Generative artificial intelligence has been gaining traction in the travel industry for over a year now, but what will the long-term relationship between the industry and AI be?
Lufthansa Innovation Hub (LIH) investigated the investment strategies of 60 companies in the travel industry to find out whether their investments in technology are aligned with the wider interests of the technology industry.
To assess investment levels, the Innovation Hub's research arm TNMT collected investment data for 60 companies in travel and mobility technology, excluding investments in companies that are not based on a specific key technology.
The study covered hospitality, ground transportation, aviation and online travel and found that AI and machine learning accounted for 65% of investment from 2018 to 2023.
Our analysis shows that the focus of AI spans multiple areas, including autonomous driving, predictive analytics, and customer support.
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Investments in AI for customer support have been one of the most prominent areas in recent months, but predictive analytics is increasingly being talked about, especially in aviation.
The TNMT report found that investments in this area are “targeted at companies that use AI and ML algorithms to enhance process optimization.”
The study also found that since 2018, investments in AI have increased by around 60% or more each year.
When it comes to generative AI, TNMT says a few companies are starting to explore its potential.
“To date, approximately 12 notable investments have been made in this area across four major application areas,” the report said.
In addition to customer support, the report also focuses on analytics and fraud detection, industrial and maintenance operations.
TNMT also issued a warning to some AI companies that have received investments, including UrbanFox, which has JetBlue Ventures as an investor in analytics and fraud detection. nlx, used by Copa Airlines for customer support. Spark Cognition has been collaborating with Boeing in the industrial field.
Last year, many travel companies got into AI by acquiring companies outright. Airbnb acquired GamePlanner.ai in November, and Mondee moved into Purplegrids about a week later.