Rapid Fire with Filip Filipov of OAG

As we count down to Phocuswright Europe, taking place in Barcelona from June 10 to June 12, PhocusWire is shining the spotlight on a selection of conference speakers in a series of Q&As.

Filip Filipov, chief operations officer at OAG, will take part in an executive panel titled “Tech & Transformation in Aviation.” Panelists are set to discuss the air industry’s technology-fueled transformation and the level of innovation that is actually happening.

Below, Filipov shares about what he is working on, whether he believes the industry is innovative, who he admires most in the travel industry and more.

What are you working on currently that excites you?

As OAG, we are focusing on continuing to lead the market with the best data quality and coverage possible, so that our partners can enable smooth and fast decision making within their organization.

Personally, I am exploring in what new ways generative artificial intelligence (AI) and the application layer products can unlock productivity across all of our functions—from product engineering to sales, marketing and legal. It is unbelievable what some of the new products can do. 

Do you believe the travel industry is innovative? Why or why not?

Yes and no, at the same time. Fifteen years ago, when I attended Phocuswright [in] Scottsdale, we talked about personalization and getting the right product in front of the customer at the right time. In a way, we still talk about it—so that’s a problem that hasn’t been fully solved, and we are at the beginning of a J-curve with AI. Things will get a bit confusing before they really take off.

If we zoom out, from what we are seeing from travel companies—across suppliers, distributors and enablers—the journey is not connected yet. We have a good opportunity to do it through data in a world, which will not be point and click in boxes but an agentic experience powered by AI.

What do you know now that you wish you'd known 20 years ago?

It always takes more time than expected. I think we have gone through a bunch of waves—the social, mobile, cloud and now in AI—and there are still problems fundamental to the travel experience that haven’t been solved. So, I do expect us to take time to get to an imagined world of perfect travel inspiration, shopping, booking and experiencing, but we won’t see it immediately and only through the lens of looking back.

If you could change one thing about your business/and or the industry overnight, what would it be?

More collaboration. Travel technology is not a zero-sum game—we have endless possibilities in terms of untapped customers and unexplored destinations. So, sometimes we need to understand that instead of competing. It is our responsibility to enable a better, more connected world.

Who do you most admire in travel?

Gareth Williams, the co-founder and [former] long-serving CEO at Skyscanner, is certainly one person I admire a lot—from his unwavering vision of what an at-the-time tiny company out of Edinburgh can do to his decades thinking about free-text search for flights.

Stephan Ekbergh, the founder and CEO of Travelstart, is another inspirational figure, whose way of approaching the problem and always seeking the challenge is something I look up to.