More than 30 customers have joined a pilot program to build solutions on top of Sabre's agentic AI application program interfaces (APIs), which rolled out nearly nine months ago, according to president of product and engineering Garry Wiseman.
While a number of those customers are small startups, travel management companies are also getting in on the agentic game.
Sabre has been emphasizing its investment in AI in recent months. Last fall, it launched agentic-ready APIs that work in conjunction with its Model Context Protocol server, which links AI models to Sabre.
Wiseman said midsize and large TMCs are among those utilizing Sabre's agentic APIs. Their use cases are varied, but they are mainly focused on two broad areas: productivity and customer satisfaction.
Some are building internal chatbots to help agents with complex servicing issues, like exchanges and refunds, he said.
There is also interest in deploying those chatbots to customers.
TMCs are also looking at opportunities to automate and streamline workflows.
"It's a very exciting time as far as the ecosystem of the TMCs is concerned," said Wiseman. "They're just starting to build out some of these agentic experiences, either internally for productivity or for their customers."
Sabre has also developed agentic solutions for airlines that are consumer-facing. They can help with customer service questions, booking and even some discovery.
The impact on smaller agencies
Smaller agencies, whether corporate or leisure focused, haven't yet started investing in technology using Sabre's agentic capabilities.
"I think for the smaller players, there's a question about whether they want to have tools that get put in front of their customers, and that's something we could certainly talk to them about," Wiseman said. "But so far, it's really been the mid to the larger players who've had the capacity to go and invest in this."
Agentic, conversational commerce will likely become a better user experience over time than traditional forms of input, Sabre CEO Kurt Ekert said.
That will likely impact smaller agencies down the road.
"I think even for small travel agencies, they're going to have to have those offerings for their customers," he said.
Sabre's agentic APIs are fully in production and working at scale; they offer servicing capabilities as well as the ability to search, shop and book for air and hotel.
"It'll be up to them in terms of what they want that interface to the consumer to look like, but we want to help them as much as possible," said Ekert.
The CEO believes agentic commerce will change consumer expectations in the future, adding, "I think for everybody, they need to lean into how are they offering experience to their consumers, and making sure that they have the capability to engage and transact in those more modern methods."