Escape the noise: Practical tips for AI pilots in travel programs

If you feel overwhelmed by pitches hitting you from every angle (each one promising optimization or cost savings), you are not alone. The AI boom is equally innovative and stressful. So, what does it all mean for your travel program?

Moving from theory to practice is the only way to go. You cannot wait to embrace AI in your program anymore, yet plugging in random AI solutions for the sake of "getting AI" is a disastrous formula. It needs to be a meaningful choice, balanced alongside privacy concerns, data security reviews, and employee adoption.

The clock is ticking, and your time is money. But you can rise to the challenge and guide your program into an AI-powered future with the correct mindset.

Where consumer “fun” meets business function

It is easy to see how AI leverages data for regular consumers: generating meal plans to build muscle, analyzing bank accounts for spending trends, or speeding up informational searches. Just like these consumer examples, using AI in a travel program boils down to convenience.

AI Use Cases

Consumer	Business
Generating meal plans	Creating a complex trip itinerary
Analyzing bank accounts	Analyzing program data to identify savings opportunities
Speeding up searches	Seeking clarity on travel policy parameters for a stakeholder presentation

In corporate travel, these use cases fall into four categories:

Duty of Care: Identifying safety trends and automating emergency communications.
Booking & Content: Analyzing traveler behavior to serve up policy-compliant content.
Data & Reporting: Identifying trends without poring over spreadsheets.
Policy Management: Sending timely notifications to stop policy drama before it starts.

Putting principles into practice: AI in travel

Travel AI needs to work well in context, wherever the traveler or the travel manager is in their workflow. This is called an ecosystem approach. Sophisticated programs will seamlessly communicate with the TMC's AI, sharing context in real time, AI agent to AI agent.

This was the inspiration for our “horizontal AI” approach for Sam Intelligence, the AI-powered support that wraps around every action across the FCM digital experience. With Sam, valuable insights don’t “fall in between the cracks” because, instead of siloed AI verticals, our AI is “horizontal” across all systems. Sam isn’t just a chatbot; it’s an ever-present assistant embedded in all your booking, reporting, and duty of care needs.

When FCM’s customers interact with Sam, they are getting:

Real-time safety & risk alerts that integrate with duty of care protocols
Streamlined booking and trip management
On-demand reporting & analytics
Policy guidance delivered in context
Seamless handoff to live human agents when situations get complex

The main difference: All of these features are accessed with natural language – ask Sam for what you need as if you were asking a coworker:

May I upgrade this flight?
What is my company’s meal per diem for London?
Pull me a list of all my travelers currently in Singapore
Are there any active alerts for Buenos Aires?
What are the best flights for my trip to Madrid next week?

Sam was crafted to provide FCM customers (travel managers, bookers, and travelers alike) with enhanced support, personalized and relevant recommendations, and sharper analytics and insights, without clicking through multiple menus and dashboards.

Ready for takeoff: Implementing AI successfully

Determining how to manage AI integrations in your travel program comes down to knowing what to own and what to outsource.

Ask yourself these three questions before you start:

What matters the most?
What takes the most time?
How much bandwidth is available?

If you’re struggling to answer these questions, try considering your organization’s value propositions (what matters to the business) and core competencies (what the business is focused on). These will help you “stay in your lane” and focus your AI goals for your program.

We know, pressure from stakeholders to show AI progress is real. However, spending time and resources on solutions that do not align with your program goals will only create more pressure later.

Confronting the ugly truth: Why pilots fail

Successful AI pilots require clear goals, support, and attainable KPIs. Sounds simple enough, but here are why most pilots never reach altitude:

Unclear Buy-in

Think of an AI pilot like a sports team. Without fans, the team cannot exist. AI implementation affects the CFO (cost), CHRO (employee impact), CEO (smooth operations), and travelers (support). You need to personalize messaging to these stakeholders and be clear about the support required.

Unclear Vision

If the only reason for the pilot is a "need" to do AI, results will elude you. Instead, treat the AI pilot as a brand with a mission statement. Define your own mission statement and craft your program’s AI pilot and procurement around this goal.

Unclear KPIs

Piloting AI will take time, money, and resources. You need to determine how to measure success in a way that supports your efforts and validates your goals. Explore popular KPIs like user acceptance ratings, net promoter scores, 30/60/90-day benchmarking, and time savings.

Unclear Expectations

It feels like magic when AI crafts the perfect email, and it is easy to think it can replace entire job functions. But travel? Travel is a human experience, and travelers feel safer when they know people are looking out for them.

“Giving your team access to ChatGPT and calling that an “AI Pilot” is not going to cut it. To be successful, it needs to be deeply embedded in and change the behavior and outcomes of the value-generating activities. It needs to be strategic, integrated, and transformative.”

Daniel Senyard, SVP Commercial Platforms & Innovation, Flight Centre Travel Group

Meet your match: Reviewing TMC AI readiness

A Travel Management Company (TMC) is the oil keeping the travel program machine running. Naturally, travel managers expect them to take on some AI responsibilities. Here is how to assess a TMC’s AI competence:

Booking: Does it offer AI-enhanced search that learns from program patterns? Look for fewer, but better, results tailored to the individual traveler.
Back-End Streamlining: Is it routing service requests efficiently so human experts focus on high-value interactions?
Traveler Support: Expect 24/7 AI assistants for common questions, with seamless hand-offs to humans for complex issues.
Reporting: AI should transform raw data into actionable insights, identifying anomalies that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Disruption Management: When things go wrong, AI should pinpoint affected travelers and suggest alternatives instantly.

Assessing solutions: Proprietary vs. third-party

It is vital to know if a TMC’s solution is built in-house or is integrated from third-party vendors. With proprietary tech, the TMC controls the roadmap, meaning client feedback has a direct impact. Third-party solutions introduce questions regarding data sovereignty. Can your partner ensure that your proprietary travel data isn't being used to train a public model? Who actually owns the insights and analytics generated from your program's data?

These questions are real concerns, which is why FCM chose to design Sam in-house to maintain complete governance over our clients’ data, user interactions, and feedback loops. This lets us bring features to market that our customers actually want, faster.

That said, third-party solutions aren’t inherently “bad”. You just need to ask the right questions about how they’ll serve your program’s goals.

Prep your next RFP with these AI-ready questions.

When you need to get the nitty-gritty details on your TMC’s AI capabilities go beyond surface level in the next RFP, QBR, or demo meeting with these tailored questions.

Tech & Security:

Are solutions proprietary, white-labeled, or resold?
How do you train and improve models over time?
What data security and privacy measures are in place?

Feedback Loops:

How do you collect and incorporate user feedback?
What is the process for addressing AI errors or hallucinations?
Do you provide performance analytics on AI tool usage?

ROI:

What is the pricing model (per user, transaction, or flat fee)?
What measurable outcomes have other clients achieved?

Where to start

Successful programs approach AI strategically: with clear goals, strong buy-in, and a commitment to improvement. But before racing to start the next initiative, remember:

Start with goals, not technology. What problem are you actually trying to solve?
Secure stakeholder buy-in early. Your CFO, data security team, and travelers care about different things.
Set clear, measurable KPIs. “Having AI” is not a success metric!
Invest in change management. The most sophisticated AI in the world fails if nobody uses it.
Think in terms of ecosystems, not just tools. How does this integrate with what the company already has?

The AI boom isn’t slowing down, and the pressure to “do something” with AI isn’t going anywhere. You need a thoughtful approach that aligns with what your program needs - not just chasing the next shiny tool that lands in your inbox.

FCM developed Sam with these principles in mind; it’s purpose-built for any corporate travel program and powered in-house to maintain data governance. It’s designed around what the customers actually need: enhanced support, personalized recommendations, and sharper analysis, without the data concerns that come with third-party integrations. Whether you're evaluating Sam or any other AI solution, use the frameworks in this article to cut through the noise. Remember that the goal isn’t just about having AI in your program. The goal is to have a better program, period.

To learn more about how Sam can optimize your travel program:

Reach out to the FCM team today