Sabre: Conversational AI in travel a ‘seismic shift’
Sabre released a new whitepaper, Chat As the New Influencer: From Conversations to Clicks, forecasting a seismic shift in how travel is personalized, and booked.
The paper argues that conversational commerce – powered by agentic AI – is not just a new channel, but a new paradigm.
The report says it is poised to redefine the traveller journey and unlock unprecedented growth across the industry, akin to how commerce via social media revolutionized other retail industries.
Unlike online shopping for something with low complexity, shopping for travel isn’t just about choosing a destination; it’s about syncing flights, hotels, ground transport, and availability across multiple travellers.
“Conversational commerce is more than ‘just’ a tech trend for the travel industry; it’s a generational leap,” said Jen Catto, Chief Marketing Officer at Sabre.
“It will collapse the distance between desire and delivery, turning complexity into conversion and transforming every traveller into their own influencer.”
The whitepaper outlines a compelling vision for the future of travel retailing:
Social commerce inspires travel purchases. Conversational commerce will convert. While social platforms spark wanderlust, they fall short on trust and infrastructure. Agentic AI closes the gap, turning intent into action.
AI is expanding the market. Over half of travellers using agentic AI discover options they wouldn’t have found otherwise.
The storefront is changing, and agentic AI is the new UI. Travel won’t just be sold on websites and apps. It will be co-created in chat windows, voice assistants, and AI agents.
Trust will be the new currency. As AI adoption accelerates, transparency, governance, and data integrity will separate leaders from laggards.
Through its SabreMosaic platform, Sabre is deploying enterprise-grade AI built on Google’s Vertex AI
“Sabre isn’t just responding to change, we’re setting the pace,” said Garry Wiseman, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Sabre.
“We’re building the platforms to turn conversations into commerce, and commerce into loyalty. This is travel retailing reimagined.”
The paper calls on travel brands, retailers, and suppliers to embrace conversational interfaces, rethink merchandising, and build for trust.
TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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