From Legacy to Cutting-Edge: Navigating Technological Advancements in Travel Industry

The travel industry has undergone a remarkable digital transformation, revolutionizing the way people experience and interact with travel services. In the past, making travel arrangements involved visiting physical travel agencies and dealing with lengthy booking processes. However, with the advent of modern technology, the landscape has evolved significantly. Today, travelers can access a plethora of travel options at their fingertips, thanks to online platforms and mobile applications that offer immediate booking confirmations. Recently, Shakti Goel, chief architect and data scientist, Yatra Online Ltd spoke to Dataquest about the future of technology in the travel industry.

DQ: Technology has played a pivotal role in shaping the travel industry. How do you see emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality, influencing the future of travel and the customer experience?

Shakti Goel: Over the last few years, technology has been key to growth in travel and making travel available to people residing in any part of the world.  I remember that in the 1990s, one had to go to a travel agency to make hotel or airline bookings.  Now this can be done instantly online using your mobile phone, and that too with immediate booking confirmation, something not possible a couple of decades ago.

Going forward, newer technologies that are based on artificial intelligence will influence travel.  With large language models (LLM) and generative AI becoming possible, customer calls can be handled by AI based computer programs.  The information can be shared with the customers both quickly and in large amounts.  

Using vision APIs, one can identify the location where the picture was taken.  Information about the location can be derived from content based systems such as Wikipedia and ChatGPT.  Videos integrated with virtual reality can be viewed by the customer to understand more about the place.  Machine learning based algorithms are widely used to detect fraud in online booking payments.  Entity extraction techniques can be used to analyze the query of the customer sent via email, and an automated intelligent response with pertinent information can be sent to the customer.  Possibilities of effectively using AI to make travel more enjoyable and easy are endless.  There are significant opportunities to not only enhance customer experience but also cut down costs.

DQ: What are the common challenges and risks that organizations face when trying to leverage data and AI?

Shakti Goel: Data is central to all AI based decisions.  AI algorithms pick up the patterns in data and make predictions.  If the data is too random then no AI algorithm will work.  Many times there are errors in data requiring significant cleaning of data.  This can be a daunting task.  Data can reside in multiple databases and file systems.  If the company lacks a data governance program and a data warehouse or data lake kind of system then getting a single aggregated view of data is challenging.

Understanding the need for AI projects is not clear especially if the ROI on the project cannot be determined.  Convincing the company management to approve an AI project becomes a challenge.  AI is a new way of doing business, and the change is always difficult to accept.  Companies lack the skill-set to implement AI projects.  Finding qualified resources can be a tough exercise due to non-availability of talent and cost of hiring.  Sometimes a strong use-case to implement an AI project is not possible, and without a use-case, no company will spend money on such projects.  AI governance can be another challenge.  One needs large amounts of data that needs to be kept in a secure environment.  Failure to do so can result in penalties from the government.  Stringent government regulations prevent adoption of AI and data centric solutions.

DQ: How do you approach the adoption of new technologies and the management of legacy systems to ensure a seamless experience for both customers and employees?

Shakti Goel: Whenever a transition happens from a legacy system to a new system, it is imperative that both systems are run in parallel till a high degree of confidence in the new technology can be established.  Customers are slowly transitioned from the legacy system over to the new system.  Employees are trained in the new technologies and customers are trained in the use of the new system.  Any fear of job losses is muted by continuously training employees in the newer technologies.  Some companies give employees free accounts on learning sites such as Udemy so that the employees can prepare themselves for the forthcoming changes. 

HR can also conduct interviews with the employees to understand their sentiments so as not to cause sudden disruption in the working of the organization.

DQ: How do you envision the future of technology in the travel industry, and what steps are you taking to prepare for and embrace these advancements?

Shakti Goel: Technology in the travel industry is in an ever evolving state.  There will be a lot more personalization of features so that travel packages can be created as if the system knows what the customer wants.  Travel marketplace can be created using blockchain technologies where the travel products can be listed directly by product owners bypassing the travel websites.  Since the middle-men (travel websites) commissions are eliminated in the booking process, both the product owners such as hotels and airlines and the customers would benefit.  Digital payments will have a major role to play in travel.  Tourists may want to “experience” the place before they visit.  This can be accomplished via augmented and virtual reality.  Generative AI systems such as ChatGPT rumored to be built on a model with 100 trillion parameters can help you build an entire travel package in addition to making recommendations.

We regularly analyze market trends and see how we can adapt to changes.  Our systems are regularly updated and new features are introduced.  There is adoption of AI to cut down on customer service costs.  Data is used to continuously determine fair price at which a product would sell, hence, optimizing the revenue.  At Yatra, we are eager to change.

DQ: Lastly, what are some of the challenges that you anticipate for the travel industry in India in the coming years, and how can technology help in overcoming these challenges?

Shakti Goel: Lack of infrastructure, planning, promotion & marketing, taxation and security are some of the challenges that will continue to impact the travel industry in India for some time to come.  Out of these challenges, marketing and security can be addressed through technology.  Digital promotions are very effective in promoting products, and travel could be one such product.  The cost of digital advertisements is also much less than the conventional means.  Theft of money is a major security issue.  If digital payments are made more cost-effective and widely available then issues around financial theft can be reduced.  Criminals can be profiled.  

There are Machine Learning techniques that can identify the intent of a person based on body language.  These technologies along with facial recognition can be used to reduce crime rates.  Introduction of innovative payment options such as Travel Now Pay Later will boost the travel industry.  There are more than 1 billion mobile phones in use in India.  Mobile-first approach will help solve travel problems as travel agencies can stay connected with the customers all the way from the booking process to the end of the trip.