market and tap into the benefits the technology could provide.
Speaking at a Travel Weekly Business Breakfast during Abta’s Travel Convention in Calvià, Majorca, he said AI would allow the agency consortium’s members to become even better at delivering on their professional targets and would help them with efficiencies and problem-solving in their businesses.
More: AI use for holiday inspiration doubles in past year, according to Abta research
“It will make those trusted brands even more powerful,” he said, adding: “It’s not just around CRM, it’s making the whole life of a travel agent a lot easier. AI is having an impact on your customer base and CRM, but at a cost now that benefits a £2m revenue high-street retail travel agent. That’s what’s really exciting about the tech for our members.”
TravCorp Holdings group chief executive Andy Freeth and Virgin Atlantic director of global agency sales Nicki Goldsmith said their companies were also both investing in AI – but not to the detriment of the “human touch”.
Goldsmith stressed AI could help improve the way the airline worked in areas such as pricing and revenue management. “We are using AI to look at back of house [functions] – for us it will not replace the human touch,” she said.
Freeth said TravCorp was working on automated AI voice technology for out-of-hours support, with plans to launch “fairly soon”.
More: Using artificial intelligence to build brand loyalty ’might be the worst thing you can do’
He added: “We are using AI in lots of different strands of our business. We have brought in a consultant to help us with our AI strategy to grow bots to help with pricing and yield and we are getting bits of kit ‘off the shelf’ to help our sellers. It’s adding AI and technology to the human touch.”
From a mergers and acquisitions perspective on AI, Henry Wells, head of consumer M&A at Cavendish said it was vital travel firms were “all over it” but warned against allowing it to take over business strategy.
He said: “There are two ‘bookends’. At one bookend, as a New York private capital investor said, “don’t let AI suck the oxygen out of the boardroom”, because there is a tendency, because it is new, exciting and unknown, that it gets the wrong attention.
“At the other end you need to be crystal clear as to what it can do for your business and what the threats of it are to your existing business.
“So from an M&A perspective you need to be all over it. Don’t let it dominate your board meetings, your strategy – make it part of it.”
