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Skift Global Forum Video: Beyond Automation - Understanding AI’s True Power in Travel Marketing


Skift Take

Artificial intelligence was a hot topic at this year’s Skift Global Forum in New York. In this video recap from the event, we learn about the true power of AI in the travel industry, which will pail machine-powered automation with smart insights to create more meaningful relationships with customers.

The 2019 Skift Global Forum brought together some of the travel industry’s top executives for a series of thought-provoking conversations about the future of travel around the world.

One of the key themes at this year’s event was artificial intelligence (AI). There’s a lot of buzz today in the travel industry about the potential for new technologies like AI and machine learning to help streamline a variety of activities like marketing. But a lot of the industry perceptions around artificial intelligence are based on the idea that campaigns and customer interactions can simply be put on “autopilot,” using machines to take automated actions based on rules or triggers.

But while this type of automation may seem like the optimal strategy for using AI, some industry experts believe it’s the wrong approach. In fact, this automation-driven application of AI may be missing a much bigger opportunity: to combine human insights with AI in order to build lasting relationships with customers.

In this conversation between David Bessis, CEO of Tinyclues, and Jeremy Kressmann, research editor for SkiftX, we learn more about why the future of AI in the travel industry will depend upon using smart human decision-making in order to deliver great results.

Watch the video above to see the full discussion.

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