TECHNOLOGY


AI sparks scramble for implementation


AI IS “the buzzword” in technology regardless of the industry, according to Deloitte head of aviation Andy Gauld, who said: “Everyone is scrambling to work out how to use it.” He suggested an analogy with a


decade ago “when everyone was saying ‘We need big data’. I would say, ‘What do you mean by that?’ They would say, ‘I don’t know, but I must need it.’ “Across aviation and travel, all are


trying to understand what AI means for their organisation and where to start. Is it about the customer? Is it around improving operations? Every technology vendor is trying to peddle it. So, it’s a bit of a ‘wild west’. But underpinning everything is the need for good data to feed these models. I’m having conversations with a number of airlines which are trying to work out the place to start and the right use case.” Gauld explained: “AI is about how


to make better decisions to drive better outcomes, using models and data to drive those decisions and outcomes. Historically, we would look at different touchpoints in a process and say, ‘How can we improve it?’ AI is an opportunity to say, ‘Here is my starting point. Here is my end goal. How should the bit in between be different?’ People don’t quite understand that. They see it as about incremental gains rather than


FIGURE 41: £m


100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800


0 Travel agents 2019 Tour operators 2022 Air transport Water transport % change forecast in 2023 Hotels Source: ONS/Travolution 32 Travel Weekly Insight Report 2024 IT SPEND BY UK TRAVEL SECTOR %


10 15 20 25


0 5


Generative AI ‘has the potential to transform any process’ but there is also a need to ‘tread carefully’


fundamentally rethinking a process.” He added: “The game changer has


been the speed of computation. The chips are getting faster and faster, allowing us to process data at a speed we’ve never been able to. We’ve gone through a period when we called this ‘business intelligence’, then ‘performance management’, ‘analytics’ and ‘data science’. Now we’re calling it AI, and generative AI is a sub-division. In five years, we’ll have the next iteration and be saying ‘Wow, what can we do with this?’” Gauld suggested: “This is fundamentally


different in two areas, which the aviation industry will have to grapple with. One is the cultural shift required. AI will challenge perceptions. Second, there are the ethical and security debates around AI and the compliance aspects given the nature of having aircraft in the sky.” His colleague Martin Bowman,


director of aviation digital assets at Deloitte, noted: “Safety and accountability are legal requirements in aviation. The regulatory framework has to evolve and we’re far from that.” Bowman describes AI as “enabling


IT SPENDING is rising across all sectors of the travel industry (Figure 41)


technology” and hailed the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 for “taking the technology conversation into the public domain and bringing it to the fore in business conversations”. He said: “This is a capability that has


the potential to transform everything, any process. So, you wouldn’t go to the most critical areas first but start with low-risk areas. Start with the back office, the call centre, build up knowledge, experience, governance, your risk appetite and risk management.” Gauld agreed: “Introducing AI


into any core processes or systems makes the process potentially more vulnerable. You’re handing processes over to a machine and a machine is vulnerable. You need to tread carefully.” He added: “AI doesn’t have consciousness. These models don’t think. They act on how they have


£529m £192m £596m


£132m £387m


£523m £185m £648m £134m £445m


+21% +21%


+18%


+6% +6%


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