Travel companies shift focus from individual touchpoints to AI-powered customer experiences

The travel industry has been transforming its customer journey through digitization, allowing travelers to search for flights online, check into hotels through mobile apps, and manage loyalty accounts without human interaction.

Travel companies have invested heavily in this process over the years, aiming to make it easier and more convenient for customers to navigate their booking, service, sales, and loyalty needs. However, this focus on individual touchpoints may be about to shift as technology advances.

A key player in this emerging trend is Sierra, a company that helps businesses create better customer experiences and stronger business outcomes with artificial intelligence (AI). The firm's central idea is that the new digital front door for customers should be an AI agent.

At the Skift Global Forum in New York, Bret Taylor, co-founder and CEO of Sierra and chairman of OpenAI, discussed how AI agents could revolutionize travel by connecting booking, service, sales, and loyalty into a seamless customer relationship. This approach focuses on organizing interactions around the traveler rather than a company's internal structure.

Taylor believes that this is not just about improving individual touchpoints but rather about creating a holistic experience that integrates multiple aspects of the customer journey. He was joined onstage by Skift founder and CEO Rafat Ali and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to discuss how Uber is using Sierra's AI agents across its marketplace.

The way customers interact with travel companies is evolving rapidly, driven by advancements in artificial intelligence. Taylor suggests that AI agents can play a pivotal role in streamlining this process, creating a seamless experience for travelers as they navigate various stages of their journey.

This concept of "long horizon engagements" highlights the need for a unified approach to customer interactions. Rather than treating marketing and service as separate entities, companies should focus on maintaining continuous relationships with customers throughout their entire journey. Taylor notes that this is particularly crucial in travel, where the industry has traditionally fragmented customer experiences across different systems and business functions.

Travelers rarely concern themselves with which department or system handles a particular task, yet they often encounter frustration when dealing with multiple stakeholders. This issue is common within airlines, hotels, and marketplace companies, where teams responsible for booking may have limited communication with those handling post-arrival services. Taylor argues that AI agents can bridge this gap by providing a unified layer across systems.

The goal of integrating AI agents into the customer journey is to eliminate unnecessary handoffs between departments. According to Taylor, getting passed from one team to another should be a thing of the past in an era where AI is increasingly prevalent. By maintaining continuous relationships with customers, companies can create more intuitive and efficient experiences that cater to their evolving needs.

The development of AI agents is shifting the way companies interact with their customers. According to industry experts, these changes are not just about replacing human customer service representatives but also about creating more intuitive and efficient experiences that cater to evolving needs.

One key aspect of this shift is the changing nature of interfaces themselves. The use of multimodal experiences that combine voice, text, images, and other forms of interaction is becoming increasingly popular. This approach is well-suited to travel companies as many decisions require both conversation and visual information.

For instance, booking a flight may involve looking at a seat map, while choosing a resort room may depend on seeing the actual room itself. Some travelers prefer to explain their preferences verbally while viewing options on a screen. The ability to switch seamlessly between different interfaces is seen as essential in creating a more user-friendly experience.

The use of voice has become dramatically more useful with the improvement of large language models, but experts do not see it replacing other interfaces entirely. Instead, experiences can move fluidly between them, allowing customers to interact in the way that suits them best.

Sierra is working on an innovative project with a major U.S. airline that applies this approach directly to booking. The agent will be integrated into the shopping and booking experience itself, rather than existing as a separate entity. This change aims to eliminate friction and create a more seamless journey for customers.

The distinction between an AI agent that provides helpful assistance and one that creates obstacles is crucial in travel technology. While a concierge-like AI can be beneficial, it's equally important for the agent to resolve customer issues effectively.

In contrast to previous automated systems, which focused on routing calls and controlling costs, AI agents have the potential to truly help customers navigate complex processes. They can operate around the clock, communicate in multiple languages, access various systems, and even reason through situations that don't fit neatly into predetermined workflows.

For instance, companies like Uber are using AI agents to reconnect with individuals who were unable to complete the process of becoming a driver or courier. By identifying the specific issues that prevented them from completing the application, these agents can help prospective earners move forward and overcome any obstacles.

This approach not only produces better outcomes but is also more cost-effective than traditional methods. As companies like Uber adopt this new approach, it highlights a shift in how automation should be implemented.

As travel companies consider adopting agentic AI, they're recognizing that traditional workflows may not be the best fit for this technology. The flexibility to adapt and problem-solve is particularly valuable in an industry where disruptions are routine.

In a travel setting, an agent with broader goals can weigh multiple factors when making decisions, such as a traveler's status, itinerary, available alternatives, company policies, and other relevant context. This approach allows for more nuanced decision-making than a rigid workflow that only knows how to handle specific circumstances.

The shift towards redesigning processes from first principles is also being driven by companies like Uber, which initially tried to replicate human work with AI agents but found greater value in leveraging the technology's unique capabilities. This new approach may be one of the biggest implications of agentic AI for travel companies.

While some experts are optimistic about the potential of agentic AI, others caution that adoption will not occur uniformly across all industries and companies. They point out that there are many constraints within a larger economic system, including physical infrastructure, regulations, legacy technology, organizational structures, and established ways of working.

Travelers often encounter disruptions during their journeys, such as delayed flights, unavailable hotel rooms, and traffic congestion.

These interruptions can create a sense of disconnection between digital interactions and physical experiences, making it difficult to maintain a seamless travel experience.

To address this issue, companies like Sierra are developing AI agents that can connect travelers with relevant solutions in real-time. By providing context and flexibility, these agents can help resolve problems and enhance the overall journey.

As a result, future travel interfaces may prioritize the customer's needs over internal company systems, creating a more intuitive and personalized experience for travelers.