Google and Sabre say that AI will be a travel essential

Trip-planning applications supported by generative AI will become the norm in the coming years, Google and Sabre executives predicted.

Carrie Tharp, Google Cloud’s vice president of global solutions and industries said “the next 10 years will be nothing like the previous 20.” 

“You will see AI and predictive AI applied to every step of the travel journey,” she said. 

Gary Wiseman, Sabre Travel Solutions’ chief product and technology officer, added that suppliers and travel agencies alike will have to use AI to provide travelers with inspiration, personalized shopping selections and advanced self-servicing capabilities.

“I think over time this will be table stakes for anyone in the industry,” Wiseman said. “It won’t be a differentiator. It will be something that is expected by the traveler.”

The two offered their views during a Sept. 12 webinar in which Google and Sabre executives discussed the state of artificial intelligence in travel. Sabre partners with Google Cloud both on data storage and on artificial intelligence applications. 

Sabre used the webinar describe a few of those tools, such as Travel Email IQ, which agencies can use to present proposed itineraries to clients based on the specifics of an emailed travel request — all through automation.

In another example, Sabre Hospitality expects to roll out a tool called Booking Engine Concierge early next year. Hotels will be able to embed an AI-powered bot into their websites. The tool will also respond to specific requests, such as a room with a dog bed. 

Booking Engine Concierge also will show pictures of rooms, display direct booking rates in a side-by-side comparison with rates offered on OTAs, and suggest add-ons such as a tennis lesson or a champagne bottle in the room. 

It will also complete a booking in frictionless fashion using a credit card saved by the user in a web browser, Wiseman said.

Personalized self-service bots similar to Concierge.AI will become the norm across travel booking, predicted Wiseman, and they’ll leverage data to know a customer’s preferences. He gave an example: making a flight change.

“It’s not only going to propose a flight at a new date or time, but it’s also going to know that I prefer to sit in a premium economy window seat,” Wiseman said. “And so it will double check to make sure there is vacancy for that.”

Tools like this will remove the friction for planning and undertaking travel, said Wiseman.