Data is in the limelight — again. Similar to the “big data” phenomenon that gripped the travel industry a decade or so ago (“one of the fastest growing and most talked about technology trends,” observed Phocuswright analyst Bob Offutt back in 2012), today the wealth of artificial intelligence (AI) applications has brought it back into focus.
But this time around it’s all about cleaning and standardizing this abundance of data, as the travel industry shifts towards the use of AI agents. The nirvana is for these agents to make decisions without human supervision in the future; but they’ll only succeed if they are trusted. And for that they need accurate data.
Experts also argue “cleaner” data is needed for more automation as travel agencies keep pace with demand. A new report from BCG predicts leisure travel alone will grow from a $5 trillion industry today to $15 trillion by 2040. Stricter data compliance laws are behind the data cleansing drive too.
Time to scale
“We’ve definitely seen a shift this last year in the data quality market. Now companies have tried to scale up their AI proofs of concept, they’ve been hitting the inevitable brick walls you hit with poor quality data,” said Robbie Jameson, CEO of data quality platform Tale of Data.
“Garbage in, garbage out: nothing new here, but people need to experience it for themselves to really get a feel for the cost. So as a result we’re finding more people are coming to us not needing to be told what data quality is, but wanting to find out how our augmented AI platform addresses it.”
