Hopper's AI Travel Agent Revolutionizes Customer Service in the Travel Industry

Hopper's AI agent can book flights and cancel trips without human help

Hopper Technology Solutions launched a breakthrough artificial intelligence system Wednesday that can autonomously handle complex travel customer service issues from start to finish, a major advance in AI-powered automation for the trillion-dollar travel industry. The new system, called HTS Assist, can conduct entire customer service conversations through voice or chat, accessing airline booking systems to cancel flights, process refunds, and even book replacement accommodations -- all without human intervention. In demonstrations with VentureBeat, the AI agent seamlessly navigated complex scenarios like rebooking missed connections and arranging rental cars, completing transactions that typically require multiple system logins and policy checks. "We're one of the only conversational AI platforms that has scaled specifically for travel while remaining customer-facing," said Jo Lai, Senior Vice President of AI Solutions and Customer Experience at HTS, in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. "We've processed about 3 million conversations and have extensively stress tested the system in our channels." The launch positions Montreal-based Hopper, valued at $5 billion and considering an initial public offering, as a formidable competitor to enterprise AI giants like Microsoft and Salesforce in the lucrative customer service automation market. Unlike general-purpose AI assistants, HTS Assist was built specifically for travel's complex operational requirements, trained on 16 million travel conversations and integrated directly into airline booking systems, hotel reservation platforms, and payment processors. How AI agents navigate airlines' complex booking systems The system tackles a core challenge in travel automation. While other companies have demonstrated AI agents making restaurant reservations or handling simple customer queries, HTS Assist can navigate the fragmented, command-line-heavy systems that power airline operations and complete multi-step transactions that previously required human expertise. "When we look at travel servicing from an analog perspective, there are 20-plus tools. All of them are command line terminals, not point-and-click interfaces. It's highly fragmented," Lai told VentureBeat. "We know the customer-facing side of travel servicing really well, and we also have the back-end integrations that we've built out over the last 10 years." The AI agent combines several advanced technologies: real-time voice processing with ultra-low latency, large language models trained specifically on travel scenarios, and deep integrations into airline and hotel systems that took Hopper years to develop. The system can handle interruptions mid-conversation, understand travel industry jargon, and access live pricing and availability data to make real-time booking decisions. Early results show the system achieving 88% customer satisfaction parity with human agents while reducing servicing costs by 65%. Partners report that approximately 70% of customers actively choose the AI solution when given equal options, and the system converts 15% of service interactions into additional sales through intelligent upselling. From flight app to B2B AI powerhouse: Hopper's $5 billion transformation The HTS Assist launch caps a remarkable transformation for Hopper, which has shifted from a consumer-focused flight prediction app to a business-to-business technology powerhouse. HTS, Hopper's B2B division launched in 2021, now accounts for 90% of the company's revenue, up from zero just four years ago. "HTS now makes up 75 percent of Hopper's revenue," Dakota Smith, Hopper's president and co-founder, told industry publication WiT earlier this year. "It completely outstripped our consumer business very quickly. It took about a year to take it over." The company has secured major partnerships with financial institutions and airlines worldwide, including Virgin Australia, Frontier Airlines, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and Japan's largest credit card issuer SMCC. These partnerships integrate Hopper's travel technology and fintech products into partners' direct booking channels, creating new revenue streams while reducing their operational costs. Hopper's success reflects broader changes in the travel industry, where airlines and hotels are increasingly investing in direct booking channels to reduce dependence on online travel agencies like Expedia and Booking.com. By 2025, industry analysts expect significant growth in B2B travel technology as companies seek to capture more direct bookings and improve customer experiences. Microsoft and Salesforce face new competition in travel AI race The launch comes as major technology companies race to deploy AI agents across enterprise applications. Microsoft's Copilot, Salesforce's Einstein, and Google's Vertex AI all target customer service automation, but most solutions require extensive customization for industry-specific workflows. HTS Assist's travel-specific focus provides key advantages. The system understands complex travel scenarios like irregular operations, fare rules, and multi-city itineraries that generic AI assistants struggle with. More importantly, Hopper has spent years building the technical infrastructure to actually execute transactions across fragmented airline systems. "We have a fundamental amount of travel specific expertise that is a really key differentiator for us," Lai said. "We transact millions and millions of customers on a yearly basis, and we understand very well exactly what the challenges are from a travel specific industry perspective." The timing proves strategic as the travel industry grapples with post-pandemic staffing challenges and surging demand. Airlines and travel companies face pressure to improve customer service while controlling costs, making AI automation increasingly attractive. Airlines see 70% customer adoption in early AI deployments HTS Assist requires six to eight weeks for implementation, with partners working with Hopper to identify high-impact use cases. The system currently operates in over 30 languages and serves customers across 200 markets, with live deployments supporting bank partners in Singapore, Japan, and South Korea. "For one of our partners, we see that approximately 70% of their customers actually actively choose to use AI solution as their primary way of interacting with the business when merchandised on equal footing with other entry points," Lai noted. The system can handle thousands of concurrent calls without staffing limitations, proving particularly valuable during operational disruptions when customer service volumes spike unpredictably. During weather delays or system outages, HTS Assist can maintain service levels that would be impossible to staff with human agents. The future of travel booking: voice commands replace website forms Looking ahead, Hopper plans to expand HTS Assist beyond post-booking service into conversational commerce, allowing customers to search and book travel through natural language conversations rather than traditional filters and forms. "I think in the future, it's not just about using filters and point-and-click interfaces to make purchases, especially in travel, but being able to talk to conversational assistants that remember what customers are looking for," Lai explained. The success of HTS Assist could accelerate adoption of AI agents across the travel industry, potentially reshaping how millions of travelers interact with airlines, hotels, and booking platforms. As Hopper eyes a potential IPO with a targeted $10 billion valuation, the company's evolution from consumer app to enterprise AI platform demonstrates how artificial intelligence is creating new business models across traditional industries. The real test will come during the next major weather disruption, when thousands of frustrated travelers simultaneously demand rebookings. If HTS Assist can handle that chaos seamlessly, human customer service agents may soon become as rare as paper tickets.

Your flight's canceled -- now what? Ask the AI travel agent

It's a familiar frustration: You miss your connection because of a delayed flight. The line at the customer assistance desk is 30 people deep. The airline app offers little help, and the call center puts you on hold for half an hour. Will you ever escape Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)? Enter Hopper Technology Solutions (HTS) Assist, a new generative AI travel agent that helps customers with post-booking travel questions, changes, and disruptions. HTS assist was built by Hopper, the mobile-only travel-booking platform that's known for its intuitive, user-friendly interface and for predicting flight prices with near-flawless accuracy and pinging users when it's time to book. A few clicks -- "my trips" and "contact support" -- from Hopper's main page now opens an interface where travelers can talk to or text the AI assistant for help with things like rebooking missed connections and processing refunds for canceled trips. HTS Assist is built to converse in natural language -- it's been trained on millions of real-world conversations -- and is capable of communicating in 30 different languages. Hopper says it has taken a "model-agnostic" approach to creating HTS Assist, working with leading large language models and its own travel-specific training data.