3 Ways AI Will Drive the Future of Travel

Considering how quickly Siri, Alexa and Hey Google have become a part of consumers’ everyday lives, it is not hard to imagine an environment where these “AI agents” takes their place at the center of shopping – for travel and everything else.

The experience will likely look something like this: When you want to book a trip, you will call upon your favorite AI agent — Siri, Alexa, Google, Cortana, Facebook “M”, or some yet to be created AI assistant — and tell it the origin, destination, dates and price point. With that one request, the AI agent will search all of the existing travel content, or data, across the globe. This includes flights, ground transportation, lodging – including the ancillaries and extras such as seat upgrades or baggage insurance. Then, the AI agent, knowing your personal preferences, will quickly book the best possible solution based on your dates, budget and personal preferences. Done.

Travel Industry Must Outgrow Its Past to Thrive in an AI World

The airline industry was at the forefront of many of the significant innovations of the last century. Besides for all the advances related directly to aviation, airlines were also pioneering in developing computer systems that could be accessed around the globe to book and reserve airline tickets.  Airlines also established revenue management systems to optimize revenue from ticket sales. Inventions by the airlines in this area have informed revenue management

AI and Travel Distribution

We live in a world of platforms. Facebook, Airbnb, Uber and Twitter are all platforms. In essence platforms are intermediaries. They are the modern-day equivalent of middlemen who facilitate transactions or communication between two entities. To understand how middlemen evolved into platforms and how platforms thrive in the 21st century we must very briefly review postmodernism. Derrida and Postmodernism The famous post-modern philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) is known for the