Today at VivaTech in Paris, I had the opportunity to hear first-hand how AI is set to transform the travel industry, directly from three industry leaders: Henri Giscard d’Estaing, President of Club Med; Ariane Gorin, CEO of Expedia Group; and Sébastien Bazin, Chairman and CEO of Accor.
Each shared a compelling and distinct vision of how artificial intelligence is reshaping travel, not just by streamlining operations, but by fundamentally reimagining the customer experience.
While their approaches differ, shaped by the unique nature of their businesses, customers, and strategies, a few common threads emerged. Most notably, all three see AI as a catalyst for both operational efficiency and a radical shift in customer expectations.
From Efficiency to Experience
All three CEOs agreed that AI is helping streamline operations and reduce friction across the travel journey, from optimising pricing and inventory to automating customer service. But more importantly, they highlighted that the true power of AI lies in how it will redefine the traveller’s experience.
The future they outlined isn’t just about speed, it’s about deeper personalisation. Experiences will be tailored in real time to each individual’s needs, behaviours, and preferences. This shift goes beyond efficiency; it’s about creating emotionally resonant, highly curated journeys that feel uniquely personal.
It also has major implications for how companies think about loyalty. Instead of one-size-fits-all rewards, AI will enable dynamic, relevant, and timely offers that build stronger emotional connections and keep customers coming back.
Still, it’s worth remembering that loyalty is about more than just personalisation — it’s also built on trust, consistency, and service reliability. As AI-enhanced personalisation becomes more sophisticated, it will be interesting to see how these two forces — curated experiences vs. earned loyalty — compete in the minds of travellers deciding where to book, stay, or fly.
Accor vs. Expedia: Two Complementary Visions
It was particularly interesting to hear the contrast between the CEOs of Accor and Expedia, two giants in the travel space but with very different models and priorities.
Accor, as a global hospitality brand, is focused on brand loyalty and emotional connection. They’re using AI to deepen relationships with returning guests, personalise offers, and enhance the on-property experience — from check-in to amenities to post-stay engagement. For them, the goal is to ensure that loyal customers feel seen, understood, and consistently delighted.
Expedia, on the other hand, operates as a platform, aggregating hotels, flights, car rentals, and more. This puts them in a unique position to leverage AI for end-to-end journey orchestration. They spoke about using AI to anticipate the needs of a traveller from the moment they begin planning a trip to the moment they return home, stitching together experiences across different providers into one coherent and personalised flow. Their opportunity lies in becoming the intelligent layer that connects the entire travel ecosystem.
It will be particularly interesting to see how each company continues to leverage its core strengths, Accor’s direct relationship with guests and Expedia’s platform-wide visibility. As all three leaders made clear, having the right data and customer trust is critical to tailoring experiences at scale, and the way each business builds on that foundation could shape two very different, but equally powerful, approaches to the future of travel.
Operational Efficiency at Scale: Smarter Resources, Lower Emissions
While personalisation was a central theme, both Club Med and Accor showed how AI is also driving powerful gains in operational efficiency — from staffing to sustainability.
At Club Med, AI is being used to optimise staff deployment based on skills, languages, and guest profiles. Machine learning helps assign the right people to the right roles, allowing HR Business Partners to manage larger teams with greater precision. This not only improves the guest experience but delivers meaningful cost savings.
Accor, meanwhile, is focusing on applying AI to enhance everything from breakfast planning to energy use. By analysing guest flow and consumption patterns, they can better manage food preparation, reducing waste without compromising quality. They’re also using AI to optimise energy consumption across properties, helping to lower emissions and meet sustainability targets.
Both companies also highlighted how AI is streamlining internal processes like content production. Club Med, for instance, developed in-house tools to generate branded copy and visuals that stay true to their identity, achieving a 10x boost in efficiency in those areas alone.
In short, AI is helping travel companies do more with less, smarter staffing, reduced waste, lower emissions, and faster content creation — all without losing the human touch.
AI as an Empowerment Tool — Not a Replacement
Another important point they all emphasised is that AI is not meant to replace people, but to empower both employees and customers. They see AI as a complementary layer, one that equips staff to deliver more attentive, efficient, and personalised service, and enables users to take more control over their journey with smarter tools and interfaces.
This vision of the future is very human-centred: where AI works alongside people, not instead of them. It’s about combining the strengths of technology with the emotional intelligence and judgement that only humans can bring — to create more satisfying, more seamless, and more meaningful travel experiences.
Building a Company Ready for Change
One of the strongest messages — especially from the CEO of Expedia — was the need to build companies that are designed to adapt. The pace of change in technology and customer expectations is accelerating, and success will depend on how fast organisations can evolve.
They all acknowledged that this transformation won’t happen overnight. It will unfold over the coming years, and companies must remain agile, constantly learning, adjusting, and rethinking their approach. AI isn’t a one-time implementation; it’s a strategic capability that needs to be embedded into the culture and processes of the organisation.
For Expedia in particular, this means creating a structure that can flex and scale, one that’s ready for whatever the next wave of change might look like. It’s not just about adopting AI tools; it’s about being built for transformation.
Getting the Fundamentals Right
Another clear takeaway was the importance of nailing the fundamentals today. While AI promises transformative potential, the companies that will benefit most from these advancements are those who already deliver a streamlined, well-designed user journey using today’s technologies.
If a company can’t deliver a good experience now — with tools and infrastructure already available — it will struggle even more to capitalise on the advanced technologies of the near future. There was a strong emphasis on the need to master the basics, eliminate friction, and ensure the digital and human touchpoints work seamlessly together.
In other words: AI can enhance a strong foundation, but it cannot fix a broken one. Getting that foundation right now is the prerequisite for taking advantage of what’s coming next.
The Road Ahead
One of the strongest takeaways from the session was that travel companies must now be built for constant transformation. AI is no longer a future trend, it’s a present force, and its evolution is accelerating. But more importantly, it’s not evolving in isolation. Customer expectations are evolving alongside it, shaped by every interaction travellers have with competing platforms and brands.
To stay relevant, organisations need to embed agility at their core, not as a one-time initiative, but as a way of operating. The leaders of tomorrow will be those who continuously re-evaluate how they serve customers, adapt their technology stack, and empower teams to deliver meaningful, personalised experiences.
In this new landscape, it’s not just about adopting AI, it’s about becoming an organisation that’s designed to evolve fast. One that learns from its customers, iterates fast, and sees every wave of change as an opportunity to get better.
It was energising to hear these perspectives directly from industry leaders, and encouraging to see such clarity about where travel is heading.