business Essential news, comment and analysis


Dr Paul Redmond: ‘It’s not either people or technology, it’s about working together’


Don’t resist AI – embrace it, Redmond to tell Abta 2018


What future for travel agents with Artificial intelligence set to replace jobs? Abta 2018 speaker Dr Paul Redmond spoke to Ian Taylor


Travel businesses need to embrace technology even as artificial intelligence (AI) eliminates jobs and “changes everything”, Dr Paul Redmond of Liverpool University will tell Abta’s Travel Convention in Spain in October.


Redmond will address the


convention in Seville on ‘Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse’ he says AI will bring. The Liverpool


64 travelweekly.co.uk 28 June 2018


University director of student experience wowed last year’s convention when he spoke on the differences between generations. “We see the effect of technology


in a lot of sectors, particularly on white-collar jobs, but I’ll talk about the impact of AI on jobs in travel,” he said. Redmond notes fears about


technology are not new, but said: “There’s been a huge acceleration


in technology since 2007. It is changing everything, and we need to work with it. It’s not either people or technology, it’s about working together – staff and technology.” At the university, he said:


“Technology is changing attention spans. We’re having to engage students differently. It’s a challenge getting them to be in the moment and to notice where they are. “We’re still building lecture


theatres the same as 100 years ago. We’re still running exams. We’re still quite formal, with a history


CONTINUED ON PAGE 62


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72