Recap of Skift Data + AI Summit: Legends' Insights

The Skift Data + AI Summit recently convened industry leaders and innovators to discuss the future of travel through the lens of data and AI technologies. As a pioneering force in the travel industry, Legends appreciated the opportunity to attend this summit to both share and gather insights on the most pressing challenges and opportunities faced by the sector. Our participation underscored our commitment to staying at the forefront of technological advancements and validated our position as thought leaders in the realm of AI, data, and travel.

Key Takeaways From The Summit?

Data Foundations and Consumer Focus

Consistent themes included that AI is only as powerful as the data that underlies it and the industry must meet the customer where they are. Drew Pinto at 万豪酒店 , emphasized the essential foundations of digital, tech and data being aligned with top line functions, and the importance of modernizing legacy systems to enhance customer experience. He highlighted Marriott's ambition to become a travel retailer and the integration of various travel services to create a seamless customer journey. His perspective on “think about the customer experience you want and then what data you need to get there” truly resonated given Legends' focus on leveraging data to personalize and improve customer experiences.

Operational Effectiveness and Innovation

Drew Pinto as well as other panelists including Nitin Sood , VP of Digital Innovation at Marriott Hotels , discussed the challenges of scaling AI solutions, the importance of a portfolio mindset with the willingness to experiment and iterate. Gilad Berenstein of Brook Bay Capital, LLC and Chris Hemmeter of Thayer Ventures both discussed the role and opportunity for both incumbents and startups in innovation in the space.?

Driving Revenue Through AI and Data Integration?

Rajesh Naidu, SVP and Chief Architect at Expedia Group , spoke about the transformation achieved through a unified data lake and increased experimentation velocity. He also underscored the importance of clean, accurate data and continuous learning with expanding views of travelers preferences through data. Shane O'Flaherty of 微软 highlighted the challenge of the systems and complexity in travel means it is far behind other sectors in personalization and that the “lowest hanging fruit to drive incremental revenue is knowing your customer better”. Legends ' approach to data integration and AI-driven insights is aligned and focused on the opportunity to optimize conversion and revenue. ?

Protecting Privacy in Data-Driven Travel?

The importance of responsible AI and data usage was a recurring theme, with discussions on maintaining traveler privacy while leveraging data for personalization.?

From Hype to Reality

The opportunity in travel is clear and Gilad Berenstein’s comment that we likely overestimate progress in a year while underestimating what can be done in ten resonated. Many companies presented real use cases and demos leveraging data driven AI ?- from large enterprise players such as Marriott’s Homes & Villa conversational search, Kayak’s Ask Kayak, Expedia’s Romie and newer platforms such as Plum Guide’s content curation and inspection system, Winnow’s waste management focus and Destination Canada’s data collection and quality process.

Legends Highlight: Session on Personalization and Data Sharing

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Legends' Co-founder & CEO, Stephanie Daniel lead a session emphasizing the importance of consumer preference data, as the foundation for the personalization that today's travelers crave, the gaps in our current consumer data ecosystem and the opportunity to unlock zero party data. Stephanie introduced Legends' unique approach with our TravelDNA?? methodology and shared example use cases as well as research that consumers are ready.?

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Key Takeaways

Ideal Personalization: Focused the conversation on a new theme of instant individualization, especially for younger demographics who expect tailored, seamless experiences both online and offline. She highlighted the travel industry's need to shift from transactional models to human-centered approaches and the role of real-time complete traveler preference data and actionable tools to achieve it.

Challenges and Opportunities:? The current fragmentation in the travel industry's data ecosystem was discussed and the limitations of relying on first and third-party data. With the emphasis and urgency of improving data quality, the opportunity presented by zero-party data tools to optimize the conversion window for brands to improve revenue, loyalty and experience are massive.?

Value Proposition and Use Cases: With the ability to empower brands with consented and complete customer data, Stephanie shared example use cases to increase customer lifetime value for hotel loyalty programs and creating efficiencies for travel advisors to quickly qualify/disqualify leads.?

Consumer Readiness: Sharing insights from Legends' own platform and recent data survey, Stephanie validated that consumers are indeed ready for a mutually aligned and incentivized way to engage with brands they trust. In Legends survey, more than 80%? of consumers are willing to share their data in exchange for personalization and rewards, with younger travelers showing a stronger preference for automated methods.

Looking Ahead

Our participation and feedback from the Skift Data + AI Summit validated Legends' approach and we welcome industry participants to please continue to reach out to discuss as we select our next partners.

We are excited by the opportunity to help solve the issues created by the decoupling of the traveler’s expectations with the legacy tech stack of the industry highlighted by Chris Hemmeter of Thayer Ventures . ?

Signup for our newsletter here and reach out to discuss how you could one of our first strategic partners to leverage Legends TravelDNA?? API to power your Zero-Party Data and Personalization strategy.

? 2024 Legends Holding Inc. All rights reserved. Content by Shaina Shiwarski. This newsletter is intended for informational purposes only and may not be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.