MYTH “The travel industry isn’t very tech-savvy” TRUTH
Andrew Phillips is chief technology officer for Skyscanner, a travel search engine that helps users find deals on flights, hotels and car rentals
eople often assume that it’s just software engineers who use tech, but the truth is that in a business such as Skyscanner, technology is central to all teams. Our technology is our secret sauce:
P
it’s what makes us so successful, and it’s why more than 110 million people use Skyscanner across the world every month. For example, we have an AI assistant that everyone in the company uses to find information. Our tech roles include the likes of product
management, user research and data science. Technology helps us understand what travellers want and allows us to build products and features that address traveller ‘pain points’. It also gives us the ability to iterate
and innovate, so we can predict and solve problems for the future needs of travellers. Achieving this requires a wide range of specialists to work together across projects – so it’s no surprise that more than two-thirds of our 1,400-strong workforce are in tech roles.
“Technology is our secret sauce – it’s what makes us so successful”
As an example, we have several mature AI-powered
services operating at scale in areas such as destination recommendations, flights and hotel rankings. One new tool we’re currently testing explores how
generative AI can be applied to the travel planning journey in our app. This ‘savvy search’ tool helps travellers discover new places, seek out unforgettable experiences and find travel inspiration, all by asking one simple question: What kind of trip is on your mind? This isn’t something our software engineers build in
silos; instead, it’s a collaborative effort that requires skillsets from multiple teams and disciplines across the business.
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takeoffintravel.co.uk
PICTURES: Shutterstock/VK_R, Siberian Art, mentalmind; Eoin Carey
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