In a world where Artificial Intelligence is the latest buzzword, almost 74 pc of travel and tourism companies around the world are currently re-working their strategy to incorporate AI and the technological transformation brought upon by generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) has led to an increase of USD 28 billion in global business revenues. 

These were some of the key findings released at an event jointly organised by BigTech firm Google and travel technology provider Sabre. In a press statement, Sabre says that the event was organised to mark four year of its partnership with Google in the domain of AI and Gen AI.

Sundar Narasimham

“The competitive nature of this between leaders who adopt AI technology and people that don’t is growing. Boards across the corporate landscape are recognizing this and investing in AI,” said Sundar Narasimham, SVP, Labs Technology & Platform, Sabre, while opening the session.

He added that travellers wanted the kind of seamless, personalised experiences that have become commonplace in other industries, such as retail. “AI is powering the technology needed to meet those demands, but its algorithms need extensive, robust data sets to be able to do so. This one of the reasons Sabre entered into a strategic partnership with Google in 2020. The key commitment that both companies recognised was that we could come together and use the data and travel-related domain knowledge that Sabre had with the platforms and capabilities that Google Cloud was bringing to bear to the marketplace and, together, innovate in order to provide AI-based, intelligent, personalised experiences to the end traveller,” Sundar said.

He said that Sabre’s strategic partnership with Google has been instrumental in accelerating digital transformation in the travel industry. The collaboration has birthed Sabre Travel AI, which is powering solutions including Sabre’s new Offer and Order platform for airlines, SabreMosaic. 

Sabre is also using AI, and Gen AI in particular to improve customer care and boost innovation cycles with faster coding. Since announcing a strategic partnership with Google in 2020, Sabre has invested in a move to the Google Cloud Platform, and continues to invest in AI-powered innovation. So far, Sabre has migrated over 400,000 CPUs to the cloud, 50 petabytes of data, and 99 pc of its compute capacity. 

Sabre is now moving at an accelerated pace when it comes to creating and going to market with new AI-powered solutions. “Not only are we producing products for the external marketplace, for users that we know can enjoy these products, but increasingly for internal use cases, to improve our own developer productivity as a software company,” Sundar added.

In his address, Garry Wiseman, Chief Product & Technology Officer, Sabre, said Google felt like an extension of Sabre because of the way the two companies were working in ‘true partnership’ with each other.

Garry Wiseman

“At Sabre, we look at the internal and external benefits (of AI), and I also know that our agencies and travel suppliers tend to look at it the same where, internally, there are productivity gains and cost savings, and then externally, when you think about it from a marketing, sales, and service perspective, there are potential improvements for travellers,’’ said Wiseman.

“One of the examples here is where we use Google’s Vertex AI platform for our Sabre Mosaic retail intelligence products that help airlines show the most optimal pricing to travelers, and also effectively help them merchandise their products to help grow the basket size,” he added.

Carrie Tharp

Carrie Tharp, VP of Global Solutions & Industries, Google Cloud, described the collaboration with Sabre as one of Google’s key innovation partnerships, adding that it is accelerating Sabre’s ability to bring new products and services to market. 

“That started with transforming Sabre’s underlying infrastructure and getting it into the cloud, which then revs Sabre’s engine to focus resources and expertise on new use cases and bringing those to market very quickly,” said Tharp. 

“This is an industry that has gone from having an individual travel agent, a person you could call to guide you through the whole travel journey, to the advent of platforms where you could book it all yourself, to now almost coming full circle where we are using technology to bring back a lot of that service level and the personalisation that the consumer craves,” she added.