Introducing: AI-Powered Search

Everyone knows there’s huge hype around AI right now. Last year, Forbes accurately predicted that 2024 would be ‘a watershed moment for generative technology, triggering a metamorphosis across the global economic landscape’. And it’s true — since the arrival of Chat GPT it seems like AI is suddenly everywhere.

In travel, the buzz so far has mostly been about how AI can do the heavy lifting in customer service. Which is music to the ears of the many travel agencies who have been seriously understaffed since the pandemic. GenAI has been received with mixed feelings in that respect. Those that implement it well and at the right point sing its praises, and those that have been on the end of a Chatbot that can’t seem to help them feel very differently about it. But a report by McKinsey suggests it alone could unlock $2-4 trillion of incremental value across various sectors in this industry.

But the generative tools are just the beginning. More broadly, AI is set to be the biggest disruptive force in our lifetime. At Travelport, we’ve identified a huge new opportunity to use AI beyond customer service and solve a different, yet equally big challenge. Which is: trip search and curation. I’m going to share more with you about it here. And don’t worry, this isn’t going to be one of those clickbaity AI articles that just promises what’s to come. I’m going to tell you about something that’s real, and available right now.

ANSWERING BIG QUESTIONS, FASTER

Ultimately, AI exists to solve problems. Done right, it lets us skip over unfulfilling tasks and makes us happier, more productive, wealthier, less stressed, etc. Google changed the world because it made it easier and faster to get answers to difficult or nuanced questions. Travel now has an opportunity to do something similar.

Our latest customer research shone a spotlight on the fact that shopping for travel has become incredibly difficult and time consuming, while the inability to compare results is now one of the biggest bug bears for bookers today. What’s causing this? Well, only ten years ago, there were far fewer airlines, car rental companies, and ways to get hotel content. Combine that with the explosion of offers arising from NDC, and you can see how the world of travel retailing is a very different place today, with more content, and more product options than anyone could ever imagine.

And though having choices is absolutely a good thing, it can’t come at the expense of making it easy to find the right offers and make good decisions. The good news is that AI can now help alleviate these challenges. And at Travelport we’ve just introduced some really exciting new AI search controls to do that. Here’s a closer look at what they can do for you.

NEW AI-POWERED SEARCH TOOLS

As AI goes mainstream, people can’t wait to see the futuristic things it can do. And while it is already making things easier in many respects, the travel industry has more work to do on more fundamental aspects of retailing in order to deliver a really satisfying retailing experience that keeps people coming back for more.

So, when we think about the future of AI in travel, at Travelport we believe the conversation should now go beyond the potential for GenAI tools. And instead, focus on the opportunity to enhance accuracy, relevance, and efficiency in search, and improve the ability to sell and service trips as part of the overall experience. So, without further ado, I present to you our new AI-powered search tools.

CONTENT CURATION LAYER

What it is: NDC has created a lot more product choice, which is great, but it’s also made it harder for agents to find and cross-compare options from different content sources. And sifting through offers from a variety of channels — traditional distribution systems, NDC, aggregators, and direct connections — can be time-consuming and expensive.

The new Content Curation Layer within Travelport+ uses AI to simplify the volume of travel offers all in one place. It serves up only the most relevant options for customers, removes duplicate content, and filters out irrelevant offers, so agents can focus on increasing conversions.

This offers you:

• Smarter searches that deliver enriched and transparent offers from any source that are easy to compare like-for-like
• De-duplicated offers reducing the clutter on screen, and presenting your customers with only the best and most profitable options
• Faster results with an impressive average response time of 1.07 seconds

CONTENT OPTIMIZER

What it is: Content Optimizer is a rules-based engine that allows agencies to control what traditional air and NDC offers appears on screen to better align with your business goals and your customer expectations. In a split second, it reduces the number of offers into what makes sense for the consumer (most relevant, no duplicates) and what makes most sense for the agent.

This offers you:

• More conversions when you deliver the optimum offer to the right traveler at the right time
• More traveler satisfaction when expectations are met, benefitting everyone in the retailing and supply chain.

HOW WILL THIS CHANGE WAY AGENTS SEARCH?

Until now, agents using legacy technology have been forced to search for travel offers through very disparate, separate pipelines — NDC or EDIFACT — and cross check them against each other. Now, Content Curation Layer means agents are shown a complete list of results from any source, with the content ‘de-duplicated’, and only the most suitable and valuable offers are shown.

Just like customer service, this isn’t about using AI to replace humans. It’s about using AI to take care of the basics so agents can concentrate on the higher-value aspects of retailing. And in the search space, this represents a big opportunity for more upsell and cross-sell.

With less time spent searching, agents have more scope to understand customer needs. And, because the tools drive sales toward preferable, more profitable offers, this tees up more chances to earn more through throughout the booking, like premium seating, upgrades, ancillaries, etc. Plus, because everything is presented on an easy-to-use interface, it’s easy to deliver the right offer to the right traveler at the right time, or set up long/short term campaigns to meet specific business objectives.

Sounds good, right? Well, here’s the really good news. These new tools are already live — you don’t need to do anything apart from log in to Travelport+ to use them. And we’re not stopping at NDC and EDIFACT, we’re going to keep working to put forward more relevant and faster sets of search results across even more content types.

WHAT’S NEXT? USING AI TO CLOSE THE FEEDBACK LOOP FOR SEARCH

Travel’s journey with AI is just beginning, and there’s much more innovation on the horizon. In the next few years, just as we’re going to see customer service get better and be less cumbersome. We’re also going to see way more happening in the search space, with an even greater ability to understand what a customer is really asking for. We think that’s one of the most exciting things that AI can offer — the ability to understand, learn from and predict detailed traveler needs.

AI brings with it a new capacity to continuously monitor vast datasets and use deep learning to identify market trends, demand signals, and consumer behavior — not just for initial ticket purchases, but also for ancillary products and value-added services. This unlocks new value from data in ways that were previously difficult to achieve, and with that comes new opportunities for everyone in the travel ecosystem over time.

As we refine the data models, technology will give better answers because it will better understand. There’s going to be more potential to help suppliers understand what sells and what doesn’t. And ultimately, better intelligence, better access to data, and better tools will change and enhance relationships that exist between sellers and buyers. With that will also come a larger emphasis on standardization, however. So, we’ll continue looking at AI hand in hand with data science and data models to make sure that each remains as good and as powerful as the other.

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR TRAVEL TO BE AMAIZING

I promised earlier this wouldn’t be one of those clickbait AI articles that are all hype and no delivery. And I hope that you’re now as excited as we are about the new AI-powered tools out now on Travelport+. They’re already making searching for a trip feel much closer to the experience offered by Google, Spotify, or other AI-first companies, and freeing up a ton more time to focus on the things that matter.

The evolution of AI really is such an exciting development for our industry. It’s a moment in time where new opportunities are materializing in front of our eyes, and there’s so much potential to apply AI beyond customer service. This will undoubtedly be a huge area of focus for modern retailing over the coming years, and Travelport will keep using AI to remain the best multi-source content aggregator in the industry.

Click here to find out more about our new AI-powered search tools Content Curation Layer and Content Optimizer.