Steve Singh’s latest business travel startup lands $6M for AI agent
7 ways AI is affecting the travel industry “Travelport is focused on driving revenue growth while operating as efficiently and effectively as possible,” Katie Cline, global head of external communications for Travelport, said in an email at the time. Then there’s the quandary of what Agoda’s Hughes calls the “resource allocation battle” – how to prioritize and develop systems to make strategic choices amidst competing demands and the ever-present threat of competitors gaining an edge. One practical tech solution, said Klook’s Liu, is to build flexible and modular systems which allows for rapid adaptation of the tech infrastructure and for systems to be decoupled to meet shifting consumer demands. Established companies like Kayak and Expedia have been experimenting with online itinerary planning for some time, and new products and features are being added on a near-daily basis. Hilton said on Wednesday it added 6,000 rooms to its portfolio in the third quarter — the highest quarterly room addition in its history. Second, it provided us with a learning ground to develop effective Al applications. Otto also leverages modern travel services such as Spotnana to provide the widest range of travel content to enable predictive and proactive servicing while you are on a trip. (The) hospitality industry is particularly known for it in a lot of countries. At present, 62% of our company continuously uses Al, with over 100 use cases in production. But when the team at Agoda released “Maya and the Secret World of Agoda” last November, it was clear the project was no joke. And though the project served no specific business purpose, it offers insight into how the company’s use of technology is integral to a decidedly human approach to serving travelers. Imagine a world where travel planners have more time to listen, understand and cater to the dreams of each traveler, then make every journey special and unique. AI provides the tools and insights, but it’s the human touch, the passion and the creativity of travel planners that turn trips into cherished memories. Far from taking jobs, AI will open new doors for travel planners, allowing them to shine brighter and make a deeper impact on the lives of those they serve. Developing techniques to handle that unpredictability took us quite a while. My knowledge about these issues is based on my experience running AI multi-day workshops with travel leaders and members of the National Tour Association from around the world, and the time I’ve spent with them has been a revelation. You could say it should also be something that differentiates on social media to share. These are definitely ChatGPT App the generations that want to share and talk a lot about their experiences. Social media is a big driver there, and just stating that you’ve seen the Louvre, just like all your friends, is less interesting than sharing a special way you experienced the Louvre. We’re also experimenting, not at the scale of some of the bigger travel companies, but we’re definitely experimenting on UX changes for recommendations. The alliance’s Round the World (RTW) fares allow passengers to book up to sixteen flights between at least three continents on a globe-spanning trip that lands back home up to a year later. The company also acquired FLYR.com and Jason Calacanis-backed AI itinerary builder Roam Around earlier this year. This shift presents an exciting opportunity for us in two key aspects. First, it allows us to leverage our data more effectively. By better understanding customer intent through free text, we can utilize our extensive and detailed knowledge of our supply to find the perfect fit in ways we couldn’t before. Now, what a lot of people also don’t know is that we’ve been growing very rapidly in that area and expanding. The reason they don’t know is because in the US, we’re not as big in the homes area as we are in other parts of the world. At Booking.com, I’m the one who’s responsible for that, so I guess I have conversations with myself about that. But the thing is, at the end of the day, and I say, it’s how do we make decisions? We make decisions, as I said, on data, but also, what’s really important to me is listening — really listening. And just because I have the title of CEO doesn’t mean I know everything. Skift: What are Tiqets’s biggest challenges, and where do you see the most significant opportunities for growth? However, this digital revolution is being overlaid on a legacy infrastructure that is often outdated and fragile. Systems like the venerable Sabre booking platform and the recent, industry-wide disruption caused by the CrowdStrike Windows update highlight the vulnerabilities within the travel ecosystem. Such incidents, impacting airlines, hotels, banks, and support services, underscore the urgent need for a more robust and integrated technological foundation. A new generation of AI-powered chatbots is streamlining the booking process, handling everything from flight searches and hotel reservations to payment and baggage tracking. We have not done as much of that as I would like; we’ll do more of that in the future, I think. It’s really giving people new opportunities and different opportunities that would be an important thing, I think, for a lot of people. Plus, I think people also enjoy new challenges and coming up with new things. Moreover, employees in travel companies tend to be innovators by nature. Their first instinct is usually to create something that adds value to customers in amazingly powerful ways. They also understand once travel preferences change, customers simply don’t want to go back to the old way of doing things. Let’s use the example of planning a trip to a new destination. Plug in some well-chosen parameters and a few precise prompts about the travel experience you want, and GenAI will present you with dozens of exciting possibilities, whether they’re cultural, culinary, historical or entertainment-based. This level of personalization is driving higher satisfaction and conversion rates among users, and it’s a perfect example of a new
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