Robert Meza Speaking at the WIT conference — Photo by webintravel.com/events/wit-2016/

Robert Meza, ZUMATA's Head of Cognitive Solutions and Strategic Partnerships, participated in a panel titled "Resurgence of The Traditional Travel Agent: Is AI The New Threat Or Opportunity?" at the WIT (Web In Travel) 2016 Conference held at the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore on October 18, 2016.

At the heart of the discussion was whether travel agents can effectively use Artificial Intelligence to improve and curate the travel experience for their customers.

Robert Meza was joined by fellow panelists, Sundeep Kumar, Cognitive Solutions, IBM Singapore, Duncan Horton, Group Publisher, Travel Weekly UK, Ken Mishima, Advisor, iJTB, Japan, and Robin Yap, President Asia, The Travel Corporation.

Questions to the panelists mirrored their tremendous backgrounds. Topics that were addressed included:

  • Specific Artificial Intelligence advancements that will benefit the travel agent.
  • How Artificial Intelligence will assist travel agents in relation to (travel) Packages.
  • Traveler behavior in Asia and Europe.
  • The role of insights and data in travel.

Robert Meza highlighted ZUMATA's Natural Language Processing capabilities and its benefits to travel agents. The travel agent understands his or her customer's travel preferences in a way that a booking engine does not. However, most travel spend too much time researching and not actually designing the perfect trip.

With all the data that is produced every day, travel agents (both old and new) cannot know about the nuances of travel offerings all over the world. ZUMATA's Natural Language Processing enables travel agents to search for customized trips based on very specific criteria such as amenities, sentiments, and proximity to landmarks and specific addresses, articles, reviews, social media and blog posts after typing just one sentence.

With ZUMATA's Natural Language Processing advancements, travel agents will be able to receive not just results, but actual insights that are actionable. 

"Our goal is to build A.I. travel solutions to empower travel companies to free up their times to be creative and to give them the insights they need to help them meet the expectations of their customers," said Robert Meza. "ZUMATA's Natural Language Processing technology aims to be a more comprehensive travel offering that will allow travel agents to engage with their customers on a deeper and more personal level."

About ZUMATA:

ZUMATA is the only AI-powered hotel distribution company in the world, delivering consolidated online hotel inventory of over 550,000 properties globally. Beyond consolidated inventory, ZUMATA also delivers leading technology for partners holding their own hotel contracts. Accurate mapping, cognitive computing and significant supplier overlap help b2b partners achieve lower cost prices, decreased reliance on a single supplier, and optimize customer conversions. Founded in 2010, ZUMATA is headquartered in Singapore.