Artificial intelligence (AI) can drive efficiency and deliver value in travel, and companies are beginning to share details of where it is making a difference.
During recent earnings calls, the bosses of TUI Group, Booking Holdings and Expedia Group shared where AI is having the most impact and where it is expected to deliver results going forward.
But most acknowledge that AI is pretty blind without the right data foundation, and getting systems to talk to each other is also crucial.
A session at Phocuswright Europe 2026 provided a platform for three companies—TravlrID, TrustYou and The Hotels Network—to share examples of AI in action and debate the challenges.
TrustYou developed a “memory” layer built using information from about 1.6 million properties and 250 million reviews to get 2 billion sentiment datapoints. The company added guest data and demonstrated an agent trained with booking and upsell skills and integrated with Apaleo, a property management system specialist.
TravlrID worked with logistics firm Scania to bring together “personal memory and organizational memory” to remove manual work, reduce errors and automate the uploading and updating of traveler profiles.
Lighthouse unveiled Ernest, an agent for hotel commercial teams that is preloaded with all of a property’s information and offers insights, makes recommendations and takes action within specific guardrails.
Following the presentations, TrustYou’s Benjamin Jost, TravlrID’s Gee Mann and Juanjo Rodriguez of Lighthouse discussed the challenges they face in building AI solutions.
The executives touched on the balance between the cost of AI and the value it delivers, as well as trust, API bottlenecks and not inventing technology for technology’s sake.
See the full session below moderated by Phocuswright's Florence Kaci.
AI at work in travel - 3 case studies with TravelID, TrustYou and The Hotels Network