Three investors, three bets, one model

At the Skift Global Forum in New York, three of the most influential investors in travel laid out how AI is changing their deals. They are betting differently. I read something else into it: these are three parts of the same model.

1. Greg O'Hara, Certares: AI in the back office of service businesses. A cruise adviser today spends around 75% of their time on research and putting trips together. The target is 5 to 10%.

2. Steve Case, Revolution: AI for curation in the luxury segment. Customers no longer want more choice, they want a partner they trust.

3. Kenneth Chenault, General Catalyst: AI-native buyers taking over traditional service businesses. Long Lake, founded by Alex Taubin and Zach Frankel, is buying Amex GBT and has integrated 30 companies. On the first acquisition, AI integration took six months. On the fifth, three to four weeks.

That last number is the real core of the article. Whoever industrialises integration does not earn on the purchase price. He earns on post-merger integration.

That is exactly what we are building with Voyager AI for the DACH market. All three bets in one system:

• Back office: DMC documents are translated in real time and automatically transferred into the agency's corporate design. An AI concierge looks after travellers around the clock. The adviser gets back to advising.
• Curation: We focus on specialists – luxury, study, experience and themed travel. Individual travel is growing, mass products are shrinking.
• Consolidation: Our software is the platform the market consolidates onto. Agencies facing succession migrate first, increase their value and then grow within the group.

Steve Case talks about a gold rush and a coming shake-out. He is right. The survivors will not be those who sell AI as a feature. They will be those who lift an industry onto a platform.

I have walked this path in FinTech already: ten acquisitions, seven brands, 300 people on one platform. Travel is the next market. Voyager is on the right path – and early.

Original article: PhocusWire, Matthew Parsons