Skift Take
In this video from Skift Global Forum 2023, we hear from Eric Phillips, senior vice president and chief digital officer of Delta Air Lines, and Ben Ellencweig, senior partner at McKinsey & Company, on how artificial intelligence will usher in what every generation wants: a true “golden age” of travel.
Key Points
- Integrating AI with legacy tech stacks is challenging for airlines and hotels, but AI can help solve some issues.
- Effective digital strategies can help customers avoid the complexities of the travel industry's behind-the-scenes challenges.
- Engaging employees with AI strategies is crucial to make them more creative and alleviate job replacement concerns.
Summary
The article discusses a video from the Skift Global Forum 2023, where experts explore how AI can transform the travel industry by overcoming challenges with legacy tech stacks, improving customer satisfaction, and engaging employees. AI's potential to write code and streamline operations is highlighted, alongside strategies to ensure customers are unaware of behind-the-scenes complexities and to alleviate employee concerns about job replacement.
This content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.
In this video:
- Merging AI with old-school infrastructure: Confronting the challenges of integrating clunky legacy tech stacks with generative AI won’t be easy, especially for airlines and hotels that have already been struggling to upgrade those systems. (Spoiler alert: AI can actually write the code that will solve part of the problem.)
- Helping customers avoid complexities: While travel brands have to deal with a maze of behind-the-scenes challenges, the right digital strategy can ensure customers aren’t aware of those challenges.
- Engaging employees with your AI strategy: Companies must approach AI integration from their employees’ perspectives. As many workers worry about the potential for tech to replace their jobs, it’s essential to introduce team members to generative AI and highlight its ability to help them be more creative.
We live in an experience economy where many consumers value the ability to do something more than the ability to buy something. However, doing — in the travel industry — has often led to lost bags in the airport, long lines at the hotel check-in desk, and a frustrating vacation that feels more like a difficult day at the office. This is the dawn of a new era, though. Artificial intelligence (AI) can write the next chapter of the travel industry and deliver the seamless experience customers want. It’s a topic that is explored in detail in a new report, “The Promise of Travel in the Age of AI,” produced jointly by Skift and McKinsey & Company.
In this video from Skift Global Forum 2023, we hear from Eric Phillips, senior vice president and chief digital officer of Delta Air Lines, and Ben Ellencweig, senior partner at McKinsey & Company, in conversation with Wouter Geerts, head of research at Skift, as they discuss this new report, as well as how AI will make customers more satisfied, employees more engaged, and brands more profitable.
This content was created collaboratively by McKinsey & Company and Skift’s branded content studio, SkiftX.
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Tags: artificial intelligence, hotel technology, research, SkiftX Showcase: Technology