Loyalty commerce and media technology specialist Dfinitiv has unveiled a platform for travel loyalty programs to build experiences in artificial intelligence (AI) models such as ChatGPT and Claude.
Dfinitiv co-founder and CEO Joe Fitzgerald said the technology would help travel companies drive engagement and revenue opportunities in their loyalty programs.
“Every day there’s a new assistant and we’re not done. We see this is as both an opportunity and a challenge. We see each one of these as a channel for loyalty programs. If they don’t get into these channels, they’ll have a problem because someone is going to talking to their customer.”
Loyalty programs using SmartCXP AI enable members to sign in to the assistant and access what Dfinitiv calls Agentic Loyalty Experiences. The experiences include access to current benefits and partner offers as well as the ability to make a purchase as those capabilities are developed. If the AI does not support in-chat transactions, the member is transferred to the program’s own checkout.
The technology has three components:
• SmartCXP AI Forge which creates an AI app for loyalty programs, including the MCP server and guardrails, based on the parameters the team sets.
• SmartCXP AI Engine is the execution layer which serves every AI assistant using the same guardrails and knowledge base.
• SmartCXP AI Center shows which assistants are using the program's tools, questions and topics asked by members, cost per question and any gaps in answers.
Fitzgerald said that many apps from hotel groups so far are more of a “veneer” and that deeper integration is required so that users get a better experience within the chat.
He stressed the importance of the enterprise element of the technology covering auditing, governance and caching in the background.
“We think the enterprise perspective on this is going to be necessary. It’s not build it once and you are done. OpenAI released new stuff that allows you to do more in ChatGPT apps, that doesn’t work in Claude, that doesn’t work in Muse, it doesn’t work in Grok Bot. You’re getting divergence on protocols and rules so how does an enterprise loyalty program keep update with all these changes.”
Dfinitiv received backing from United Airlines Ventures a year ago, with the carrier saying it would explore uses cases for its MileagePlus program and Kinective commerce media network.
The AI loyalty platform is built on SmartCXP Cloud which connects member identity, benefits, partner offers and carries out tasks on the AI platforms.
"Dfinitiv has been a good partner to MileagePlus, with its SmartCXP™ Cloud platform powering our MileagePlus X experience across shopping, dining and gift cards on iOS and Android," said BJ Youngerman, managing director of loyalty partnerships at United.
The AI loyalty platform is built on SmartCXP Cloud.
Dfinitiv does not use member data to train AI models. Programs can build with Dfinitiv, through their own teams, or via a systems integrator.
Innovation: Launch at The Phocuswright Conference 2026
Join Dfinitiv as it demonstrates its technology alongside other companies at conference as part of the Phocuswright Innovation program, sponsored by Spotnana.