AI agents already enhance the planning experience for travelers — but real human interaction between customers and providers — remains essential, said Navan CEO Ariel Cohen at Semafor World Economy in Washington, DC.
The chief executive of the corporate travel company said on Tuesday that he sees it with Navan’s AI chatbot known as Ava. In real-life scenarios, the AI chatbot excels at rapidly resolving problems for customers, from changes to trips, to navigating travel interruptions. Cohen also said he realized AI agents alone are not enough.
“You have to also use real [human] agents and really orchestrate between the two,” he said.
The idea of tapping into AI to allow better service and traveler experience is critical, but leveraging the human touch is also part of the equation, said Expedia CEO Ariane Gorin.
Gorin pointed to when the war broke out in the Middle East. Expedia was able to move quickly — working with hotel partners to make policy adjustments for more flexibility and allow for in-app updates for self-service, Gorin said. But Expedia also received a number of customers who wanted to talk to a real person.
“Even as we got more calls, we were able to resolve them 9% faster than a year ago, and that’s because of the AI and the technology we’re using in our call centers,” she said. “So there’s one thing, which is having more self-service and automation in our products themselves, so that travelers don’t have to call us. But there’s a separate thing, which is when they do need us, we’re able to resolve things much faster.”