Will there be a mega merger or acquisition in travel in 2025? Will AI fatigue take hold? And, will travel companies address not just technical debt but technical deficit?
Predicting what might happen in travel is never easy with the industry impacted by so many external factors, but some executives usually take a good stab at how things might play out.
Aaron Gowell, founder and CEO of SilverRail Technologies, Timothy O’Neil-Dunne of T2Impact and Lorraine Sileo, founder of Phocuswright research discussed some of the current trends in the PhocusWire studio at The Phocuswright Conference.
The executives spoke about what will happen with the new presidential administration in the United States, the possibility of deregulation and general uncertainty affecting consumer spend.
They also touched on the hype around AI, whether travel companies have researched what customers really want when it comes to the technology and the lack of focus on meaningful metrics such as conversion.
Gowell pointed out that applications of AI in the corporate travel backend would help drive efficiency and remove cost.
“That’s the highest touch product. If you think about the call-centers that Amex GBT has to maintain and all those questions that come in, I think they are the kind of outputs that are going to use AI at least on the cost side and get some real benefits from it,” he said.
The discussion moved on to technical debt and the looming technical deficit with investment needed to “integrate and make AI useful,” according to O’Neil-Dunne.
The trio also discussed whether there is anything transformative in travel currently and what, if anything, has really changed in the booking process in the past decade and beyond.
“Some of the market leaders are still here today and all the friction [is still there] and everything is still booked the same way. The top of the funnel is going bananas and the bottom of the funnel is kind of status quo,” Sileo said.
Watch or listen to the full session below with PhocusWire's Linda Fox.