What if airlines stopped thinking in terms of seats and schedules, and instead designed for the entire journey?
In this episode of Tech Talks Daily I’m joined by Somit GoyalCEO of IBS softwareto talk about how travel technology is being rebuilt from its foundations. Since we last spoke, AI has evolved from experimentation to everyday operations. That shift is forcing airlines to rethink everything from retail and loyalty to disruption management and customer trust. Somit explains why AI can no longer sit as a function at the edge of systems and must now be embedded directly into the way decisions are made across the business.
We discuss the growing gap between traditional aviation technology and rapidly rising traveler expectations, and why this tension has become a defining moment for the industry. For Somit, travel technology is no longer a back-office infrastructure. It becomes the operating system for customer experience and revenue. That shift is changing the way airlines think about retail, moving from selling flights to managing results across a multi-day journey with partners, service and real-time operational awareness. The conversation will also explore why agility is now more important than scale, and how airlines are approaching this transformation without breaking with what already works.
Much of this episode focuses on IBS Software’s deep co-innovation partnership with Amazon Web Services. Somit explains why this is much more than a cloud hosting arrangement, which includes joint R&D, shared roadmaps and AI labs designed to help airlines build modern retail capabilities faster. We also explain what “AI first” really means in practice, how intelligence is reshaping offer creation, pricing, order management and disruption handling, and why responsible AI should be treated as a product rather than a legal safeguard.
We also focus on loyalty, one of the industry’s most persistent challenges. Somit explains why bringing reservations and loyalty systems together is such a powerful enabler, how it enables real-time personalization instead of generic segmentation, and why loyalty should evolve from a points book to an experience machine that delivers value before, during and after a trip.
As airlines race toward 2026, the big question is no longer whether a transformation will happen, but who will move with enough clarity and confidence to earn long-term loyalty. In a world where AI knows more about travelers than ever before, how do airlines use that intelligence to achieve better results without crossing the line, and are they willing to rethink the journey from start to finish?
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