Artificial intelligence – AI – has been one of the biggest topics of discussion this year – both within the travel industry and the wider world.

Inspiretec will use this year’s WTM London to launch its new travel agent booking system, the Agent platform, today (Tuesday 7 November).

Jon Pickles (right), chief revenue officer, said the travel technology firm has created the new system to empower agents by providing easy access to a vast array of travel options. With Your Co-op Travel and The Midcounties Co-operative already signed up to use the software, he’s now looking for more agents to come onboard.

Pickles said: “We have a rich pedigree in the retail travel market historically, having powered more than 12,000 agents and between 70% and 80% of UK travel agencies with TravelCat.

“We were the leader in travel retail software, and we are so excited to build on this expertise with the official launch of our new platform, Agent.”

He added the new system was created because travellers increasingly demand more for their holidays and, in turn, place increased responsibility on travel agents. It’s designed to search for options, import third-party bookings, customise itineraries and confirm bookings in a few clicks to simplify the booking process.

The data is kept secure via a private cloud-hosted PaaS (Platform as a Service), which also helps to streamline both booking management and payment processing. The platform also lets agents access customer bookings, insights and preferences instantly, regardless of whether they are in a call centre, travel agency or working remotely elsewhere.

Pickles elaborated: “Travel agents are trusted advisors, always there, providing expert guidance, personalised recommendations and help if something goes wrong. 

“We felt the industry really needed a new solution to address the challenges many agents experience when having to rekey bookings and manage multiple booking systems, customer data and complex commission reporting and supplier payments.”

INCORPORATING AI

The Agent system has also incorporated AI, which has grown rapidly in the last year with the aim of making travel agents even more effective.

“We believe AI can be used to support agents rather than replace them,” said Pickles. “We have seen success using Chat GPT to speed up our manual processes internally and have also implemented AI-powered features into our new content-rich quote builder module.”

He added AI will also be used in the system to recommend holidays as well as creating content for destinations.

Pickles said Agent’s other attraction is its simplicity to install, and added: “There isn’t a platform like Agent already in the market. There are alternative tools travel agencies can use and generic CRMs, but many of these are complex and expensive to set up, especially for the travel industry, and would also need to be integrated with other systems which require technical skills and come with additional time and cost [issues].”

Pickles added that, following Your Co-op’s decision to sign up for the system, Inspiretec staff have worked hard to incorporate it across Your Co-op Travel’s 67 stores in the UK. He’s confident more agents will sign up for it, once they have experienced it first-hand at WTM London.

Following the Agent system launch at WTM London, the team has no intention of sitting still as they continue to develop their systems on behalf of all their clients.

“For 2024 we have an exciting roadmap for our travel platform, adding exciting new features based primarily on the feedback we receive from our customers and using our deep knowledge of the travel industry; we aim to make the end-to-end buying and servicing process more streamlined,” said Pickles.

“We have customers globally, from big-name tour operators to niche luxury travel brands, retail consortia and homeworkers. 

“Our key focus is to help tour operators and large retail agencies with luxury and tailor-made, tours, dynamic packages, and groups, but we do have customers on our travel platform in many travel verticals, including cruise, camping, caravanning, and sports and activities.”