Trust, scale and collaboration: The opportunity for orchestrating travel AI
Travel technology expert, and contributing blog editor, Martin Cowen, shares his take on Amadeus’ approach to the orchestration of travel artificial intelligence across the industry. He explains that AI in travel isn’t only about new technology - it’s how orchestrating its use across a fragmented industry is key to realizing its full potential.
Amadeushas been transforming travel for nearly 40 years, serving as a trusted system of record, at scale. Its development into a neutral, secure and embedded execution layer has emerged from its commitment to embracing new technologies, underpinned by decades of first-hand data.
Artificial intelligence is dominating today’s tech discussions, but has been part of Amadeus’ vernacular for some time.
According to Google’s AI-enabled search, there was a press release in 2019 which talked about artificial intelligence APIs. ChatGPT’s standard version surfaced a couple of mentions in the Traveler Tribes report from 2015.
So, artificial intelligence is nothing new for Amadeus. Nor is the need for industrywide orchestration of the multi-layered touchpoints which characterize the travel industry. Amadeus has had skin in both games for over a decade. The notably different AI-surfaced responses above show that not all AI is created equally. It can be complicated and inconsistent, and it needs orchestrating to realize the benefits. A recent post by Gaëlle Bristiel, Amadeus’ vice president of Engineering, outlines the approach to travel AI orchestration, and here are my observations on its approach.
From artificial intelligence fragmentation to scalability
Travel tech operates across a globally fragmented ecosystem of content, inventory, payment methods, systems, standards and regulations. The Amadeus’ post about orchestrating AI uses the ongoing retail transformation of the airline industry to illustrate fragmentation.
Airlines who’ve got the memo are at different stages of their NDC and Offers and Orders digital transformation. At the same time, many carriers are reluctant to kill off the EDIFACT standard. Fragmentation exists within individual airlines, compounded by fragmentation across the 700+ commercial airlines operating today.
Across hotels, it’s very much the same picture. And even more so when you layer on top the eight million live property listings on Airbnb. There are tens, if not hundreds of thousands of ground and sea transportation providers. Millions of businesses who could self-identify as an attraction or experience.
The fragmentation is vast. AI is only part of the answer because even when you’ve aggregated everything so that it can be scaled, it needs to be delivered to the traveler (and paid for) and executed in the real world. This takes commitment, investment and experience.
Building trust with artificial intelligence
I never got round to digitizing my notes from the 2010s, so I can’t tell you which exec from which airline at which conference, when asked about “trust”, said something along the lines of “we put people in an aluminum tube with thousands of gallons of highly flammable material and launch them halfway round the world at 600 miles an hour 30,000 feet in the air…that’s trust for you…”.
This base level of trust has been built up over the decades. But trust in the age of AI harks back to the early days of online travel – travelers are concerned about the choices presented, payment details, security, privacy, service. OTAs,GDSs, brand dotcoms have helped alleviate these concerns on the legacy web, but AI is bringing these back to the fore.
However, e-commerce was a slow burner relative to the mainstreaming of AI. Phocuswire reported recently on an Accenture study, referencing the headline finding that “more than half of travelers are ready for artificial intelligence (AI) agents to plan and book entire trips”.
According to Amadeus’ research in Connected Journeys, traveler preferences are evolving rapidly, shaped by both technological innovation and a renewed appreciation for meaningful experiences. One of the most notable shifts is the growing use of AI in trip planning – up 64% globally year-on-year. Travelers are also increasingly open to using AI assistants during their trips to help them make the most of their time. Phocuswire’s own research was less bullish on the current adoption rates, but the numbers still show that, despite the concerns, travelers are already seduced by the promise of AI and seem prepared to trust it.
So, the challenge around trust for the industry is how to change the tires while the car is not only moving, but accelerating fast. Besides any AI-native consumer regulations, the industry should consider responsibility across all touchpoints to make sure that hard-earned trust in travel is not compromised by AI-generated inaccurate hotel descriptions, misleading pricing, confused availability, compromised credit card details and more. Travel tech should be able to do the same for AI.
Artificial intelligence collaboration, innovation and orchestration
As Amadeus often says, no single player can address challenges alone and the true benefits will be realized through collaboration – be that AI or transforming travel in its entirety. Amadeus has invested heavily in AI, recently acquired New York-based SkyLink, an AI-first orchestration and conversational automation specialist.
AI has emerged within an enterprise tech landscape when partnerships and collaborations are the norm. Before the cloud era, the legacy web was dominated by closed, proprietary systems where companies were communicating using rigid standards. The arrival of cloud technology changed that paradigm, proving that businesses could grow and innovate without having full control over every single process and function.
Cloud-enabled open systems became the modus operandi of most major technology providers, Amadeus included. Open APIs, supported by the cloud, became the driving force for digital transformation in travel. Cloud-enabled systems matured into cloud-native, then along came the latest iterations of AI and we are now in a world where AI-enabled innovation and collaborations to leverage the potential of AI are the norm.
But all of this is predicated on partnerships, and partnerships need to make commercial sense.
Travel is a growing sector with no sign of slowing down. Global visitor numbers and international arrivals are projected to increase, more airports are being built, cruise lines expanding, new source markets and destinations emerging. Demand for travel is high, and as this continues, partnerships and collaborations continue to make sense.
Final thoughts on the orchestration of travel artificial intelligence – for now
If anything, the current iterations of AI – generative and agentic- have laid bare the layers of complexity in travel, and the pressing need for technology suppliers to address fragmentation, build trust and embrace collaboration. Amadeus outlines its approach to these three pillars, individually and as a whole, in their recent blog post, How Amadeus is orchestrating AI for the benefit of the travel industry.
As fragmentation becomes more extreme, trust is under threat. Doubling down on collaboration is perhaps the most important consideration as we welcome 2026: no one is going to go it alone.
Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are solely of contributing editor, Martin Cowen, and do not necessarily express the views of Amadeus.
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