3 essential AI-powered solutions travel companies must integrate in 2024

Artificial intelligence continues to evolve at a rapid pace. 

Companies from various industries are becoming more familiar with its capabilities and more adept at harnessing its power, including Boeing, Johnson & Johnson and Exxon Mobil, which are using AI to improve operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. 

The travel sector is no exception. AI holds substantial transformative power in the field, and its proper application can yield considerable benefits. From hotel chains like Hyatt and IHG to emerging startups, travel companies are quickly capitalizing on this opportunity. 

Contrary to popular belief, AI will not replace travel advisors' jobs since they require a deep and thoughtful human touch. However, AI does offer unparalleled opportunities to streamline operations and enhance the overall customer experience. 

Accelerating onboarding and reporting processes

This starts by creating comprehensive guides that detail every process and then handing them over to artificial intelligence. Doing so facilitates the development of individualized programs for people who are new to the industry, something that will be critical to onboard new hires.

Here, it is paramount to provide the AI system with context regarding each employee and to outline their past experiences in detail. Then, AI will craft an impressive guide that is tailored to their skills and profile. At Voyagu, we have managed to reduce training time from eight to only two weeks by leveraging this approach. 

These same benefits can also apply to reporting. Again, digitizing all the information available and keeping it in the database is key. This helps to maintain updated analytics and maximize the odds of effective decision-making backed by reliable fundamentals, which can also be used to draw conclusions and make very accurate forecasts based on data. This will provide a fresh perspective, since the forecast can predict how our entire strategy will fare, and then, we can adjust accordingly. 

Optimizing project management

It happens often that when a project is being executed, information is communicated in a scattered fashion across various channels. What ensues is that a considerable amount of knowledge gets lost without being reviewed by all stakeholders involved. 

Fortunately, tools like ClickUp, Asana, Trello, and Monday make it easier to ubiquitously monitor information, analyze it and act as a project manager that is accessible to everyone. This unified interface permits real-time updates, collaboration, and the escalation of concerns as needed. By adopting AI-powered project management tools, travel companies can boost the quality of their offerings and magnify customer satisfaction. 

Additionally, implementing cross-functional team communications is a must to ensure all departments are working in synergy. Now, technology makes it possible to introduce AI-generated meeting summaries, which provide a concise overview of discussions and action items. Last but not least, conduct quarterly analyses based on digitized call data. This will be very valuable to extract insights for strategy refinement, and enhance the company’s overall performance.

Elevating the customer journey through AI 

Artificial intelligence can be used to optimize the customer acquisition journey, which can be attained by enhancing both communication and interaction. If done correctly, this can boost sales both for B2B and B2C solutions. 

To kick-start the process, travel companies must comprehensively store all communication-related data, including transcripts of phone calls converted to text format. Although it might seem mundane, this data is a very valuable resource to increase the accuracy of any AI-powered analysis, since it provides a deep contextual understanding of past interactions and customer preferences and subsequently empowers the AI system to deliver personalized and timely guidance at each juncture of the customer journey. 

For example, when it comes to closing a deal with a customer, AI can suggest effective strategies that have yielded successful results in similar situations. These might include recommending specific products or services that are tailored to what the customer wants and needs, as well as emphasizing a particular value proposition that is likely to elicit a positive response from the prospect. 

Furthermore, AI can serve as a compass to determine the best timing to respond to a customer inquiry. By analyzing historical data and patterns, the system can identify the most opportune moment to engage with customers, maximizing the likelihood of a positive outcome. 

This not only enables travel companies to grow their revenue and increase conversion rates, but also, fosters a solidified trust between the business and its clients, to the point where the travel company understands its customers as if they were their friends, and delivers accordingly. 

Final thoughts

While the integration of these solutions seems very appealing and can bring enormous benefits to travel companies, it must be said that it requires a systematic and well-thought-out approach from within the organization. Yes, this 2024, travel companies can gain an edge in the market by leveraging AI to accelerate onboarding and reporting processes, to manage their projects more efficiently and to elevate the customer journey. 

However, businesses that expect AI to magically solve their problems will most likely fail, since every AI project requires good governance, realistic expectations and thorough financial audits. It is critical to have thorough preparation and well-oiled processes that ensure that all information is digitized and readily available for AI to do its work. This highly increases the quality of the results obtained. In the same vein, insufficient groundwork may lead to worse outcomes compared to what the company would have achieved without AI.