When to use AI, and when to avoid it

Are you ready for call volume to go to zero?

Calls from business travelers to their TMC travel agents are about to go to zero.

Disruptive innovation creates inevitable shifts in consumer behavior, and companies must adapt to this rather than trying to cling to the past.

Expedia replaced the traditional consumer travel agency. ChatGPT is replacing Google searches. StackOverflow, once a central part of many developers' workflow, is fading into irrelevance as developers use AI to answer their questions.

AI agents that can have painful phone calls for you provide a concierge-level customer service experience that was previously only available to VIPs.

Altostratus AI is the first to offer an AI agent with this capability, but it's inevitable that OpenAI, Google, and likely Apple will introduce similar functionality at some point. When that happens, TMCs should expect travelers to use their AI agents instead of TMC agents when something goes wrong on their trip. Suddenly, TMC call volume accelerates towards zero.

Don't believe it? Try it out, this future is available today. Track your next flight with Altostratus AI. When your flight is canceled, as many are these days, you'll immediately get a text from Altostratus AI asking if you would like assistance in rebooking. Reply "Yes", and it will call your airline to get you on the soonest available flight.

That's a lot less friction than lining up at the United Airlines customer service desk, or calling your TMC only to be put on hold because an executive called in with a flight cancelation that needs attention. Once Altostratus AI-like technology is widespread, no one will bother calling their TMC anymore.

The impact on TMCs If your call centers are only an expense and don't generate any revenue, this may be a positive development for your business. Travelers won't be staying within your managed technology ecosystem, but at least you won't have to take their calls when something goes wrong.

If you do care about keeping travelers within your managed ecosystem, you have one option: provide an even better traveler experience than what a consumer AI can offer.

TMCs are well positioned to offer this, since you already have your travelers' flight details. You don't need to wait for a traveler to reach out to you. At the consumer level, your Google AI or ChatGPT doesn't have your flight details. When your flight is canceled, you still need to actively ask it to fix your flights for you.

When there's a problem, your TMC AI should reach out to the traveler and offer to help. Proactive customer service provides the lowest friction path to solving the traveler's problem, and only a service which already knows what flight you're on is capable of providing this.

Once one TMC offers proactive AI traveler support, every other TMC will need it to compete. AI powered customer support provides a superior traveler experience at a drastically lower cost. A TMC relying on a global team of travel agents simply won't be competitive on either price or service.

The quick path to staying relevant: bad title. Altostratus AI enables this. It integrates at the API level to into your existing travel infrastructure and provides a fast way for TMCs to modernize their service with AI. When your traveler's flight is significantly delayed or canceled, reach out automatically to ask if they would like any assistance. Travelers will receive better service than they have ever experienced with a human, and TMCs can offer this at scale at a lower cost than ever before.