HTS launches AI assistant to cut travel support costs and boost resolution speed
HTS, Hopper's B2B arm, has introduced HTS Assist-an AI support tool built for travel sellers. Early adopters, including Lotte Card and SMBC, report an average 65% drop in servicing costs, according to the company.
"Through Assist's innovative AI technology, we are bringing a world-class offering to market, enabling airlines and travel providers to deliver faster resolutions, improve customer satisfaction and reduce costs, all while meeting travelers where they are today," said Jo Lai, senior vice president of AI solutions and customer experience at HTS.
What HTS Assist actually does
Frederic Lalonde, co-founder and CEO of Hopper, said the tool handles cancellations, disruptions, refunds, and more-end to end. "It's fully transactional. It's able to actually deal with real customer issues, and it's been specifically trained for travel," he said.
He added that generic models "would hallucinate" because they lack travel-specific connectivity. HTS Assist taps into airline passenger systems, car rental systems, and HTS' broader commerce network built over the last decade.
Proof points support leaders care about
- Cost: $1.12 average cost per resolution; 92% cheaper than human-led resolution, per HTS.
- Speed: Resolves issues 4x faster than a human agent, according to the company.
- Scale: Available in 200 markets and more than 30 languages.
- Revenue: Surfaces upsell and cross-sell opportunities during service interactions.
- Connectivity: Hooks into airline and car rental systems using HTS' existing infrastructure.
Hybrid control stays in your hands
Assist can run autonomously, but you can route cases to humans by rule, by use case, or by customer choice. "There are a lot of reasons why certain businesses might want to say, for a very specific use case, we, for compliance reasons, need this to be handled by a person," Lai said. "By design, there are two to three different models that will be used."
Lai expects adoption to be deliberate. The issue isn't whether the AI can complete tasks; it's about business choices, system connections, accessibility needs, and operational readiness.
How support leaders can operationalize HTS Assist
- Define clear routing rules: which issues stay with AI, which escalate to agents, and when to switch mid-conversation.
- Set compliance guardrails: logging, consent, PII handling, and jurisdiction-specific flows.
- Wire into core systems: bookings, ticketing, refunds, vouchers, loyalty, and notifications.
- Tune voice and policy: brand tone, goodwill thresholds, refund and reissue rules, and exception playbooks.
- Measure what matters: resolution time, cost per resolution, CSAT, containment rate, refund accuracy, and upsell conversion.
The bigger shift HTS is betting on
"We will not be, as a species, playing around with filters and check boxes on Booking.com like a caveman for very long," Lalonde said. He expects service to lead the change because it's a clear pain point with constrained variables-and predicts major changes in travel commerce within two to three years.
HTS also plans to extend AI into financial products. Lalonde said the team is experimenting with fully generated predictive models to price and deliver policies more efficiently and improve outcomes for travelers.
Why this matters for customer support teams
- Lower handling costs at scale without sacrificing control.
- Faster resolutions with transactional depth across disruptions, refunds, and reissues.
- Language and market coverage fit for global operations.
- Built-in monetization through relevant cross-sells during service.
- Human-in-the-loop options for compliance, edge cases, and accessibility.
Want to go deeper
If you're building AI skills for support roles, explore practical training and certifications: AI courses by job role.
Industry note
Interested in hearing more from Hopper and HTS leadership? Dakota Smith, president and co-founder of Hopper, is scheduled to speak during an executive panel titled "The New Travel Seller Arena" at The Phocuswright Conference in San Diego, November 18-20.
Bottom line: If you run customer support in travel, start testing AI that's wired into your booking and passenger systems. Keep humans for exceptions, let AI handle the rest, and track the numbers weekly.
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