Innovation

✈ IndiGo, India's largest airline, is set to implement Amadeus Segment Revenue Management Flex (SRM Flex), a web-based application. The system enables near real-time data from IndiGo's Navitaire New Skies® PSS via Revenue Management Integration Service (RMIS), allowing the carrier to quickly respond to market changes. SRM Flex's cloud-based RMS can adjust pricing rules based on the airline's strategy, automate processes, and enhance operational efficiency. Abhijit Dasgupta, SVP of IndiGo, emphasizes the move as part of IndiGo's growth and adaptation in the aviation industry, combining data science and machine learning with Amadeus' technology. Javier Laforgue, EVP at Amadeus, and David P. Evans, head of Navitaire, express confidence in supporting IndiGo's revenue maximization and expansion.

✈ The global commercial charter market is valued over €100 billion annually. Airlines have underestimated charter flights, which offer fully prepaid flights with no marketing costs, despite demand from group travel, corporate incentives, and major events. Inefficiencies in the charter sector persist due to reliance on manual workflows, with transactions often needing hundreds of emails. Without digital tools and structured data, airlines lack insight into demand, missing out on strategic opportunities to integrate charters into their operations. The cargo industry's digital transformation contrasts with the outdated practices in passenger charter flights. Modern digital tools exist for airlines to improve fleet utilisation and yield through charter flights.

📱 Partnering with Coury Hospitality, IRIS, a mobile F&B and guest experience platform specialist, will expand its mobile ordering services across the hospitality management firm's properties worldwide. This follows a 44% increase in in-room dining sales year-on-year. Currently, the service is live in 12 hotels managed by Coury Hospitality. The adoption of the IRIS platform has improved order volume, revenue, and guest satisfaction by streamlining the ordering process and enhancing visibility of menu items.

🏠 Bob W has signed a long-term lease to transform a 4,500 sq m office building in central Athens into 130 serviced apartments, growing their portfolio to over 5,000 units in the UK and EU. The Stadiou Street location, their third in Athens, is close to major landmarks and will undergo a sustainable conversion to open this winter, enhancing energy efficiency and using 100% renewable electricity. The deal follows the launch of LEGIT, a new tool for accurate hotel carbon tracking.

📚 Marketing strategies evolve from outbound, high-volume tactics to value-focused approaches in the AI era. Podcasts and YouTube gain emphasis for creating lasting trust, while mastering AI for content remixing enhances value. Paid media incrementality becomes crucial for video and creator-led campaigns. Smart data and AI enable personalized outbound efforts, including BlandAI's AI-powered billboards for instant interaction. AI-driven personal touches in chat and email result in a quadruple increase in responses and email conversion growth of 50-200%.

📱 In the quest to capture consumer attention, businesses confront the challenge of "predictably unpredictable" behavior. Consumers multitask across devices, prompting businesses to craft content that resonates personally. AI technology is pivotal in enabling the rapid and sophisticated customization needed for effective engagement.

📈 AI Mode, designed to help users discover web content, leverages deep information retrieval for nuanced search results. Testing received positive feedback for its response speed, quality, and freshness. Now, it enters a limited, opt-in testing phase in Google Labs. AI Mode, built on Google's core quality and ranking systems, aims to present AI-powered responses but will default to web search results when confidence is low. Initial testers include Google One AI Premium subscribers, who are invited to try the new feature and provide feedback to inform further improvements and capabilities.

🛌 Sesame Voice AI for hotels, currently English-only, has the potential to replace call centers with its capabilities to handle bookings, answer FAQs, and operate without breaks. Multilingual support is imminent. A future where the best front desk agent is an AI is approaching.