How might AI-enabled airline journeys look and feel?
Agentic AI can already write software code, make contextually relevant product recommendations when you shop online, and handle an application for a bank loan. Which begs the question - how significantly will AI change the traveler journey?
We recently published a white paper which identified the opportunities for airlines to apply AI across their operations. ‘Airlines in the agentic age’ highlighted more relevant customer experiences, turnaround management, digital marketing, automated voice rebooking and agentic commerce as key areas where airlines are beginning to apply the technology.
But how might a fully AI-enabled traveler journey look and feel? Here’s a thought experiment based on insights from the report, our product development, as well as on-going work with airlines and technology partners.
In this article…
- Plan and book AI use cases
- Pre-trip AI use cases
- On trip AI use cases
This scenario reflects a particularly challenging journey, where several things don’t go to plan, but shows how AI can step in at each stage to help resolve issues and keep the experience on track.
Plan and book
When you plan your next trip rather than consulting a number of different websites, you provide a detailed outline of your requirements to an AI assistant.
“I’d like you to help me plan a week-long family trip during the school holidays to the beach, temperatures over 30 °C and cultural tourism options. Our son is nine and our daughter is six. They both enjoy water sports and horse riding, and I am an avid kitesurfer. Our budget is modest. We prefer to fly to and from London Heathrow”.
The assistant suggests Morocco as a suitable destination, provides a complete itinerary for the trip (including activity providers), recommends a suitable hotel and flight options. You book a flight that connects via Paris natively within the same interface – from the airline, not the AI company. As part of the booking process, you decide to join the airline’s loyalty program to make the most of extra benefits.
Itinerary creation, hotel recommendations and flight options now require much less effort from you, the traveler, with the agent doing most of the work while you stay in control. Working with the context you provide, the AI agent works semi-autonomously, checking in with you for all critical decisions.
Pre-trip
As time passes you consider the trip more thoroughly and realize you need to change the dates to accommodate a friend’s birthday – in the past, this kind of change would have taken hours. You call the airline. However, rather than waiting in a queue you are notified that your call has been answered immediately by an AI voice agent –the interaction is natural and smooth. After a brief exchange, the best options are outlined, and you make a choice. The AI agent rebooks your flights and initiates payment for the differential from your saved payment method upon your confirmation. While on this occasion the request was managed by an AI agent, for more complex changes, calls can be rerouted to a human customer support agent.
Three weeks before departure you receive an invitation from the airline to explore activities in Morocco via its app. After reviewing options close to your hotel, you enter a natural language chat session with the airline’s AI concierge and decide to add a scuba diving session and camel ride in the desert.
Before heading on your trip, you’re given the option to choose seats and check-in yourself or delegate this to the AI agent. On this occasion, you decide to delegate as your preferences are already saved in the airline app.
On trip
On the day of departure, Heathrow airport is extremely busy. Thankfully, the operations team has predicted this with the help of AI that uses aggregated local transport data feeds and proactively informs the operations team, so the maximum number of self-service bag drop units are operating. Nevertheless, traffic has been heavy and you’re in danger of missing the flight.
After dropping your bags and making it through the pre-security gates, it’s a mad dash to the gate. Fortunately, the gate agent was notified based on operational updates from airport systems and has kept the boarding gate open. Finally, the whole family is safely on the aircraft when – you’re told that you’re being held on the tarmac and the connection in Paris is extremely short.
It’s now that you realize having been seated next to the aircraft door is an advantage. This isn’t serendipity – your airline’s AI agent noticed your short connection and sat you there intentionally.
When you touch down in Casablanca and switch on your phone, you receive an alert via the airline’s app that your bag hasn’t arrived – “We regret that your bag has been mishandled. But don’t worry, let us know where to deliver it and we will reunite you. In recognition of this inconvenience, we’ll initiate compensation and have upgraded your return flight.”
After a brief chat with your airline’s AI concierge, you feel more at ease, and the bag is couriered to your hotel the following morning.
This simple example shows how agentic AI embedded throughout the traveler journey can contribute to an improved experience:
- Personalization, helping airlines better understand traveler preferences at aggregated level and increase conversion
- Automation, improving efficiency and reducing servicing costs
- Predictive operations, enabling airlines to anticipate disruptions and enhance operational reliability
Monitoring, reasoning, making smart recommendations and even acting helps the airline better meet the traveler’s needs – always within airline’s rules and with human oversight where needed.
That said, none of the examples mentioned are possible with AI alone. They require the airline to be connected to its broader ecosystem of partners and AI to work collaboratively with not only the airline’s underlying systems but also human experts to deliver a smoother traveler experience.
With our foundation as a system of record, our deep integration across the industry, and our ability to run at production scale, supported by strong governance through our AI Office and strategic partnerships, Amadeus is helping the industry embrace AI with integrity and trust.
If you’re interested in understanding how airlines are already deploying agentic AI, then do download our latest report.
TO TOP