The move from legacy models to delightful experiences

 The travel industry is very complex and many hoping that artificial intelligence may present solutions to that complexity.

The Bridge session at The Phocuswright Conference examined the next generation of products and services enabled by new-age travel technology, particularly focusing on the role of AI’s role in enhancing customer recommendations, automating tasks and improving product reliability.

The panel, which included Mike McGearty, co-founder and CEO of Meili, Damian Scokin, CEO of Despegar and Ross Veitch, co-founder and CEO of Wego Group, looked at how generative AI is improving recommendations.

“Travel is still, frankly, too complicated. It’s too hard. And the AI-powered systems are going to be a huge weapon to help us solve a lot of these pain points throughout the whole journey,” Veitch said.

McGearty highlighted the beneficial contributions of large language models (LLMs) to travel. “It covers everything from better analytics to better security and just helping people to do their job in a much more efficient way, and helping the customer, which is key,” he said.

The speakers agreed that the cost-saving benefits of using AI-enabled tools to manage the business ultimately benefit travelers. “What we are seeing in this regard is our ability to be even more efficient, effective and efficient in all our interactions with customers,” Scokin said.

Scokin also highlighted the importance of integrating visual components in AI assistants, such as Despegar.com’s Sophia, which has seen a 200,000 monthly interaction rate. “You keep interacting, not only texting,” he said. “The biggest portion of your screen is all the pictures and images of the destination.”

McGearty sees AI as enabling a fundamental shift in how travel companies interact with their clients, “more than just a superficial facelift.” He said, “We must address the fundamental issues plaguing the industry’s legacy tech models, which stifle innovation and limit our ability to truly delight customers.”

Watch the full session moderated by Phocuswright managing director Pete Comeau and Siew Hoon Yeoh, founder, WIT and editorial director of Northstar Travel Group Asia.