OpenAI recently announced a new shopping agent called “Operator,” one of many artificial intelligence agents that will be released from the big tech companies in the next few months.
It is designed to independently perform tasks on behalf of consumers, including one of the most popular activities—online shopping. AI agents will make it easier for consumers to shop for retail products, but they will also be able to better shop for things like new cars, flights, insurance and other items.
Consumers will drive the change, not the companies. They’ll embrace these free online tools far more quickly than any airline can. Consider agents as the mother to all public (internet, documents, Facebook, etc.) and private (emails and social media) search engine, capable of acting on a level of a real assistant. They can read content, understand images, coordinate with personal calendars and select locations and price restrictions, and even apply the right reward options.
This type of search is a superpower, as it can understand millions of data points to prioritize and present offers that are aligned with a shopper’s needs and preferences. It’s a level that airline sites, search engines or aggregators of today could only dream of.
Super-intelligent agents will also have a major impact on the way airlines use dynamic offers. They will uncover a multitude of deals that are personally targeted that marketers never anticipated. Airlines must start working towards a goal of presenting the very best offer in real time across all variables. The future of flight shopping will be boosted by creating a solid data base and optimizing the information for agents.
Airlines must be “agent prepared”
If airlines thought digital airline retailing created fragmentation across retailers and travel agencies, AI agents will feel like the “big bang,” fragmenting online flight shopping almost infinitely. Every agent acts for a unique person, crawling websites and apps to find information in real-time. This is the future for one-on-one retailing. Agents will aggregate, prioritize and recommend offers.
Within a few months every day will be as busy as the busiest shopping days of the year. In this environment of shopping overload, having data to present the most attractive offer is crucial. Ultimately, airlines must focus on data driven dynamic offers that agents are able to easily evaluate and present their shoppers. Airlines can’t become AI-ready overnight, but they must get started by improving their data, technology, and processes. This includes key steps such as:
- Clean, recent data is a prerequisite for agent-ready retailing. AI agents are able to evaluate much more than price, origin and destination, date, time, or even the date. AI can “read” images, loyalty offers, and ancillaries. All of this data must be accurate and easily accessible to provide shoppers with relevant information.
- Set up sites for agents: The new version of SEO is agent optimization. Airlines will need the right information on both their website and aggregator websites to help agents quickly and easily find what they need. It is not yet clear what an “optimized’ offer will look like. Therefore, a process of continuous testing and learning must be implemented.
- Learn to read the traffic: Many airlines and aggregators have technology installed to kick out bots. Airlines will need to be able to distinguish between unwanted crawlers and agents who are shopping on behalf of consumers to ensure they don’t miss out on sales opportunities.
- Be open to dynamic offers. Dynamic offers are essential for agents to provide something they consider relevant. Offers must be based on the history of the shopper and should be competitive not only at price level but at all levels.
Building a new supply chain for the flight retailing industry
As they implement these technical improvements, airlines should also be considering the relationships and business processes that are driving their business. Commercially, airlines must rethink the way they communicate with their customers via every channel. Currently, airlines are used with customers visiting websites or apps. Many consumers are no longer able to shop online. Asking their phone, “Find my best flight to Turkey during spring break in march” will allow them to have it shop for themselves. They can expect to receive perfectly sorted offers based on their unique needs, based on millions data points. The agent experience becomes the interface.
Airlines know their travel agencies and OTAs, but that will also change. Airlines must know who to contact to rank well with anonymous agents and be present. Agents do not simply call a GDS to get a tracking #, even Meta (International Air Transport Association) has an ID. Agents have a much harder time keeping track of their paperwork, and they do not have IDs.
Consider the cautionary example of one airline who did not update its processes after Travelocity and online flight shopping became popular. The airline credited all Travelocity sales to the salesperson in Austin, Texas. This was despite the fact that the sales came from customers all over the United States and were only routed via Travelocity’s Texas data center. The airline didn’t realize it for two years and changed its commission policy to accommodate the online sales. Airlines cannot allow similar issues to occur as AI agents disrupt today’s retail supply chains.
Airlines can’t change overnight, but they must accept that flight shopping is changing. In 2025, the airline industry will witness a dramatic shift in consumer behavior. It is time to learn more about agents, to understand what will be required to optimize the shopping process through agents, and to create a plan for setting up data, technology, and processes to help with the next wave in airline retailing.
