Corp Travel Agencies Reboot Bots in Light of Labor Crisis
Photo Credit: More travel agencies are turning to bots to better cope with disrupted journeys. Unsplash / Nasik Lababan
Skift Take
There’s a distinct whiff of nostalgia drifting through the swaying palm trees in San Diego, as corporate travel agencies plug chatbots at the Global Business Travel Association’s annual convention.
Cast your mind back six or seven years, and you’ll remember bots were all the rage in travel.
They’re essentially software designed to automate tasks, and were popular in customer service messaging apps.
Now they’re firmly back on the radars of corporate travel agencies, to help deal with heightened disruption and lighten the burden on consultants.
Several companies have launched new artificial intelligence tools at the Global Business Travel Association annual convention this week. The timing is perfect. Travelers are almost twice as likely to be delayed this year compared with last year, according to data from the flight tracking app Flightaware.com.
New research also suggests 69 percent of frequent business travelers now expect travel disruption. And nearly three quarters are more likely to use digital tools like apps and virtual agents to help get those disrupted trips back on track, according to corporate travel agency
