Travel is one of the obvious examples of how artificial intelligence will transform brand relationships — especially when it comes to customer experience.

When we book a flight and a hotel, shouldn’t our preferences be prefilled and suggestions be made for us instantly? When we get off an airplane, should we really have to wait in line to get our rental car? And don’t get me started about the airport experience.

It’s with good reason that people liken travel to visiting the DMV. On average, it can take up to 16 hours to book a trip, according to Priceline. Gen Z and millennials take even longer.

Three problems lie at the core of today’s antiquated travel experiences:

1. There is a ton of friction that doesn't need to be there. This is due to disparate booking systems that don't work well together, plus rigid processes built from legacy technology. These websites and apps are built using the old constructs of user experience — a rigid one-track approach to organizing boxes, drop-down menus and barely passable search functionality.

2. The visuals are stale. The fact that discovery is boring is truly astounding in the age of Instagram. There is no story, no connection, nothing to trigger that emotional discovery. Travel is an emotional experience. Providers need to make you feel something, to fantasize about all of the great things to come. Instead, you are left frustrated by being asked to enter your frequent flier number for the fourth time.

3. Travel isn't smart. The digital experiences don't know who you are and can't anticipate what you want to do.

Technology can solve all three problems. Now all that’s needed is creativity to be layered on top of it to solve old problems with new customer interactions. Of course, AI will play a big part in this. And I'm not just talking about chatbots. Sure, they’ve become an essential tool that can remove some of the unwanted friction, but the change is going to be much more radical than that.

Full Story: AI Is Transforming Customer Experience. Travel Could Be The First Stop