Is it possible to get through the day without hearing the term AI? Maybe if you’re hiding out on a desert island or experimenting with isolation therapy, but for travel buyers striving to keep up with change on every front, making the most of artificial intelligence is becoming an integral part of the job.
“AI has the potential to be one of the biggest drivers of change in corporate travel, much as NDC is slowly fulfilling its potential to drive change in the corporate travel distribution model,” says Julian Russell, executive director
information technology and supplier relations of GlobalStar Travel Management. “We have seen real progress with both in the last 24 months, with far more to follow.”
At the same time, AI hasn’t yet surpassed the importance of maintaining the fundamentals of good products and services in a continuously changing business travel environment, says Gordon Coale, senior director, head of enterprise architecture, CWT. “AI is important and a growth area, but we will see increased focus as the second and third iterations of GenAI become available,” he says. “This is a strong growth area albeit one to be approached with caution, and with a strong governance and compliance posture.”
Chloe Carver, head of corporate travel for Acquis Consulting, agrees AI will bring significant change due to its inherent ability to transform the way we do business. “However, we aren’t there yet,” she says. “The corporate travel industry is lagging in terms of strategic development and implementation of AI.”
The reality is that we’re still in the early days of the AI journey, says Michael Duffy, VP of product and innovation at Grasp Technologies. “Many of the benefits in the near term will be likely chatbots or using prompts to use AI for what might be customer service rep tasks.”
He adds that while some may feel that if a product or service has an AI component it’s automatically better, this isn’t necessarily the case. There will be some challenges that AI cannot address and sometimes the results from AI will be less than perfect, or even completely wrong. “That doesn’t mean that AI isn’t helpful or a powerful tool,” Duffy says. “It just isn’t always perfect.”
Getting Down to Business
Despite expected growing pains, artificial intelligence is already in play, and with the potential to do much more, in areas ranging from airline scheduling/routing and automated booking to back-office systems. If used strategically, AI creates new opportunities and ways of supporting superior service capabilities and customer experience, notes Jamie Pherous, managing director at Corporate Travel Management. He cites the example of after-hours changes and cancellations, noting that 20 percent of his company’s cancellations occurring over the weekend for Monday morning travel.
“When a traveler is sitting on a couch on a Sunday night, it’s much more convenient for them to cancel in a few clicks from the convenience of their phone,” he says. “And we’re leveraging AI to automate that entire process for the customer and also the back-office process for our staff.” Feedback demonstrates this is a better experience for the customer and is also helpful for CTM as it frees up high value expertise to assist other customers who have an urgent problem they’re trying to resolve.
“While AI is being used in airline scheduling and routing to some extent, including optimizing flight schedules and routes, there is still significant potential for AI to revolutionize airline operations further,” Carver says. “AI can and should be used to improve efficiency, reduce costs and enhance the passenger experience.”
For example, CTM has recently introduced Scout, an AI-powered travel assistant that provides automated, high-speed service outcomes for tasks such as trip cancellations and changes, obtaining copies of invoices, itineraries and visa information. It was launched in Australia last year and since has been rolled out in all CTM markets globally. Pherous reports that in Australia, 90 percent of cancellations are being automated through the travel assistant, with each automated cancellation delivering up to 80 percent efficiency gains for customers compared with traditional cancellation processes.
For those who want the ability to book more of their itinerary in a single transaction, CTM is currently piloting a door-to-door predictive trip builder. It utilizes AI to create an entire policy-compliant trip including flights, hotels, trains, car rental, airport parking and lounge passes. The aim is to support booking of a complete journey package in a matter of seconds.
Navan’s senior director of global public relations Kelly Soderlund says back-office systems are one of the best use cases for AI, thanks to its potential for streamlining efficiencies. “We’re all trying to increase revenue while keeping our spend flat,” she notes. “Gen AI is great at finding these areas.” In terms of traveler self-serve, Navan’s chatbot Ava is processing 150,00 chats a month – 35 percent to completion. “That has a real impact on our customer’s bottom line, saving time and money,” Soderlund says.
Yannis Karmis, senior vice president of product planning and development for BCD Travel, also sees great potential in automated booking and back-office systems. “There is a tremendous opportunity for AI to simplify T&E spend management processes,” he says, adding that his company is extending the value of the TMC with automated spend management solutions, such as AI-based reconciliation, which reduce costs and expedite expense processes for customers.
Big Data, More Power
One challenge in the current growth period is that everyone doesn’t agree on exactly what constitutes artificial intelligence. Steve Reynolds, general manager for Emburse Travel, is one who cautions against applying an overly broad definition of artificial intelligence. “A lot of applications are misclassified as AI by marketing,” he says. “Sending in a chat request for flights and getting a response is not AI.”
Reynolds explains that AI is actually the combination of a huge dataset with large computing power to create a model that learns over time and then can be applied to a more specific (smaller) dataset to identify opportunities and answer questions. “There are a few companies that have a dataset large enough and access to the computing power to pull this off with corporate travel, and most will be looking for ways to improve their performance and reduce costs,” he notes. “Automated software development has a lot of potential but the best team to use this is the same team that is potentially displaced.” This will go slowly, Reynolds believes.
Greeley Koch, managing director of 490 Consulting, notes that some people claim they will never adopt AI, yet they already use it whenever they use their smartphone or have their e-mail suggest words and phrases. “AI has the potential to enhance every step of the business travel lifecycle and support every supplier in the travel ecosystem,” he says. “It can make trips more productive, energy-efficient, and deliver a higher ROI for both the company sending the traveler and the supplier providing the service.”
Russell points to the popular misconception that AI is being introduced into the corporate travel world to replace people, asserting that it’s the individual people in the industry who provide the value and help differentiate one TMC from another. “In such a high-risk industry, our clients need to know that when the worst-case scenario hits, we have skilled and experienced staff to resolve any issues,” he says. “It’s difficult to believe that AI will ever reach a point where it could replace those staff, but there’s no doubt that AI can help simplify and standardize a number of the more manual processes in place today.”
Karmis agrees that artificial intelligence won’t eliminate the need for humans in travel. “Technology like AI has the potential to help our people and our customers work smarter and faster,” he says. “But human oversight is imperative to our business model.” He adds that AI is not the magic bullet that it’s made out to be. “If not executed carefully and tested thoroughly, AI has the potential to disrupt processes that are working today, causing some very expensive mistakes.” Karmis notes that in 2023, Gartner predicted that decisions made by AI agents without human oversight will cause $100 billion in losses from asset damage by 2030.
Only the Beginning
Some of the best news about AI is that there will be plenty of opportunities for everyone to take advantage of new developments. “We are just at the beginning of a digital transformation in corporate travel,” Carver says. “If you feel behind in terms of your AI knowledge, you are not alone, and you are likely not as far behind as you think.”
Given that AI is no longer a new entrant in the market, travel managers should be actively assessing their TMCs ability to integrate AI into service and technology solutions, Pherous argues. “It is no longer a question of if, but how. And those TMCs who are not making the investment needed to integrate AI into their service and technology solutions will fail to deliver value to their customers in the long run.”
Implementing AI requires interdisciplinary collaboration, especially with technology experts, Carver asserts. That includes developing the capacity to communicate with IT in a way that ensures mutual understanding. “Using the right terminology will help make sure your AI vision and strategy can be executed correctly,” she says.
Developing at least a basic familiarity is a must to avoid being left behind, according to Reynolds. This might mean playing around with Chat GPT and other AI apps as they become available. “Think of it as Excel or PowerPoint,” he says. “If you don’t know how to use these tools, you will be antiquated and less valuable to your company.”
It’s important not to fear AI, Koch advises, but to consider the pain points your travelers experience and explore how AI can address them. “AI could provide more personalized offerings, deliver better content, or assist travelers in unfamiliar locations,” he says. “Start small, implementing AI in manageable steps, and gradually expand its use as you see positive results.”
