This post was originally featured on the 30SecondsToFly blog in 2017. Ready Player One, Ernest Cline's first novel (soon to be adapted to film by Steven Spielberg), portrays a futuristic dystopian society that consumed all the energetic resources on earth and spends most of its time emerged in a Virtual Reality platform, the Oasis. Besides the brilliant references and tributes to the '80s presented in the book, the author also makes some propositions about the role Artificial Intelligence will play in our lives in a (not so) distant future. Instead of going to the physical stores to complain about a product or a service, the customers only have to put on their VR headsets and introduce their requests and complaints to a virtual assistant (who is operated anywhere else in the world by another human being). In one of the book's chapters, an interaction between a customer and an IT assistant takes place inside of the Oasis.

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AI Analytics company PredictX releases their brand new PredictX Digital Assistant to market at GBTA 2018. Managers can now ask the PredictX Travel voice app questions regarding their travel program - eliminating the need to navigate specialized travel data dashboards. Sophisticated travel apps have made it more convenient for travelers to book outside travel policy than ever before. Travelers book on-the-go leaving Travel managers at a distinct disadvantage when they have to spend time combing through reports and dashboards to find one policy violation or duty of care issue long after it has taken place. Travel Managers can use the voice command "Open PredictX" to access the PredictX Digital Assistant.

Corporate travel is big - really big - business. According to a July 2017 report from the Global Business Travel Association, global business travel spend approached $1.3 trillion in 2016, and it's expected to grow steadily over the next few years. For corporate travel managers, the challenge of overseeing these massive budgets - and the myriad of vendors, contracts, invoices and human resources built into them - is exacerbated by the growing demand of travelers to make their trips convenient, stress-free and personalized to their needs. The risk of not meeting those desires is that those travelers take matters into their own hands, booking flights and accommodations independently. "What most travel managers are after is adoption of the channel - making sure they have full transparency of what is going on and where travelers are booking, and not getting it through expense reports when money is already cashed out," says Martin Biermann, vice present of product development and chief technology officer for HRS, which provides hotel sourcing, booking and management solutions for more than 3,000 businesses worldwide.

This is a viewpoint from Alex Kaluzny, Chief Technology Officer at Egencia. Judging from the GBTA/VDR conference in Frankfurt last month, artificial intelligence (AI) is top of mind when discussing the evolution of business travel. With a variety of sessions on the subject, topics ranged from major players describing ROI on current AI-powered solutions to panel discussions on the basics, like "what is a chatbot." With mentions of great AI-driven solutions already on the market, it's obvious that the consumer world is creating expectations for conversational interfaces, like Alexa, as well as proactive reminders and suggestions. For example, Google can now tell you what time to leave for your doctor's appointment. But taking a closer look, we see that for business travel the reality is that artificial intelligence is still in its infancy.

Personalized recommendations powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies can improve the experience of business travelers at every stage of their travel journey. These features are especially advantageous in the hotel space, which is plagued by non-compliant bookings. Irrelevant content and outdated tools have often frustrated business travelers booking lodging for their trips, leading travelers to book outside company policy. Despite the technologies available, it's rare for corporate travel tools to present business travelers with relevant hotel choices. Additionally, today's business travelers are quick to use the tools that suit their individual needs, as their expectations are increasingly influenced by platforms they use in their personal lives.