Customer service teams are integral to travel operations. Not only a vital sales channel, but their role also sees customers through some of the most emotionally charged logistics planning you can imagine.
It’s why delivering high-quality service is such a key brand differentiator. It’s what keeps customers coming back: feeling safe and supported.
Yet the current model is unsustainable. High volumes of repetitive queries, such as booking changes, flight status updates, and luggage issues, combined with workforce shortages, 24/7 service demands, and rising labour costs, are becoming unmanageable.
This is only compounded by the patchwork of fragmented systems – online travel agents (OTAs), airlines, and other service providers – that comprise travel operations.
It’s too complex. Too dynamic. Too changeable. Too much.
Fortunately, the latest generation of AI support is stepping to the fore. AI thrives in complexity. It can juggle multiple tasks in parallel and can execute at lightning-fast speeds compared to manual inputs. But how is this different to automation workflows and chatbots? Where is the AI exactly?
From scripts to smart service
As we well know, many travel customer service centres deployed chatbots and voice assistants to help filter the most straightforward queries. But these bots use scripts, typically lacking in contextual awareness and personalisation. Their limited workflows confine their abilities. There’s no action. It’s all talk. They simply aren’t suited to the complexity of true customer support. It also means that there’s an additional layer of frustration: exhausting the chat dialogue until it concedes you need more advanced (human) help.
Enter conversational agentic AI. It’s the next generation of digital assistance. These AI agents can understand, reason, and act autonomously. As a result, they can determine customer intent, take full ownership of the task, adapt to any special conditions, and see it through to fulfilment. So, whether it’s rebooking a cancelled flight, purchasing insurance, or processing a refund, conversational agentic AI can get it done.
What sets conversational agentic AI apart
Imagine having a digital agent that fully understands how people speak. One that can extract key information, like flight numbers or dates, and then tailor its responses and actions accordingly. It’ll then learn and adapt to the customer’s preferences, improving with each interaction. That’s the joy of natural language understanding (NLU) that powers the conversational elements of agentic AI. It makes the entire interaction feel more human.
On top of this level of true comprehension, AI agents can reason and make appropriate decisions. They can evaluate and factor in variables, like real-time disruption updates, rebooking rules, or travel policies, then apply logic and choose the relevant actions.
Agents are integrated with backend systems, like your global distribution system (GDS), customer relationship management (CRM) platform, and payments, and given executional permissions.
The result is they can manage entire workflows, meaning real-time issue resolution, zero wait times, and a more seamless customer journey.
The final string to conversational agentic AI’s bow is its autonomy. Agentic AI doesn’t just react to queries; it takes the initiative. Should something happen, say, a flight is cancelled, the agent will autonomously fire up, notify affected travellers, and then perform the entire workaround.
Applications abound
Conversational agentic AI blossoms at scale, especially at peak times, high volumes, or disruptions. Lufthansa adopted the technology at arguably the most disruptive time of our generation, the COVID-19 pandemic.
With call centres flooded, Lufthansa needed the fastest and most effective way to handle the surge of enquiries, claims, cancellations and rescheduling. Deploying conversational AI agents allowed all but the most complex of issues to be automated. Agents were integrated across multiple customer touchpoints and equipped with multilingual support and real-time translation capabilities. Their agents now support over 16 million conversations a year.
But not everything in customer support is about crisis management. Conversational agentic AI also provides human-like conversation for personalised trip planning. It can make suggestions, even upsell, and provide multi-market support for global operators.
The future of customer support
Travel operators can no longer afford to rely on traditional call centres and outdated chatbot services. Conversational agentic AI offers a truly scalable and satisfying experience. One that has demonstrable value, reduces the strain on human teams while improving customer satisfaction scores.
