Conversational AI for Travel: Benefits & Examples

In the often stressful and confusing world of travel, customers want to work with businesses that provide reassurance and support. When booking trips, 60% of travelers said customer service was their top priority. 

Providing great customer service helps travel providers stand out from the crowd – but it’s no easy task. There are things to consider at every stage of the customer journey, such as:

1. Pre-travel: Customers want to ask questions about your products/services and get responses quickly, without waiting on hold or being forced to read through pages of written FAQs. 
2. Booking: Travel arrangements can be complex, but booking shouldn’t be. Customers value fast, efficient booking services that minimize friction and grant reassurance. 
3. Real-time support: During a trip, customers may need to contact your team to ask questions or make adjustments, regardless of your opening hours. 
4. Post-travel: The best travel brands are proactive about post-travel customer service. They ask questions about a customer’s trip and incentivize future travel with personalized offers.

Meeting these challenges requires you to establish 24/7 customer service capable of reactive and proactive support. To do so cost-effectively, travel businesses must now consider the deployment of dedicated AI Agents. 

AI Agents built with Conversational AI are emerging as an ideal solution for travel businesses that want to improve customer service processes and prioritize customer experience. By removing wait times, speeding up call resolutions and even supporting human employees, Conversational AI helps you meet the demands of travel customers in a more cost-effective, scalable way. 

In this guide, we’ll explore Conversational AI's role in the travel sector. From the benefits of the technology to realistic use cases, we’ll demonstrate the transformative role AI will play in the future of travel…

What Is Conversational AI in Travel?

Conversational AI is a type of AI that is capable of Natural Language Understanding (NLU), which means it can understand and engage with human language over voice or text. The AI can interpret context and intent, which means it can reply in a way that mimics real conversations and can also carry out the appropriate action. 

In the travel sector, Conversational AI provides the customer-facing element of an AI Agent that handles customer service processes. This agent brings the combined power of Conversational and Generative AI to converse with customers actively, recognize their issues, and either resolve them automatically or route the call to a human agent. 

The potential applications of Conversational AI in the travel industry are vast – it can be used to field questions, make bookings, amend customer details, process cancellations, and even take proactive actions such as notifying customers about a change in their itinerary. 

As travelers continue to utilize digital tools to better book, organize, and manage their travel, companies that can successfully adopt Conversational AI will be better equipped to meet their needs. 

Benefits of Conversational AI in Travel

Conversational AI brings many potential benefits to businesses in the travel sector, with positives both directly to customers and to your organization as a whole…

Versatile Customer Service 

AI Agents act as a frontline solution for your customer service process, engaging with customer contact without any hold queues or waiting times. Once answered, Conversational AI fields the customer’s query and also gathers any required information, such as their booking reference number. From here, it can either resolve the request if it has the access and capability to do so or route the case to a human member of the team. 

All of this essentially means you can have a 24/7 customer service agent capable of fielding the vast majority of cases, which reduces wait times, eases frustration, and improves positive customer outcomes. 

Multichannel Capabilities

During the travel process, customers utilize multiple devices as part of their journey. For example, a customer may perform initial research on their laptop, then choose to pick up the phone and call an agent to book the trip. Once booked, they’ll want to download tickets to their mobile device for easy access. 

Only 12% of travel brands offer the omnichannel support users need. Travel businesses must adapt to this omnichannel behavior as much as possible if they want to keep up with customer habits. Conversational AI is not tied to a specific platform or window – so your AI Agent can support customers using their smartphone, tablet, laptop, or any other device in a system that most suits their needs, such as over the phone or via WhatsApp messaging.  

Creates Powerful Self-Service Options

Customers want to be able to accomplish basic tasks without contacting your business. 60% of customers choose self-service tools for simple tasks rather than talking to a representative. 

Building self-service options into your business model is advantageous not only to meet customer demand but also to alleviate pressure from your human team – why waste their time with simple matters like changing personal details or amending minor aspects of a booking? 

Forget the limited chatbots of the recent past. Conversational AI can be used to replace outdated chatbots with a comprehensive self-service option for users. By interacting with the bot via digital chat channels or through a voice AI Agent, customers can take care of many essential tasks associated with their travel on their own – empowering them and improving overall satisfaction. 

Increases Agent Efficiency

AI helps augment your human team and make agents more efficient. Agent Assist transcribes customer calls and AI Agents automate the mundane initial stages of identity checks/verification. They can resolve most simple tasks themselves, leaving only complex cases to human employees. 

Before moving into an agent assistance role, the AI Agent performs a warm handover with full context, including a customer’s details, order history, and a summary of the current problem. During the call, the AI provides further assistance by listening to the agent and providing instant answers and related guidance whenever a customer asks questions. 

Time and Cost Savings

You'll solve customer cases faster and more effectively by eliminating customer waits and reducing average call handling times. Not only will this improve overall customer satisfaction levels which can drive repeat purchases, but it will also improve employee satisfaction and productivity. As a result of all these improvements, you’ll save both time and money as you continue to scale. 

Use Cases of Conversational AI in Travel

Now you know why AI Agents may be a good idea – but you need to see exactly how they can be implemented in a travel context before you make a decision. Fortunately, there are lots of clear use cases in the sector that help demonstrate the best ways to utilize AI in your business… 

KYC/ID&V

Almost every customer service process on the planet involves some form of customer identification/verification stage, also known as ‘know your customer.’ 

In the travel sector, you’re generally asking for personal details or booking references – both of which require mundane input from the user. Whether over voice or via keypad, this process typically eats into every call and takes longer than it should. 

AI Agents can automate the entire ID&V process, capturing the relevant information and then either field the query or route it to a human agent that can focus on solving the problem rather than asking basic identity questions. 

Self-Service Chatbot

Creating a self-service system allowing customers to book and adjust their travel arrangements helps alleviate the bulk of your customer service demand. 

Until recently, businesses have been forced to use rigid chatbot systems with predefined responses that could easily lead to errors or frustration for users – but Conversational AI provides a far more intuitive system that puts control over bookings into your customer’s hands, ultimately resulting in greater customer satisfaction. 

Automated Booking Systems

Conversational AI can act as a booking assistant for customers, both in terms of placing new bookings and managing existing ones. It can also adapt to customer needs in ways pre-AI technology could not.

For example, a customer in a busy airport may struggle to have their voice heard when speaking to a human agent. The AI Agent would instead prompt the user to input key details into their device, all without leaving the call. They could then return to the conversation and finish the booking without any additional stress and hassle.  

Agent Assistance

Your existing human team is the star of your customer service process, but they are likely struggling with the volume of calls they receive. AI Agents help cut this down by fielding the mundane aspects of the call – but that’s not all they can provide.

For example, a Cognigy AI Agent can qualify a customer call and take care of all the early steps. If the case requires human intervention, the AI Agent will seamlessly pass it to a human agent, providing all the context needed for the agent to instantly understand who the caller is, what they want, and how they can help.

Once the handover is complete, the Agent Copilot shifts into action. The Copilot works in the background, supporting the human agent by listening in and displaying contextual information, such as product guidance, directly in the agent’s workspace. This ensures agents can answer questions quickly and efficiently, while the AI continues to empower the interaction.

Travel Support

Though much of the conversation around AI Agents focuses on reactive tasks dealing with incoming customer inquiries, the proactive capabilities must be better explored – especially in the travel sector. 

An AI Agent can communicate with users through whatever channel or device they need, informing them about upcoming changes in their trip or even prompting them to make alternative arrangements or process cancellations. 

Thanks to Natural Language Understanding and your Knowledge Base, the AI Agent can support users at any stage of their travel to answer questions and find relevant information – even if the request is complex. A parent traveling with two children could use the AI Agent to request seat changes on a flight, with the AI capable of understanding intent and context to take the most appropriate action or notify a human agent. 

Examples of Conversational AI in Travel

If use cases interest you in how AI could help your business, it’s also worth exploring real-world examples of AI Agents in action. Here’s a clear case of a prominent travel business soaring thanks to the implementation of AI in their customer service process…

Frontier Airlines Soars With AI Agent

As a rapidly expanding airline with 15-30% annual growth rates, Frontier Airlines needed a way to deal with the rising strain of customer service. During peak times, the business struggled with traditional phone-based support, and agents felt stifled trying to tackle one case at a time with multiple calls waiting in the queue. 

Fortunately, the business was forward-thinking enough to understand it needed to change. After contacting Cognigy.AI, Frontier Airlines implemented an AI Agent to validate, manage, and even cancel reservations. When required, it can also hand over to human agents. 

The airline boldly decided to turn off telephone support in favor of providing customers with instant access to efficient self-service through the AI Agent, which is empowered to tackle basic tasks themselves. Customer satisfaction quickly improved, and the airline reduced its average handling time to a historic low. 

Best Practices for Conversational AI in the Travel Sector

Before implementing AI into your travel business, you must remember best practices. Some are unique to travel organizations, whereas others apply to any business adopting any form of AI. Here are our top recommendations. 

Narrow Use Cases First

The most efficient way to implement AI is to start small and scale up. Choose a repeatable, mundane aspect of your customer service process and trial an AI Agent. Tasks like asking customers for their details or fielding booking queries are the perfect places to start as they will quickly save your human employees lots of time and subsequently improve overall productivity.

Plan For Frustration

Travel is a stressful sector. Your customer may be struggling to retrieve booking details in the middle of a busy airport, juggling the task of finding an email containing their flight tickets while trying to care for their children. An AI Agent needs to be smart enough to understand the context and identify intuitive solutions, such as quickly asking for key personal information and then sending that same customer’s tickets to them directly via a messaging app. 

24/7, Global Support

The nature of travel means customers may be located anywhere in the world and trying to contact you at any time. An AI Agent must be able to respond 24/7 and communicate with customers speaking different languages. Speak to your AI provider about which territories you operate in and make sure any solution can support the languages you’ll need for your customer base. 

Think Big Picture

Travel is usually comprised of lots of moving parts. A customer may have flights, hotels and transport all booked with the same provider. If you offer AI Agent support, you must ensure it’s integrated with your existing systems and potentially that of any partner companies. 

As a result, AI Agents have enough autonomy and access to manage each stage of a customer’s journey, which allows them to make and resolve requests on the go. 

Use Cognigy to Implement Conversational AI Solutions for Travel

Broaden your own team’s horizons with an AI Agent provided by Cognigy.AI. We’re experts in the travel sector and can help your business streamline your customer journey, improve satisfaction, and increase productivity. 

Start your journey towards industry-leading customer service by booking a demo today. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Difference Between a Chatbot vs Conversational AI?

The term chatbot usually refers to pre-AI chat assistants offering customers limited self-service options. These were fixed to a single window, such as webchat, and were reliant on pre-programmed responses. Conversational AI represents an entirely new capability to understand human language and create spontaneous replies built around intent and context. 

What Are the Challenges of AI in the Travel Industry?

Harnessing Artificial Intelligence in the travel sector means navigating complex, muti-stage user journeys to identify the most valuable areas for integration. To be cost-effective, you need to plan your use cases carefully and ensure your AI Agents help improve customer experience rather than hinder it. 

When Can Conversational AI Be Used in the Travel Industry?

Conversational AI is an ideal solution for many customer service processes within the travel industry. The natural language understanding (NLU) capabilities of Conversational AI allow it to take center stage in customer service tasks such as automating the booking process, speeding up general queries, and providing direct customer support.

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