Speaking with many companies at the ATM conference, several points stood out as common across the different sectors within the industry whether that be hotel, airline, agency, tourist board, or hospitality group:
- When it comes to AI, businesses in the travel and tourism industry are in the same boat as companies across all industries. There are various levels and degrees of AI usage across the industry and mixed results in terms of effectiveness when looking at the measurable impact AI has had for individual businesses.
- Knowing what is possible and then how to implement AI solutions to realise the business and customer benefits of AI are the two points that many businesses continue to struggle with.
There was also an appetite across the industry sectors to use AI and see it as a valuable tool for them to be able to provide the best possible experiences for customers and employees. The priority uses of AI across the travel, tourism, and hospitality sectors that most organisations spoke about were:
- Using AI to deliver better customer experiences across all touchpoints is a priority to be competitive and a way to differentiate.
- Being able to remove mundane, repetitive tasks currently done by customer service staff by implementing AI, enabling employees to focus on high value activities, would deliver business value in terms of customer experience and business effectiveness.
- AI as a tool for customer service will enable more personalised and customised training and help in retaining staff.
- AI will enable innovation and differentiation.
Concerns
Whilst many organisations are aware of the significant benefits to implementing AI, they openly spoke to me about their concerns related to reputation, risk, governance, compliance, and security issues. They also shared their concern that the over-use of AI may lead to an erosion of their brand personality and their ability to differentiate.
The concerns voiced are valid and is why organisations need to ensure that they develop a clear AI roadmap for adoption. Companies have moved on from adopting conversational AI solutions that are simple question and answer interactions, and the basic chatbots that are limited in ability.
Next generation conversational AI
The travel and tourism industry is focusing on using AI to deliver innovation and shape the future of the travel and tourism experience. From natural voice-driven AI conversations to augmented reality or a personal ‘concierge’ that that takes care of all your travel needs from the research stage (e.g. place, route, accommodation) through to booking (e.g. tickets, reservations), travel requirements (e.g. visas, inoculations, insurance), the journey itself (e.g. check-in, transfers), destination (e.g. hotel, activities), the industry is looking to AI to enable highly personalised, customisable travel experiences.
Realisation
Many companies have begun their AI journey by taking the do-it-yourself route or contracting a new market entrant but have now realised that to scale they need to change tack. They have quickly come to the realisation that delivering enterprise-level AI solutions with the required levels of security, compliance and scalability requires an experienced service provider with a proven record in delivering conversational AI solutions that provide tangible business value.
It was great to be able to share Creative Virtual’s V-Studio, a conversational AI orchestration and management platform, with the travel and tourism industry. Our V-Studio platform is engineered to enable a brand’s voice and personality to run throughout all their customer and employee interactions, and its inbuilt security, guardrails and human in the loop features ensures their reputation stays under their control.
