The demand for change in airline payments and distribution is coming from consumers and the speed at which it is coming will surprise many in the sector.

That was the view of an expert panel at the UATP Airline Distribution conference held in Barcelona last week.

They discussed how Artificial Intelligence is evolving from a decision-making support tool to an operating system in its own right.

Jonny Thorsen, vice president of strategic business development at corporate travel management specialist Serko, said firms will have to write off investment in old tech.

“It [AI] is a transformative technology,” he said. “You have to accept that investment you have made in products is going to be a waste of time.”

Thorsen said Serco has had to accept that “old products have reached the end of their production cycle” and he said speed of development will quicken due to AI.

Riccardo Vittoria, founder and chief executive of Acai Travel, a developer of AI solutions for travel agents, said agentic AI has a lot of “cognitive power”.

But warned that using AI to replace human being costs and is still more expensive than a booking system.

Stuart Barwood chief revenue officer of technology specialist Mobi said is will enable airlines to do things they have wanted to do for some time.

“The need for change is not coming from the airline industry,” he said. “This is not NDC [New Distribution Capability].

“That was devised by committee and implemented by an industry. This demand is coming from elsewhere. Your customers are going to use this in other retail channels and they are going to expect it.

“The change is technological, but it’s what it enables. I have to rein back airlines a little bit as soon as they see the possibility of being freed from restrictions. The potential for change is what this is going to deliver.”

Vittoria said NDC, the IATA modern retailing standard being adopted by the airline sector, created a “bit of a back step”.

“There are too many competing standards, too many competing experience,” he said. “For the first time we have a system that will change that.

“You do not any more have a barrier to entry, you do not have any more competing standards.”