Melissa O’Brien — HFS Research[00:22]
Hello and welcome to this HFS videocast, supported with WNS. I’m joined by Jitendar Mohan, EVP and Business Unit Head of Travel at WNS, and Xabier Zabala, COO of HBX Group. Today, we’re going to talk about some fresh new data we have from a study we’ve just released on the travel and hospitality industry, and how that industry is challenged today and how they’re going to be pivoting to embrace the new frontier of the future. Jitendar, if I could ask you to give a quick intro, I’ll go over to you, please.
Jitendar Mohan — EVP and Business Unit Head of Travel, WNS[00:48]
Thank you so much, Melissa. Very, very happy to be on this session today. Thanks for joining us. My name is Jitendar Mohan. Like Melissa said, I’ve been part of the industry for 27, almost 28 years now. It feels like yesterday only I started. Customer experience has been part of my journey throughout, whether it was operations, transformation, operating business side — multiple businesses I’ve managed. I used to have customer experience at some point in time. So again, very happy to be on the call. It’s a great time for all of us to really get into innovative offerings which can be created for improving customer experience. Again, very happy to be on the call.
Melissa O’Brien — HFS Research[01:22]
Likewise, thanks for joining us. Xabier, over to you for a brief intro, please.
Xabier Zabala — COO, HBX Group[01:40]
Sure. So, thank you for the invitation, first of all, Melissa, and a pleasure to be with you here today, Jitendar. So, I’m Xabier Zabala, I lead operations at HBX Group. For those that maybe don’t know the company as much, it’s a travel tech business, the leading B2B ecosystem player in the world, and I have been in the company for the last 8 years in different parts of the business, and now I lead the operations, which includes the customer experience. It’s a pleasure to be here today talking about the trends and what we see going forward in this part of the travel and hospitality sector.
Melissa O’Brien — HFS Research[02:19]
Super, Xabier. Thank you. Both of my guests contributed to this study that we’ve recently released, to give us contextual real-life examples of how the travel industry is embracing new normals and looking toward the future. So, thank you both for your contributions. We wanted to hear from them directly today to share a little bit about their experiences as real-life practitioners, but we also wanted to highlight a few of the data points from our study. So, let’s look at the first one, where we’re going to talk a bit about customer expectations. I think anyone who’s in customer experience or any kind of front-office, customer-facing role is acutely aware of changes in expectations across any industry. But travel and hospitality, I believe, is quite unique in terms of how expectations have changed, how new capabilities have brought upon greater expectations from customers. And as you can see from this first data point here, the travel and hospitality leadership that we interviewed for this study find that personalization — and even greater personalization — is going to be the biggest expectation that’s going to influence this sector. And then here again, another element that I think is quite unique perhaps to travel and hospitality, that doesn’t impact some industries quite as much, is this safety and wellness expectation. So, there’s a lot to rise to the challenge there. Xabier, I’d like to start with you. Can you talk a little bit about how you’re approaching this with your customers, and how HBX is rising to the challenge that is these increasing expectations?
Xabier Zabala — COO, HBX Group[03:59]
Sure. I think it’s really interesting to see that two-thirds of the respondents would rank personalization either as number 1 or number 2 in their ranking. So, at HBX we definitely observe an increase in customer expectations, and more specifically in the service quality expected, in the immediacy of the response expected, and in the personalization aspect. Going a bit deeper on this last one, on personalization: at HBX we receive over 5 billion searches every day from our customers, and then we leverage advanced analytics to understand customer preferences and behaviors. By analyzing this data, we are able to identify and anticipate customer trends and patterns, and we can tailor some of our services for our customers. Just to give you an example of what this means and what are the things that we are working on: we have just developed a platform portal that we call Insights, where we can provide personalized recommendations to each and every one of our travel agency customers, which are based on their individual booking patterns and those of other customers that share common characteristics with them. These personalized recommendations can be consumed in our booking engine and across multiple engagement channels, and this hyper-personalized, surgical approach has generated a very large impact for our customers and for us. And to conclude, I think we are very convinced that customer expectations will only continue increasing and changing, and continuous innovation in this area is going to be necessary to exceed these ever-increasing customer expectations.
Melissa O’Brien — HFS Research[05:40]
Awesome. Sounds like you’re really listening to the voice of the customer there and doing your best to deliver personalized services as needed, that Insights platform. Jitendar, over to you. What are you hearing from your customers, and are you helping them pivot to become more customer-centric and help them create these better personalization efforts?
Jitendar Mohan — EVP and Business Unit Head of Travel, WNS[06:10]
So what we are hearing — and I think your survey is showing, in all the effort which has gone into it, capturing minds of a lot of CXOs — is telling the story that today the shift to personalization and expectation on omni-channel experience is extremely high. It’s very easy to say, create a seamless end-to-end process where everybody should be able to understand who my customer is, but that’s where the problem happens: when you have multiple channels to talk to, multiple channels to interact with, processes break down. And the expectation of customers today is to work with transformative partners to create end-to-end journeys where technology, analytics, and process design or redesign can really help them create a very transformative solution. And from WNS’s perspective, the framework we launched, which is Travogue, is actually in line with exactly doing that, where we look at not just experience, we look at operational efficiency, we look at seamless journey, we look at financial optimization of the process. And end to end, ensuring that — not just one cycle of purchase — how do you create loyalty and repeat as a critical business outcome, when you have to look at customer experience and not just one particular transaction getting into a good experience. Now, some examples just to say what customers are expecting, and maybe I can elaborate this a little bit more. If we have to look at 3 pillars of directions on customer experience which are helping organizations, or expected of organizations, to improve experience: one is analytics, which is purely looking at the whole extreme level of CRM and data capture which is happening in the industry, right from surfing — you know, the point Xabier was saying, number of visitors coming on the site, number of shoppers coming on the site, number of transactions happening on the site, number of people, what kind of time they are spending, where are they going, how much time are they spending on each line item. And these are some small examples. Now, we recently worked with a hotel chain where 80 million non-active customers were sitting in their loyalty network, and we were able to work on a transformative solution with them to really recover almost 20% of the customers back and build the transactions back.
Melissa O’Brien — HFS Research[09:06]
Thank you. This is a great segue into our next data point, if we can flip to the next slide, because I want to get a little bit more specific into the technology pieces that are coming into play. And you mentioned that end-to-end transformation and some of the bits and pieces of tech that are in your Travogue portfolio. So, this data point — it was all around adoption, and then challenges of adoption. As you can see, there’s a varied maturity across each of these technology areas of investment. Maybe not surprisingly, ERP and hybrid seem to be the most mature in terms of active investment and expansion. But, as you mentioned, we’ve got a lot of new technology coming in. Obviously the big buzzword and big topic of the day is GenAI, which you can see — well over half of organizations are actually actively investing or strategically investing, for trial or at least monitoring — which is going to be a game changer for a lot of industries. And then if you look at the other side of the screen, we’ve also got challenges, and in particular with GenAI, what we’re hearing from most organizations is that fundamentally, data tends to be one of the pillars, or hurdles rather, that they have to jump over — something that they really have to understand, get governance around, get security around, that data management piece — in order to be able to capitalize on some of the capabilities of GenAI. And talent is not far behind either, as well as just sunk investments; and you’ve got, in the travel industry, lots and lots of legacy software and applications behind the scenes. So, I want to hear — I’ll go back to you, Jitendar, on this one — how does this resonate with you? What do you think are the most prevalent and exciting applications of technology that you’re able to bring to bear for your customers today?
Jitendar Mohan — EVP and Business Unit Head of Travel, WNS[10:58]
Yeah, so let’s start doing the circles of — I think it came like 1 year back, or maybe 3 quarters back — that this whole GenAI, it is nothing new. Machine learning was always there; it is only a next level of evolution of that particular technology, or let’s say that particular capability. And the fear was that everything will be automated. So how do we quickly get onto this bandwagon and create an application toolkit where everything can be automated — which, obviously, I think was misunderstood, if you ask me, even today. See, the future is going to be assisted experience, because all the non-complex work will be automated for sure, which is what was happening in the earlier world anyway through RPA, automation, workflow. I mean, it is not new. Then machine learning came in, which is why the next best action became a big thing. And then with GenAI, what will happen — if you see, while there is an urgency and there is an importance, almost two-thirds of the respondents said that it is the fourth topmost priority, but look at the right side, the challenge is there. While you have access to all the information, the problem is how do you monetize that access? How do you use that access to create a business insight? And when you start seeing the application of where GenAI is, actually you’ll be surprised. Application is in all fields, right from customer experience to fare auditing to commission to digitization of cargo to refund automation. See, you have to see wherever a database is used in the back end, wherever, let’s say, a compliance kind of environment is, wherever you are using business rules or business compliance sheets, wherever you are using, let’s say, contracts which are in the back end of airlines or even corporate customers — anything which is about reading or referring to multiple levels of information, anything which is about understanding a persona of a customer or a region or a particular transaction, is applicable. So, right from front office to mid office to back office, there is application. So again, technology deployment is picking up. The survey is also saying there is hunger to do it. And everybody needs each other’s help, so it is going to be a co-creation for sure. No one organization, no one customer can solve it alone.
Melissa O’Brien — HFS Research[13:33]
Awesome. I want to get more into that collaboration piece in our next data point, but I also want to go over to Xabier. And, may I add, I saw you recently quoted in the New York Times, Jitendar, saying that this is going to be one of the biggest tech disruptions over the last several years. That was an enlightening piece. Xabier, over to you. I want to hear from your HBX lens how you guys are approaching this and what you see as the opportunities — and I’m sure you see risks and limitations as well. So, what are you guys doing? Are you experimenting? Are you looking at short and long term?
Xabier Zabala — COO, HBX Group[13:45]
Yeah, so — probably all of the above. So, we are experimenting, but also at the same time we are industrializing quite already robust applications, so we need to follow this dual path. I think it’s really interesting what we see on screen now, and you’re mentioning that over the last 18 months or so, the buzzword has been around GenAI and the GPTs and so on. And it’s very interesting to see that half of the organizations are either strategically or actively investing into these kinds of technologies, but also very interesting to see that it’s the highest proportion of unsure organizations — you have 11% of the respondents that are not really clear on what to do about this and how to tackle it. It’s surprising that it’s the highest of all of them, because it’s the newest tool that we have now in our toolkit. I think artificial intelligence in general has been with us for a while, in various shapes and forms, but now more recently, with the radical explosion of the GenAI solutions, we are already seeing a transformation in the travel sector as well as in every other sector. And I also believe that this will only accelerate over the next years, as those organizations that are today unsure, I’m sure, move into clear believers on the power of this kind of solutions. So, at HBX our approach is to deploy artificial intelligence to address those areas that either generate friction to our customers or employees, that are repetitive and low value, or where AI solutions can execute far better than any human — for instance, where large sets of data must be processed or analyzed. And we do it in a safe environment, with supervised solutions, with controlled sources of information that are free of possible external influences that could put the accuracy or the correctness of the information and the system at risk, because we are very aware of those risks that we have also on the right-hand side. Starting in 2024, and then following in 2025, we see many applications for AI and GenAI. I will just mention some of them. Obviously customer service is top of our mind. It’s probably the area where we are investing most during 2024, because right now there are already very robust applications that can be implemented to understand and respond to customer requests across all channels — voice, chat, text. The second one I will mention is everything related to content, so we are seeing very relevant applications around descriptions, translations, processing of images, detection of duplicates, etc. And the third one I will mention is around the enablement of our teams. So this is where maybe it’s more about augmented intelligence rather than artificial intelligence — this concept that Jitendar was also mentioning, about assisting our teams and making them much more effective in their day to day by giving them the new tools that are now available to all of us. And finally, building on the risks side, we take these risks very, very seriously, especially the ones related to generative AI, and we advocate for a very controlled and secure implementation of these technologies. And what I mean by that is that we are very aware of the risks related to information accuracy, biases, etc., to intellectual property and ownership, and to the gathering of personal information through this kind of solutions. So we focus on very specific use cases where we can resolve or address concrete customer needs, and then constantly monitor and analyze their accuracy and their security.
Melissa O’Brien — HFS Research[18:16]
Excellent. Sounds like you’re taking a very thorough approach. Let’s go to the last data point. I really want to get into talking about this collaboration and ecosystem to close us out here. So, HFS has been evangelizing this Horizons framework, which is really around the 3 steps that organizations need to take in order to modernize, and then get to the next level of internal organizational alignment, and finally getting to this next step of ecosystem development, which is collaboration to create new sources of value. And as we asked our respondents where their focus lies across these 3 parameters, what I’d like to draw your attention to is the ecosystem approach growing in the next two years. And I think this is to the point that, Jitendar, you were making in our last data point, which is nobody can do this alone. You’re going to need an ecosystem of folks to help you. I think in the travel and hospitality space, there’s this inherent ecosystem that you need to deal with between regulatory bodies — and if you’re an airline, it’s the airports and the retail stores within the airport — and there’s this whole ecosystem of providers as well, folks who are going to help you create solutions around GenAI or around whatever enabling technology you’re using. But most importantly, it’s what sources of value are you creating and moving beyond — you know, the cost efficiency and optimization, better, faster, cheaper that we’ve been doing for a long time — to actually, where can we open up brand new ways of doing things, ways of doing work, sources of value for customers, for employees, whatever it may be. So, Xabier, I’ll ask you to comment on this. Are you guys developing an ecosystem, and how do you view that in terms of your ability to be competitive in this market? What does it look like today and what are you aspiring to do with this ecosystem?
Xabier Zabala — COO, HBX Group[20:09]
Sure. So, I think this chart is very telling, because it shows how the sector might be moving from a functional digital transformation focus to an ecosystem play. And that resonates very well with the journey that we see at HBX Group, because the global travel industry is, as you said, very competitive — more competitive than ever and more fast-paced than ever — and to differentiate in this environment and to succeed, it requires a new kind of play, which we believe goes more and more towards this kind of ecosystem play. And to be successful in this strategy, I believe that key actors in the sector will need to have the right technology, the right data, the right expertise to cut through the complexity of that ecosystem model, but also the scale to reach the parts of the world that not everyone can, and it’s going to be one of the key recipes for success. In HBX, our ecosystem approach is about delivering fast and reliable access to all of our global network of interconnected products and services, empowering the choice for our partners while — and this is very important — removing the friction from the end-to-end travel experience and providing a seamless service across all those different products and services. And that’s a huge challenge, because you are bringing together and pooling a large variety of partners, even sub-sectors within the travel industry, and then to offer one unique experience to the customers is a huge challenge; but then, when you succeed into it, the stickiness of that offering to the partners is what makes you really successful. And finally, talking about partnerships, which you mentioned, we fully believe in the power of collaboration in the sector as a route to having the most effective ecosystem play, and we actively seek strategic partnerships and collaboration opportunities to strengthen our position in the market. We do this for customer service solutions, we do it in our financial services, we do it when we are going into new segments such as the dynamic packaging solutions for our airline partners, etc., but also when we are getting into new products and services such as fintech solutions, insurance, technology solutions, etc. And we partner with industry leaders for this kind of complementary services, which enhances our value propositions, expands our reach in the market, and in the end, it drives mutual growth for us and our partners, which is the end goal.
Melissa O’Brien — HFS Research[23:27]
That’s a great example of the collaboration to create a new source of value. That’s great. Thank you for sharing that. Jitendar, will you round us out on this point? Just interested to hear what you see as you’re working with your clients and your partner ecosystem. What does that evolving landscape look like to you?
Jitendar Mohan — EVP and Business Unit Head of Travel, WNS[23:47]
No, I think, you know, Xabier — very clearly, the way what he’s seeing as HBX Group is very similar to many of the examples we’ve seen in the industry. So, because my exposure to the industries is beyond travel, because of transformation, I saw banking getting into travel services many years back, and obviously they are accelerating in that direction. They’re tying up with travel companies to create travel services offerings, and, similar to what Xabier was saying, the travel companies creating a fintech capability for the industry, which used to be core to banking or financial services companies many years back. There are many examples like that. So to me, it’s a great inflection point where a lot of things will happen in terms of new things. Even the survey — while we can see bars here and there, 68 and 46, but these are just numbers — it tells you that actually almost 50% of the audience, more or less, is doing both. I mean, some are fixing their existing functional processes; some are already thinking ahead of creating front, middle, and back office to drive unmatched automation; and some, which are 49%, or almost 50%, on the second-year journey, which is right today for them, which is maybe 2 years ahead for somebody else. So this is happening as we speak, where all the organizations, including us working with these organizations, are trying to achieve all of this wherever possible, depending on the maturity of the processes and complexity of the processes, working together. I can’t say one company is behind or one is ahead. Different parts of organizations are at different parts of the journey, and there are many examples in the ecosystem — how we are working with, let’s say, Google, how we are working with AWS, how we are working with the startup ecosystem — trying to solve business problems. Because, again, one thing which is going to come out very clearly, as you start — maybe you’re already seeing that happening, Melissa, when you talk to people — is that GenAI solutions will not be solved by pure conventional players alone. Because tech knowledge is only one part of the solution. Understanding domain, understanding the business is the core of making that application successful, and that’s where the knowledge of industry or business comes in. And then the third leg of that solution is analytics. So either of one strong company which used to be a standalone niche offering will not work. These three knowledges have to come together now. Whether you bring it in one organization or whether you bring three organizations together, that is going to happen, because the business solution will seek 3 inputs — analytics, technology, and, on top of it, domain knowledge — because solutions are not going to be bolt-on solutions, which are easy to do. Easy solutions are done and dusted. Complex business solutions have to be solved. That’s what I’m seeing, and that’s what is the interesting part of the journey now.
Melissa O’Brien — HFS Research[26:57]
Yeah, I’m definitely with you on that. In fact, we have another data point which shows that the greatest skills that tech teams are needing are business, and the greatest skills that business teams are needing are technology. So there’s this real overlap within organizations. This is fundamentally a human and technology solution that has to come together. Thank you for that. Thank you both for your great insights. This has been a really excellent session, and I think we really just scratched the surface of the great data that we have in this study. So I invite our audience to please take a look at the full data set and our narrative around the future of travel. I think this session really gave a lot of great, direct insight, real-life practical application around what some of the trends mean for travel now and how to remain competitive in the future. So, I thank you very much, Xabier. Thank you, Jitendar, for being with me today.
Xabier Zabala — COO, HBX Group[27:58]
It’s been a pleasure. Thank you so much, Melissa. Pleasure to share this with you.
Jitendar Mohan — EVP and Business Unit Head of Travel, WNS[27:58]
Same here. Thank you.
Melissa O’Brien — HFS Research[27:58]
Thanks to our audience for joining us. Goodbye.
