AI Is Transforming Customer Experience: Travel Could Be The First Stop

When we book a flight and a hotel, shouldn’t our preferences be prefilled and suggestions be made for us instantly? When we get off an airplane, should we really have to wait in line to get our rental car? And don’t get me started about the airport experience.

Travel is one of the obvious examples of how artificial intelligence will transform brand relationships — especially when it comes to customer experience.

It’s with good reason that people liken travel to visiting the DMV. On average, it can take up to 16 hours to book a trip, according to Priceline. Gen Z and millennials take even longer.

Three problems lie at the core of today’s antiquated travel experiences:

1. There is a ton of friction that doesn’t need to be there. This is due to disparate booking systems that don’t work well together, plus rigid processes built from legacy technology. These websites and apps are built using the old constructs of user experience — a rigid one-track approach to organizing boxes, drop-down menus and barely passable search functionality.

2. The visuals are stale. The fact that discovery is boring is truly astounding in the age of Instagram. There is no story, no connection, nothing to trigger that emotional discovery. Travel is an emotional experience. Providers need to make you feel something, to fantasize about all of the great things to come. Instead, you are left frustrated by being asked to enter your frequent flier number for the fourth time.

3. Travel isn’t smart. The digital experiences don’t know who you are and can’t anticipate what you want to do.

Technology can solve all three problems. Now all that’s needed is creativity to be layered on top of it to solve old problems with new customer interactions. Of course, AI will play a big part in this. And I’m not just talking about chatbots. Sure, they’ve become an essential tool that can remove some of the unwanted friction, but the change is going to be much more radical than that.

The emergence of generative AI means that traditional information architecture will become obsolete. Simply put, we will quickly move from prompting AI to AI prompting us. What could this look like? An experience that is designed for you based on your personal needs. It will differ from your friends’, neighbors’, and spouses’ experiences.

Think of design generating not just artwork and words but interfaces that feel as simple or simpler than the magic you feel with text-based chatting.

Exceptional customer service is rooted in anticipation, especially in the travel arena. The best hotels in the world know their repeat customers and will ensure they get the desired amenities. We are creatures of habit, after all. It’s not hard to figure out that you like a spa appointment at the end of your trip and that you prefer sparkling to still water.

AI can study your past behaviors, purchases and patterns to anticipate your desires. It can then make suggestions that save you time and energy and support its choices with customer reviews.

It can also inspire you with the visual experience. Instantly, you can receive personalized, engaging content that makes you want to hit that ski slope or relax by that serene lake. AI fills in the visual gaps that were historically costly to create. And it can serve these visuals based on your predisposed behavior. We have visual memories after a vacation; what would happen if you could see what they may look like before you book?

AI’s superpower is analyzing data, organizing it and compiling it in a simple way. Travel providers are a treasure trove of first-party data. They can use this data to prefill those boxes and drop-down menus and present you with choices that make the most sense. The interface should almost be invisible as you move through decisions that smoothly guide you from inspiration to booking to travel to reliving and sharing those memories.

Of course, privacy and security need to be protected and be core to the experience where opt-in and controls are prioritized.

Ironically, it’s AI that has given us the opportunity to make the travel experience more human. Working to build a more intuitive experience will actually make us feel even better about travel. There is so much utility that can and will be improved. Soon travel sites and apps will become destinations we will actually want to visit.

This will make it much easier to dangle amenities, tour options and discounts with preferred partners. It will all be there naturally and easily for the traveler to say yes.

On the other hand, If you’re more apt to sit around waiting for your customers to tell you what they want, you’ll likely lose them to a competitor.

And keep in mind that AI will drive this fundamental shift in all industries, not just travel.

Buckle up.