From inspiration to unexpected delays, François-Xavier Kobilinsky, senior vice president, airlines, Amadeus APAC, highlights how AI orchestration is transforming the travel experience across Asia-Pacific
Ask a traveller here in Asia-Pacific how they feel about letting AI help plan their next holiday, and the answer today is very different from the one you would have heard a couple of years ago. Curiosity has quietly become habit.
That tallies with what we are seeing at Amadeus. In a recent study, we found that 40 per cent of travellers are open to AI booking travel for them, similar numbers welcome its ideas on where to go, and more than half want its recommendations on where to eat once they arrive. And it is not only travellers leaning in – our latest report on Agentic AI shows airlines around the world are already weaving the technology into retailing, servicing and behind-the-scenes work such as revenue management, with the technology presenting strong use cases across various functions.
So, the appetite is clearly there. The more interesting question for airlines is not what AI can automate, but how it changes the passenger experience at every stage of the journey. Where can we add real value along the way? Let me walk you through one.
Inspiration
Imagine scrolling through social media one evening and an island catches your eye – turquoise water, a quiet beach, exactly the kind of escape you have been daydreaming about. You tap the image and you’re provided with a handful of ways to get there, each one bookable in a click. You are not ready to commit tonight, but the idea lodges itself in the back of your mind.
Planning and booking
A week later you still can’t shake that idea. So, rather than consulting a number of different websites, you provide an overview of what you have in mind to an AI assistant:
“Plan us a week-long family trip during the school holidays to an island in Thailand – temperatures above 30°C, with some cultural things to do. Our son is nine and our daughter six, and they both love the water. I am a keen scuba diver. Our budget is modest, and we would prefer to fly to and from Tokyo.”
Within moments, the assistant suggests a tailored destination and lays out a complete itinerary, a suitable hotel, activities the whole family can enjoy, and flight options to match. You book a flight connecting through a regional hub natively within the same interface – from the airline, not the AI company.
In making the booking, you notice the recommended hotel sits right beside one of the island’s largest reefs, which is perfect for diving. You book it all through the airline without ever leaving the chat; the assistant sends a secure payment link, and you settle up with Apple Pay.
Pre-trip servicing and destination recommendations
A few weeks on, life happens. A friend’s birthday means you need to shift your dates, a change that used to mean an afternoon lost on hold trying to speak to a customer service agent. This time you call the airline and, instead of a queue, an AI voice agent picks up straight away. A short conversation later, it lays out your options, you choose one, and it rebooks the flights and hotel and initiates payment for the difference in cost.
Three weeks before you fly, the airline’s AI assistant invites you to start planning what to do once you are there. You browse a few options near your hotel, then chat your way to adding a scuba session and a boat trip to a neighbouring island.
On the day – journey management
It’s departure day, and the airport is heaving. The good news is the operations team saw it coming: their AI has been watching transport data and opened every self-service bag drop they have. Even so, the traffic was heavy and you are cutting it fine.
Bags dropped, you clear the biometric gates and make a dash for the gate. If that part sounds like science fiction, it is not; it is already happening on our doorstep. Since late 2024, Changi Airport in Singapore has let travellers clear immigration on facial and iris recognition alone, no passport in hand, trimming the average clearance from 25 seconds to 10. As someone who travels frequently out of Singapore, I have seen first-hand how quickly this has become part of the everyday airport experience. And Changi is not an outlier. A growing number of airports across the region are increasingly adopting biometric technology to make the journey faster, more seamless and less dependent on physical documents.
Back to our story: the gate agent was alerted the moment you cleared security and has held the gate open for you.
The whole family makes it aboard, but a delay on the tarmac leaves you with a tight flight connection ahead. It is now that you appreciate being seated right by the door. That was not luck: your airline’s AI noticed the short connection and seated you there on purpose.
You land, and your bag does not. Before you have even reached the Lost & Found desk, you receive a notification from the airline’s app:
“We are sorry – your bag has been mishandled. Don’t worry, we will have it at your hotel by 17.00 today, and we have upgraded your return flight for the inconvenience.”
While you wait, the assistant checks in again:
“Looks like you need to get from the airport to your hotel; it is about 10km. Shall I arrange a transfer?”
“Yes please, the first option is fine.”
“Booked. Head to the pick-up point, directions below.”
And once you are home, the assistant is back in touch but not to sell you something. Simply to ask whether you enjoyed the trip, and to offer complimentary lounge access to make up for the luggage delay. You accept and opt in to the occasional AI-curated suggestion for where to go next.
Where we come in – helping the industry orchestrate the journey
By all accounts, this trip was not smooth. There were changes, rebooking and a fair bit of disruption along the way. Today, those moments are exactly the ones that test a traveller’s patiently – the long holds, the repeated explanations, and the hours that disappear. AI has become superb at addressing these challenges and providing recommendations. Increasingly, we are seeing travellers turn to AI more actively, and that enthusiasm sometimes raises real questions of cost efficiency and accuracy, the two things that ultimately determine whether they can trust what they are told.
A friend of mine was recently pointed to a restaurant by an AI assistant, only to turn up and find it had closed down. That gap is exactly where a platform like Amadeus adds value, making sure the information behind each recommendation is accurate and up to date. None of this replaces the warmth of good service, it protects it.
The future of travel will not be defined by AI alone, but by how well the industry applies it to create journeys that are more connected, intuitive and trusted. Trust is everything for the customer, and I believe nowhere has the appetite to build that future clearer, or closer, than here in Asia-Pacific.
