How travel companies can use machine learning to improve the customer experience

The travel sector has arguably been slower than other industries to take up machine learning – a subset of the larger field of Artificial Intelligence – focusing on automation methods to learn and predict, from past data. Is it a cultural phenomenon? The travel industry is among most traditional of all in terms of its main selling point – the personalised, human-facing customer experience – and has struggled to come to terms with machines replacing human recommendation and action. Today's customer is seeking more answers, more quickly, from companies before and after buying products and services – and the modern traveller is no exception. Traditional travel firms need to move with the times and respond to customer expectations.