Photo: Sabre Sabre Corporation released a new position paper today forecasting a paradigm shift in the way travelers discover, personalize, and book trips.
According to the company, conversational commerce powered by Agentic AI is not just “another channel” but a new retail infrastructure that can convert a conversation into a booking within seconds, similar to the impact social commerce has had on retail in the past decade.
Key Findings
From Inspiration to Conversion: Social networks inspire, but the conversation converts; Agentic AI bridges trust and operational gaps, quickly translating intent into action.
Generating True Demand: According to Sabre, more than half of travelers using AI agents discover options they wouldn't have found otherwise, expanding the market rather than merely dividing market share.
The Store Moves to the Conversation: Travel sales will increasingly occur in chat windows, voice assistants, and AI agents rather than just on websites and apps.
Trust as Currency: Transparency, data governance, and information integrity will differentiate leaders from others as adoption accelerates.
Jen Catto, Chief Marketing Officer: “Conversational commerce is a generational leap: it reduces the gap between desire and fulfillment, turns complexity into conversion, and enables every traveler to be their own ‘influencer.’”
Garry Wiseman, Chief Product and Technology Officer: “We are building platforms that convert conversations into commerce and commerce into loyalty, moving from static searches to personalized dialogues.”
Sabre describes SabreMosaic™: an enterprise AI layer based on Google's Vertex AI and Gemini, leveraging the company’s curated travel data cloud. The Sabre IQ layer allows personalization at scale, while the IQ Assurance Layer focuses on explainability, security, and regulatory compliance.
The journey to purchasing travel is complex, involving the coordination of flights, hotels, transportation, and availability, often for more than one traveler. According to Sabre, Agentic AI can plan and execute across systems in real-time, shortening the funnel and improving conversion rates, with the main customer touchpoint occurring within the conversation.
The position paper calls on brands, retailers, and suppliers: to embrace conversational interfaces, design dialogue souvenirs, and build trust and data governance now. “Winners will be those who meet customers within the conversation quickly, relevantly, and confidently,” conclude Sabre.