A conference heard that AI is here to say
Travel businesses should embrace generative AI, G Adventures managing director for the UK and Europe Brian Young told a Travlaw event in London.
But Travlaw partner and head of employment Ami Naru warned companies to be careful because AI tools “can bite you”.
Speaking at the event last month, Young argued: “The pace of change is phenomenal. We have to embrace it. A lot of administration can be taken over by ChatGPT. It can free phones for customers to come through to book a holiday – it’s scalable and it works 24/7.”
He suggested generative AI “could really help in the ‘dream’ phase” of planning a holiday “and then hand off to a person” to take the booking.”
Young insisted: “As much as AI is in its infancy, the speed it’s changing at is the thing. AI is here to stay.”
Kuoni UK managing director Mark Duguid expressed more caution, saying: “I’ve looked at AI in a more moderate way, at ways to support our back office, loading content, tagging images. Every presentation I’ve seen said ‘Don’t put this out to the public’.”
However, he noted Kuoni is part of Dertour whose German parent Rewe “is about to push out a huge AI initiative in every part of the operation”.
Naru warned: “These are very powerful tools and can bite you if you’re not careful.”
