AI, facial recognition are rewriting the travel journey

It’s a promise that seems too good to be true; frictionless travel. It’s premise is straightforward: Get from your front door to your destination without proving who you are six times, rummaging through a half-dozen apps for information, or solve problems that technology could have anticipated.

But, frictionless travel remains more aspiration than reality.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport’s Chief Technology Officer and assistant general manager of technology and digital experience Wesley Almeida explained on stage during Newsweek‘s New Destinations World Summit in Las Vegas that the biggest source of passenger frustration remains the security checkpoint, where travelers can be forced to fumble with boarding passes, identification and carry-on items.

Biometrics are already helping address that problem. Almeida said a biometric system installed with U.S. Customs and Border Protection improved passenger throughput by 40% at ATL.

But technology isn’t intended to eliminate people from the travel experience. Atlanta’s main airport recently introduced a chatbot to answer passenger questions, Almeida said, while emphasizing that human assistance remains essential. “In no way, shape or form is that ever going to replace the humans that we have,” he said, describing the airport’s customer-service approach as a way to provide a warmer experience for travelers.

For artificial intelligence-platform company Sabre, friction often emerges after something goes wrong. Brad Johnson, vice president of product management, told the assembled crowd that disruptions force travelers and travel advisers to reconstruct an entire trip across multiple systems. “People get really frustrated when it comes to bringing that data together,” Johnson said, noting that more than 90% of travel counselors work across more than four systems.

AI could eventually turn that fragmented process into something more proactive. Rather than simply telling travelers that a flight has been delayed, Johnson envisions AI agents monitoring multiple data sources and presenting travelers with solutions. “Ideally, instead of being a notification, it’s a recommendation,” he said. Some airline apps are already doing this, enabling travelers to switch to a different flight to avoid a storm or other reason for a delay/cancellation.

Craig Perkel, chief technology officer of eSimplified, sees connectivity as another basic requirement of frictionless travel. For international travelers, simply getting connected after landing can become an immediate source of frustration. “It just needs to work,” Perkel said on stage, describing the goal of making connectivity effectively invisible to the traveler.

The larger challenge may be digital identity. A truly seamless journey would allow travelers to move between airlines, airports and other travel providers without repeatedly presenting the same information. Almeida said the goal is achievable, but coordination remains difficult because data is fragmented across organizations, including the federal government and its agencies, and there’s no common standards.

Biometrics may help bridge that gap, but trust and privacy remain important considerations. Almeida emphasized that facial biometrics are fundamentally a form of verification, while also acknowledging that travelers have legitimate concerns about how biometric information is handled.

While the frictionless journey isn’t here yet, the panel discussion revealed that the pieces for it are already in place: biometric checkpoints, AI-powered assistance, proactive disruption management and digital identity. The remaining obstacle is getting the many independent systems involved in global travel to work together.

As Almeida put it, the goal is to use data from weather, traffic, TSA and other sources so travelers know what to do before a problem develops. “That’s ultimately where you want to get,” he said.