The pilot scheme got under way on Monday (17 November) at just shy of 20 Hays agencies and will be available to mainline Hays agencies and members of its independence group by the end of the year.

Hays chair and owner Dame Irene Hays said the new system would be integrated into Hays Travel's iSell platform, on which it is working with Traveltek. The system will pull together information from customer enquiries in a matter a moments, saving agents a job Hays says can take up to half a day.

The launch marks the next step in Hays Travel's AI journey following a nine-month trial in its call centres.

Dame Irene said Hays Travel had now been working for more than two years to integrate AI into its day-to-day operations as the technology becomes more prevalent within the business world – and as consumers become more familiar using AI tools themselves.

'Huge opportunity'

"This whole area is one of the biggest shifts," she said. "It will be like email and digital – we want to embrace it, play with it and understand it."

She cited research showing that in the past year alone, the share of Hays consumers using AI for holiday inspiration has doubled to 8%.

“Before they even walk into a travel agency, customers are likely to know more about a specific destination that they want and I think that is a huge opportunity," said Dame Irene.

As a result, the new AI tech will be trialled in 19 Hays Travel shops, pulling together quotes that not only include hotel and flight options, but the images, videos and maps that really sell a destination at the click of a button.

Dame Irene said: “That would have taken an agent half a day to work through. So the more complicated itineraries become, the more important it is they have that tool.”

She added it would also help Hays grow its long-haul offering where itineraries are more complicated than European beach holidays as the agency seeks to grow this market.

'A different level'

The trial will run for the remainder of the year in the hope any snags can be ironed out in time for it to be introduced to all Hays shops, IG members and homeworkers in time for peaks.

Dame Irene sounded a note of caution, though. “Clearly, we have to be careful," she said. "In January and February, we generate 25% of our annual profit so we’re not going to be messing about with systems that are not going to work.

“Once we have the AI, it’ll take things to a different level and free up our agents’ time for selling rather than researching and trawling through loads of hotels.”

Dame Irene added the new launch is just part of a “several-million-pound” strategy to adopt AI in its operations wherever possible, one that has already given its call centres a massive boost.

Chief operating officer Jonathan Woodall-Johnston said following a nine-month trial, Hays has rolled out a new AI-driven system across all its call centres.

The new system listens to every call received at any centre and provides a full transcript of the conversation within 30 seconds of the phone being put down.

This data can then be used to identify quickly which destinations and suppliers are proving to be popular and spot where the market is moving in moments.

Woodall-Johnston added the technology also monitors how effective each call handler is in doing their job and can identify any skill gaps which need to be remedied.

He said: “It now gives us much more rich data to inform us on training needs. Also through using AI it identifies any common trends we are seeing.”