Artificial intelligence has “endless” potential applications to transform business travel but there is a need to “establish governance and structure” over its development, according to FCM’s technology specialist John Morhous.

Morhous, who is the architect of FCM’s technology strategy, said: “AI has the power to enhance intelligence and creativity and insight. This presents us with unprecedented opportunities that extend to every touch point.”

But he added that governance and structure was necessary to allow a “responsible co-existence that prioritises human oversight, where people will continue to provide value that cannot be replaced by software but is, in fact, amplified by it”.

FCM sponsored a showcase session focused on generative AI at Business Travel Show Europe in London on Wednesday (28 June).

The Flight Centre-owned TMC said that AI can help improve corporate travel management in multiple ways, such as creating personalised policy communications, automatically capturing leaked out-of-policy bookings, clarifying and routing travel requests to the best booking channel, and capturing all trip information to save time for agents.

“Generative AI unequivocally has an incredible ability to rapidly perform complex activities in the blink of an eye,” added Morhous, who is Flight Centre Travel Group’s chief experience officer. 

“We predict this will help remove workplace drudgery and supercharge our teams so they can focus on higher value work and personal interaction.”

FCM said it was preparing to “unleash the next stage of game-changing advances to enrich customer experiences and add value”. The company has already piloted a solution to improve hotel data analysis using OpenAI’s platform, including extra information such as hotel quality.

Daniel Senyard, head of FCM Extension, which is a plug-in browser for travellers, added that the integration of ChatGPT and other AI-based technology within the TMC’s products “signifies a seismic shift in our communication abilities”.

“This is an exciting step towards redefining how our industry approaches servicing and dramatically increases the speed at which we can deliver true value to our customers,” said Senyard.