AI can make mistakes.
TMCs can’t afford to.

Laura King, Director of New Business Development, Americas, explains why AI won’t replace TMC consultants, where it can create the most value, and what it will take for the industry to trust AI with more of the travel experience.

AI can surface options in seconds, but business travel is shaped by constant change. The challenge is not simply applying policies and preferences, but applying judgment to balance traveler needs, business priorities, and evolving circumstances. There’s rarely a perfect answer, only the best answer for a particular traveler, company, and situation.

For travel management companies (TMCs), that complexity is compounded by fragmentation across technology, content, and data. Disconnected systems often slow servicing, slow servicing frustrates travelers, and the extra effort means more people are needed to manage the process, driving costs and putting pressure on margins. And the market is making it worse: AI and automation are reshaping expectations, experienced agents are retiring, new hires expect simpler tools, and digital disruption, industry consolidation, and supplier distribution changes are increasing competition and commercial complexity.

In my view, that’s where AI can help, not by replacing consultants, but by removing routine, time-consuming tasks, surfacing relevant information faster, and enabling agents to deliver greater value where their expertise and judgment matter most. But powerful AI models alone aren’t enough. AI needs reliable data, connected workflows, and the context behind each corporate travel program. In other words, it needs an intelligent infrastructure that connects data, content, and workflows, helping TMCs unlock the benefits of AI without losing the human expertise and trust at the center of the travel experience. When those foundations are already in place, adopting AI becomes far simpler and faster.

When plans change, people matter

Plans change. Meetings move. Flights are delayed and canceled. Travelers need support. That’s when a TMC’s value shows: expertise and empathy, right when travelers need them most.

Think about a canceled flight. We've all been stuck on a flight, and you find out it's being canceled. If you can reach an agent right before everyone else gets off the plane and goes to the airline desk, you have a much better chance of getting a seat on the next flight, getting out sooner, or seeing what other options are available, or just not standing in line. When disruption happens, speed matters, and that’s where AI can make a huge, meaningful difference.

By surfacing options and cutting research time, AI helps a consultant act faster and with more confidence. The result isn’t less human involvement; it’s more time for human empathy and expertise.

THE CUSTOMER VIEW: FOX WORLD TRAVEL

Beth Marino, Chief Operating Officer at Fox World Travel, sees the biggest opportunity in the same place, and Fox’s figures agree.

Fox World Travel estimates that "20-30% of all bookings are changed at some point post-booking, and that's approximately 80% of what our consultants spend their time on."

For Beth, that’s where AI can deliver the greatest value:

AI's biggest opportunity isn't selling travel or booking a simple transaction. It's really managing the travel after the booking takes place.

Beth Marino, Chief Operating Officer at Fox World Travel

Booking a straightforward trip is only one part of the job. Beth says the complicated cases are where TMCs shine.

"Exchanges, refunds, disruptions, complex bookings. That's an important reason why business travel clients work with a travel management company. It's probably the most significant portion of our value proposition — how efficient and accurate we are with the corner cases."

Beth sees exchanges as one of the clearest opportunities for technology to improve both efficiency and customer experience.

"A more smooth, more accurate, and more efficient exchange experience… It's an opportunity for us to shine in the eyes of our customers."

As AI reshapes the travel industry, corporate travel buyers expect their TMCs to have a consultative approach, to understand their needs, and help them navigate complexity. That starts with a technology partner that listens closely, understands their priorities, and helps them stay ahead in a fast-changing industry. Fox World Travel has been a Travelport customer for 48 years, and Beth says Travelport does both:

We do believe that Travelport will be ahead of the curve in a lot of ways, and I know we're truly listened to…

Beth Marino, Chief Operating Officer at Fox World Travel

At Travelport we believe that listening only matters if it leads to action. Feedback from TMCs like Fox World Travel continues to shape our product roadmap, including investments in exchanges. That’s why we’re developing Enhanced Exchanges for Smartpoint Cloud, extending automation across more exchange scenarios to help TMCs deliver faster, more efficient service.

The foundation for better servicing

Fox provides a practical example of what happens when connected data is applied to everyday workflows. Over the past year or so, the team has connected its phone, profile, and Travelport data feed. When a customer calls, the consultant immediately sees who they are, which company they’re with, and which reservations they have on file. The result wasn’t just a better call. It was a shorter one.

We're saving more than three minutes at the beginning of those calls… That's a tremendous percentage of your overarching call handle time.

Beth Marino, Chief Operating Officer at Fox World Travel

It isn’t AI yet, but it’s the foundation that AI builds on. Better servicing often starts with connecting existing data, and workflows you already have, with a consultative technology partner, not with buying new technology.

AI doesn't mean starting over

For TMCs, adoption of AI doesn't necessarily mean replacing existing systems. Beth’s view of where AI should live is clear:

For many Travelport customers, that workspace is Smartpoint. Behind the scenes, Travelport is already applying AI, and automation within Smartpoint. The Content Curation Layer helps agents prioritize relevant options faster and surface opportunities that might otherwise be missed.

Productivity Automator lets TMCs create automation rules using simple commands, reducing repetitive work like involuntary changes, lowering servicing costs, and helping drive more revenue per trip. Through MyTravelport, agents can use Travelport’s AI-powered assistant to quickly find operational information and support content. With Cognizant and Anthropic, Travelport is also exploring how intelligent technology can take on more of the manual work in servicing, including exchanges and rebooking.

TMCs don’t need to build their own AI solutions or move immediately to an API-first model to benefit from AI. Travelport’s intelligent infrastructure already gives them a strong foundation to improve program control, reduce leakage, protect revenue, and deliver better traveler outcomes by bringing together fragmented content, workflows, and data. For agencies looking to build their own API workflows, TripServices provides a path toward more connected, API-led operating models while maintaining a consistent approach to automation and AI.

Trust needs more than intelligence

I use AI to research my own trips, but never to book them. Being quick, responsive, and intelligent isn’t enough. There still needs to be a human who is accountable.

That accountability matters because AI can make mistakes, and the TMC is who the traveler counts on when it matters. In business travel a mistake can affect cost, compliance, traveler well-being, and company policy. Trust also depends on more than AI itself. It needs reliable data, connected systems, and the ability to combine information from multiple content sources.

Beth agrees that trust in AI needs to be earned, not given. 

AI can provide information and guidance, but consultants need to remain as the decision maker:  

"It can contribute to high-stakes situations with data, information and guidance. But we still need an agent to come in and say: yes, this complex change can be done.”

What this means for TMCs 

For TMCs facing margin pressure, AI’s value will be measured by outcomes, not model sophistication: lower cost to serve, faster servicing, faster onboarding, and better traveler experiences, with consultants in control when judgment matters.

Faster onboarding matters as experienced consultants retire, an issue that gets far less airtime than AI or NDC. People don’t go to travel school as they did back in the day, so where are we going to get agents from eventually, and how are we going to recruit?

Fox has been answering that question for a decade, training new hires from customer service and technology backgrounds. It was one of the first to adopt Smartpoint, in 2016, and Beth says Smartpoint’s consumer-style interface shortened that road, making getting up and running on the basics “much faster.”

Servicing is exactly why TMCs are needed and will always be needed. It’s where I think AI can have the greatest and quickest impact.

The real value in business travel isn’t proven when everything goes according to plan. It’s proven in what happens when it doesn’t.

This standalone blog complements the five-part blog series exploring how AI is transforming travel. To catch up on all the AI blogs, check out the AI hub.