How AI can help the industry
The travel and tourism industry is betting high on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for 2019. Narayan Mallapur, CEO & Co-Founder, Innowayt, discusses how the foray into deployment of AI is gaining momentum and reckons that the progression will only increase.
The ability of AI would sig service and at the same time reduce human intervention, enabling companies to reduce cost in manpower. An example is Heathrow airport in the UK end-to-end biometrics bringing facial recognition at each point of the departing (and maybe arriving) passenger’s journey. Some of the touch points would be facial recognition at checkin, immigration, baggage drops, security lines and boarding points to create a seamless experience for passengers travelling through Heathrow.
Another exciting and emerging technology in the travel industry is IoT (Internet of Things), involving internet-based interconnectivity between every day devices allowing them to both send and receive data. For instance, hotel rooms can have a single device that connects everything from lights, to ACs to heaters, allowing all to be controlled from one device/place.
Another emerging technology is big data where large companies employ their data collection techniques. One of the most important usage of big data is to improve personalisation, where travel companies can tailor services or products offerings as per individual preferences. Another important user case is analysing business performance in macro as well as to the smallest granular level. An example would be where a hotelier would use big data for their revenue management — using historic room rates and other past trends to better anticipate levels of demand and adjust prices accordingly. When demand is predictable, pricing and strategies for promotions can be optimised to a great extent.
For small, medium and large travel enterprises, customer relationship management (CRM) has become critical and a large number are going in for CRM which enable their team to be while servicing the customers’ needs. This brings all the customer data in one place which is critical in customised offering to clients, send personalised greetings on their birthdays and anniversaries, send reminder of passport expiring three months ahead, remind to plan for their annual summer vacation, etc.
We believe we have built something unique in the travel industry — giving a single software for a travel agency to operate their entire business including a strong CRM, and also helping the management in monitoring and controlling by way of MIS and reports to the granular level. Similarly, for travel suppliers like DMCs where they get a system for entering contracts, content, market-wise rates, vendor and inventory management along with a marketplace. Our vision is to provide the best technology and platform for a travel agency and suppliers of any size at an affordable cost, which was earlier available only to large companies. Innowayt is harnessing the technology to enable the travel ecosystem and ensuring the end customers get a seamless experience. Currently, we are working on Machine Learning which would bring in a better customer servicing by way of chatbots, etc in the near future. It’s too early for us for AI and IoT but we are watching this space closely. ( The views expressed are solely of the author. The publication may or may not subscribe to the same.)