Travelport launched an AI-powered search, the Content Curation Layer (CCL), which the company said will help travel advisors more quickly target the right options for their clients.
Housed on the Travelport+ platform, the CCL tool uses machine learning and other facets of AI to quickly deliver search results from multiple sources, including low-cost carriers, Edifact, New Distribution Capability, hotels and car rental companies.
"NDC is opening this explosion of offers and making retailing significantly more complex for agencies and consumers," Travelport CEO Greg Webb said. "And so we said, what we need to do is find a way to simplify that in a way that is meaningful. CCL is really this AI layer that simplifies the complexities presented by the ever-growing types of multisource content."
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The Content Curation Layer searches content, then identifies which offers are most relevant for each traveler. According to Webb, relevancy is determined by the AI powering the search tool, which learns from billions of shopping transactions that turn into buying transactions. Conversion rates are a factor, and the CCL is able to determine, for instance, that one particular offer to a destination sells more than others; that would be prioritized in the search display. The system will continue to learn and optimize going forward, Webb said.
Greg Webb
Travelport said the CCL "returns search results faster than the average airline search response time."
Sitting on top of the CCL is the Content Optimizer product, which enables agencies to enact agency-specific rules to tailor search options and results from the AI-powered tool. For instance, an agency might limit airline options to Edifact or NDC channels.
Webb said that ability to customize rules can help agencies maximize revenue.
In the works since last year
The AI product has been in development since last year. Webb said trip search volume has grown "dramatically," a trend he expects to continue. The offers generated by a search can be curated by Travelport or by a supplier, and there is often overlap in those results.
"That's why we had to apply the artificial intelligence component and machine learning component to really enhance our shopping and searching capabilities on the platform," he said. "With CCL now, agents can very quickly, we're talking milliseconds, work through an increasing volume of supplier options that are extremely similar, decipher those incredibly nuanced options and then curate and elevate the most relevant options for their travelers."
In the world of modern retailing, Webb said, the end user wants a product that is simple and easy to use.
"CCL is a really good step for us toward modern retailing because it gets to the place where people are going to say, 'Well, it's just easy,'" he said.