Amadeus: Machine Learning Tops Corp. Agency Investment Priorities

Business travel agencies around the world are showing a "strong appetite" for technology investment, with 91 percent planning at least "moderate" technology investment in their business this year, according to an Amadeus-commissioned survey of 150 agency leaders.

The research, an industry-specific breakout of Amadeus' Travel Technology Investment Trends study, released last month, showed that business travel agencies in Latin America and Africa have the most extensive technology investment plans, with 59 percent of agencies in Latin America and 62 percent in Africa indicating they would invest "aggressively" in technology.

The survey was conducted by market research agency Opinium in the fourth quarter of 2023.

As reported in the survey last month, more than two-thirds of business travel agencies plan to increase their investment in technology this year compared with the previous year, with an average investment increase of 13 percent, according to Amadeus. In Latin America, however, that average planned increase is 16 percent.

Machine learning is one of the key areas of investments for business travel agencies globally, with 42 percent deeming it an important investment over the next 12 months and 49 percent indicating it would be an important investment over the next five years—the highest percentage of any technology for either time period. Data analytics, generative AI, digital payments and cloud computing made up the rest of the top five important investments in the near term; the list for five years out was similar, with extended reality and API-driven innovation replacing cloud computing and data analytics.

The survey also indicated that about half of respondent agencies have made some of the key preparations for managing New Distribution Capability content. Fifty-four percent said they had trained their team for NDC, 49 percent said they have access to a "wide range" of airline NDC content and 48 percent said they have invested to be able to operate with both EDIFACT and NDC in the coming years. A smaller 41 percent said that they had updated mid- and back-office systems for NDC, according to Amadeus.