Cruise has been slower on the technology uptake compared to other sectors of the travel. But with the rapid pace of artificial intelligence (AI) development, it's hard to ignore the potential.
“Really, AI is allowing everybody to do more with less,” said Pierre-Olivier Lepage, CEO of Cruisebound, during an interview in the PhocusWire studio at The Phocuswright Conference.
According to Lepage, the next step will be integrating AI with purchasing.
“We have yet to see the killer functionality on the purchasing journey that really, really works,” Lepage said. “People use it around the edges to really help improve their efficiency, to make everybody more efficient, but I think there’s a big question mark around how AI will change the discovery, the purchasing path and how it will it do it.”
Markus Stumpe, founder and CEO of Alyza, also pointed out AI limitations, noting that the tech needs to be effective at several points.
“If you want to really use AI in its best shape, it needs to go through all the different steps in the chain. There’s a lot of backbone work until AI, at full power, is really working,” Stumpe said.
While AI it isn’t eliminating the need for human intervention in cruise, particularly due to the complexity of the business itself, changes are on the horizon for the booking path.
“Maybe for very specific cruises this will still be very personal or via an agent, but I think the trend is clearly that the better AI gets, the better the online code will become for sure,” Stumpe said.
Lepage added that it’s also “jarring” for travelers when they realize they can’t complete a cruise reservation online and instead have to call an agent.
Stumpe and Lepage further discussed data quality, the future of AI agents and more. Watch the full discussion with PhocusWire senior reporter Morgan Hines below.
Tech developments in the cruise market