‘Growing’ with, not Fearing AI

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L-R: Paul Wilson, Vice President, Amadeus Hospitality – Asia Pacific; Benjamin Wedlock, Senior Vice President, Global Sales, Asia Pacific, BCD Travel; Ratchaya Termsilkanok, VP Strategy & Digital Transformation, Cross Hotels & Resorts; Steven Hopkins, Senior Vice President, Shiji APAC and ME

At the TDM C-Suite Travel Trade Global Summit 2025, held at Montien Hotel Surawong Bangkok, Thailand, a panel discussion took place on the topic “AI and Technology – Where does it start and stop…”

Moderated by Paul Wilson, Vice President, Amadeus Hospitality – Asia Pacific, panellists included: Benjamin Wedlock, Senior Vice President, Global Sales, Asia Pacific, BCD Travel; Ratchaya Termsilkanok, VP Strategy & Digital Transformation, Cross Hotels & Resorts; Steven Hopkins, Senior Vice President, Shiji APAC and ME. They mulled over topics such as how to get owners to be willing to take on the cost of new technology, AI is very much there, how to ensure your getting the best from it. Also what would be the best way forward for technology.

Deliberating on the ‘cost’ of ‘Cost pitching’

In Asia cost remains paramount and people tend to first look at the bottom lines before purchasing almost anything. Paul Wilson queried Stephen on navigating cost and owners, because ‘cost’ remains one of the primary topics for conversation

Steven Hopkinson said: “I think cost differentiates around the world and in the way, people look at it. In Asia it tends to be all cost-driven. You go into a meeting; the question remains how much it is going to cost you as opposed to what the benefits are.  I feel we need to focus on what ‘value’ the product is going to bring in.”

Paul Wilson queried Ratchaya on how he was able to deal with tough owners from day- to- day, navigating conversations on costs

Ratchaya Termsilkanok, feels that if the market is functioning in a particular way, one needs to work with it.  He said: “We need to be focussing on the strategy and not just the cost.”

Paul Wilson  queried Benjamin on his honest view on what he thought would be the long play on AI and Technology.

Hallucinations inside artificial intelligence

What that means is that 98% of the time AI gets it right but 2% of the time it’s on its own and it’s making up its own assumptions. AI is and emerging topic, in the last 12 months it’s had exploded in terms of functionality and adaptability in our daily lives.

Benjamin Wedlock said:“I think it’s about getting that balance right around the technology deployment. It’s about customizing the user experience and making sure that the user is getting a benefit and a more customized look and feel through their experience inside the technology. It is also about adding those efficiency gains, Artificial Intelligence is here to help and support. From a BCD perspective what we’ve really tried to enforce and invest in heavily is inside that automation and the efficiency gains on the technology components to make our travel consultants and our customers have a better experience. One of the other things that’s really critical that AI hasn’t got right yet is “hallucinations with inside artificial intelligence” so what that means is that hey it might be 98% of the time it gets it right but those 2% of the time it’s on its own and it’s making up its own assumptions and making up its own evaluations which is incredibly scary because it’s the 2% of times that the hotels and corporate travellers have that experience and that poor experience that could cost the contract so that’s where again it’s super exciting around where those developments are heading and where the industry is going and the corporate traveller is asking for that experience but it’s also imperative that we as the custodians on that technology infrastructure. We need to really guide our strategies and guide our corporate customers in the right direction to have that right experience and protect them as well”

Beyond Personalisation

Paul Wilson queried about ‘authenticity’ with AI.

Benjamin Wedlock said: “At the end of the day the AI area needs to be authentic, that customer voice and that personalized voice needs to also be from the end user. I think the biggest challenge that you’re going to have with the new generation coming through the workforce is, they’re so accustomed to using AI to get a benchmark right to get them to 90% or 80% towards the answer that they need. So, creativity and that thought process going into understanding is sometimes going to be lost. I think it’s important to train those large-language models and ensuring that your voice as an organisation is not lost. Your authenticity and your culture are also reverberated through that communication channel are so also very important as well.”

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