This week, Travel Daily reported that travellers will soon be able to book hotels and flights in AI Mode on Google.
It also reported that eight in 10 travellers around the world want AI assistance during their booking journey, with price monitoring and alerts.
And Travel Daily also published that TEG was rolling out AI customer solutions as well.
Meanwhile, VA is the first airline to adopt Sabre’s tech solution, Concierge IQ, a new AI chatbot for airlines that helps travellers plan, book and manage trips in one conversation.
That was in the space of just three days this week.
AI, as we know, is well and truly slipping its tentacles into the ocean that is the travel industry to varying degrees of success.
We should all understand that by now, such is the frequency of reporting on AI in the trade media, as well as the curated sessions at various travel conferences on the implementation of the technology on both the supply and agent side.
The challenge is that when you have a new technology, particularly one with such wide-ranging abilities that it could have a similar impact on the industry as the internet did when it went mainstream, controlling the experiment is difficult.
Furthermore, copying and pasting solutions from one department to the other is also tempting, but could have disastrous results.
AI’s ability to serve every department in travel means that multiple project teams will be working with it, using a variety of success metrics, as fast as they can. But what is good for one department is not necessarily good for another.
AI and customer service is one such example – human-to-human interaction has always been a fickle business, particularly when it is a transactional relationship, like in sales. But when AI steps in, as it has done in some cases, it becomes even more fraught with danger.
I would argue that generally, empathy is not something that we, as service professionals, have mastered yet, even after hundreds of years of doing it. How long will AI take to develop it successfully? Saying “please” and “thank you” and “it’s an honour to serve you” doesn’t count.
According to a BBC report earlier this month, Gartner predicted AI will autonomously resolve 80% of common customer service issues by 2029.
That same research also illustrated that “85% of customer service leaders are exploring, piloting or deploying AI chatbots, according to Gartner. But it also found that only 20% of such projects are fully meeting expectations”.
Those are not great odds.
The BBC went on to detail an example of an AI interaction regarding a lost package and the inability to further the conversation when the chatbot’s argument that it had been delivered was proved false.
In the travel industry, our interactions and transactions are far more complicated than ordering a product and having it delivered. It is why the travel advisor is still such an integral part of this industry. The implementation of AI in these types of scenarios is where it has the ability to make or break a brand very, very quickly.
That includes not just the AI itself, but the handover of the customer from AI to a real person and potentially back to AI, depending on the circumstance.
It’s an experience I recently had first-hand. Because it was via email, it was hard to detect when I was talking to AI, an overseas call centre running off a playbook, or potentially a (disappointingly trained) local staff member. It could have been all of the above at different times, but I would hazard an educated guess that it was largely the former two.
It was with a major airline (i.e. has money to invest in AI properly) that operates in Australia – what should have been a fairly simple conversation turned into something so dire you had to laugh.
A request for a refund on a fully refundable ticket from Sydney to London turned into a request for proof a refund was required from the airline. When I wrote back to say it was required for medical reasons and that the passenger (not myself) could no longer fly, the response was to demand (I use that word with purpose) a medical certificate, no compassion or empathy. To paraphrase, “now that you have said it is medical, you need to prove it”.
Easy done – medical certificate attached, refund requested again.
An email response came back 24 hours later: “We will offer you credit to the same value so that you can use it to fly to other destinations at other times. Join our frequent flyer program and we will credit your account.”
Having been told that the refund was due to the passenger no longer being able to fly potentially for the rest of their life, then witnessing the medical certificate confirming that very statement, the response was at best, tone deaf and insulting – we won’t go into the worst.
The language used made it seem like AI service for the most part, until the somewhat apologetic final email (the refund was, eventually, given), but it is hard to tell.
Regardless, it seems that more people than just me are becoming alarmed at some of the faux pas of AI when it comes to customer service.
Gartner, again, has done a study on that, which The Register published a few months ago.
Per the article: “Half of the organisations it surveyed said that plans to significantly reduce their customer service workforce would be abandoned by 2027, ‘highlighting the complexities or challenges of transitioning to AI-driven customer service models’.”
In an era where consumers are spending more on travel, it stands to reason that repeat business will become even more of a staple to travel organisations than it already is.
AI may have the power to increase that, but it also has the power to completely ruin it.
Will I fly with this airline again on my own dime? With the amount of international competition, I would be leaning towards a ‘no’. How many other travellers have had similar experiences? I would assume a few. How much money has been lost?
As we march hastily towards Christmas and the New Year, where travel will again be on top of everyone’s mind, whether it be last-minute holiday plans or treating yourself in the new year, it’s a good reminder to the industry that customer service, empathy and understanding is key. And that if you have AI working for you, perhaps triple check it is implemented in a safe way under the current circumstances.
As a side note, there was a rather alarming comparison that I made. When speaking to a major bank about the same situation for different reasons, after the first email, a real person called me and the issue was resolved immediately, with plenty of compassion and empathy. A big bank giving better service than a travel company? The pigs are flying high today.
The rest of the week
I have been away for a number of weeks and stretched my writing muscles potentially a little too much above, so I will keep this section brief.
How can you go past the biggest news of the week? Helloworld Travel has launched a non-binding indicative proposal to acquire all of the issued shares in Webjet Group that it does not already own.
Travel Daily sent out a breaker as soon as that happened and it’s been a story the industry has been following for some months now. We’ll find out shortly whether it has come to an end.
But it took a massive twist on Friday morning when BGH also threw its hat in the ring with an offer a single cent per share more than Helloworld.
In Cruise Weekly, HX made a major announcement for the local market, with the promotion of Nathaniel Sherborne as SVP and Managing Director, EMEA, ANZ, and Global Sales Enablement.
Still on cruise, my colleague Myles Stedman has been in the US covering some big announcements, including Oceania’s new Quiet Mediterranean program and why it’s expected to be a hit in the Aussie market.
And if you missed it, Business Publishing Group, publisher of Travel Daily and Cruise Weekly, held its end of year party, Bon Voyage, in Sydney this week.
You can catch up with a range of photos here.
Whatever you have planned for the weekend, enjoy it with your loved ones and take a load off.
