The travel technology journey: five areas to watch in 2018

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak´s current advert for Vodafone sees him talking about the transformative impact of technology on all of our lives, stating “we are now absolutely the kings of a better world”. But what will be the impact of travel technology on our lives in 2018?

Travelers booking their holidays online today really do expect to be ´kings´. They expect a simple, fast and user-friendly experience that covers all the available options whenever and wherever they search, book and pay for a hotel or an activity.

But if there is one thing that develops quicker than technology, it is the expectations that we have of what technology should be able to do.

 

And in 2018 we´ll be expecting a more personalized and predictive service. Here are a list of the five key technologies to keep an eye on this year to understand how the industry is going to meet that challenge:

Artificial Intelligence (AI): this is now a reality. AI organizes and makes sense of large amounts of data and responses are already quicker and more efficient. Voice search or bots are good examples of how far personalization could go.

Voice Search: this is likely to be greatly improved this year through devices such as Google´s Home or Amazon´s Alexa. Voice Search is, as mentioned before, an application of AI. When you do a voice search, an accurate and personalized response is required to give you the most relevant information.  This is when AI and data analytics are crucial in order to provide you with the information needed in milliseconds.

Machine learning: as the name suggests, this is about making systems learn automatically and predict patterns of behavior. Whilst this is an application of AI, its key role is prediction science.

Cloud computing: apart from the evident advantages of storing information on remote servers – such as saving space and providing a safe back-up – cloud computing also offers a reduction of costs, more scalability and flexibility. All good solutions for efficient company growth.

Robotics Process Automation (RPA): the digital age introduces a future in which people will interact continuously with robots (both knowingly, and unknowingly).  RPA solutions learn from business users and assist with simple and repetitive tasks such as transactional activities – these will make workers much more efficient.

In the same Vodafone advert Steve Wozniak also recognizes that “we´re all just beginners in the digital world” and refers to himself as an “intern”. By pushing the boundaries of these five technologies during 2018 could the travel industry perhaps hope to keep one step ahead? The journey starts here.