If you want to understand where travel companies believe their competitive battles will be fought over the next five years, stop listening to their earnings calls and start watching their job postings.
Over the past few months, a job title that barely existed a year ago is cropping up across the industry: Conversational AI Designer.
Delta is hiring both a Lead and a Manager of Conversational Design. Skyscanner wants an AI Conversation Designer to shape “how Skyscanner interacts with travelers through natural language.” Agoda is building a dedicated AI Assistant team in Beijing. Loveholidays is creating market-specific conversational teams for its Dutch expansion.
The pattern tells a story: Travel is moving from a phase where chatbots were bolted onto customer service to one where conversational interfaces are becoming core product infrastructure.
The Organizational Signal
What makes these postings significant isn’t t