BCD Travel has agreed a partnership with?AI corporate travel assistant SkyLink to?offer users a ¡°fully autonomous and touchless travel experience¡±.

SkyLink offers a chat-based booking experience that uses a range of AI technologies to deliver ¡°personalised, policy-compliant recommendations¡± to travellers.

¡°We are addressing traveller demand for efficiency and speed, while also driving cost savings and compliance for customers,¡± explained Yannis Karmis, BCD¡¯s senior vice president of product planning and development.

¡°SkyLink¡¯s integration with our open platform creates a market-leading engagement capability with travellers. Our partnership reinforces BCD¡¯s commitment to offering flexible, innovative solutions that meet the unique needs of our customers¡¯ programme.¡±?

Last week, SkyLInk was "highly commended" by judges at the Business Travel Innovation Faceoff at Business Travel Show Europe in London. The product also won The BTN Group's Innovation Faceoff at its 2024 Innovate conference in New York.

SkyLink¡¯s technology integrates into clients¡¯ existing chat channels, such as Microsoft Teams and Slack, allowing travellers to shop, book, modify and cancel bookings, as well as finding answers to key travel questions.

In a statement, BCD said that SkyLink would integrate with the TMC¡¯s travel commerce platform to create ¡°unparalleled flexibility and scalability¡± for clients. BCD added that every SkyLink booking ¡°remains standardised and fully supported by BCD¡¯s expert agents¡±.

Atyab Bhatti, co-founder and CEO at SkyLink, said: "By integrating BCD¡¯s capabilities, we can seamlessly deploy into global travel programmes. Together, we¡¯re redefining the corporate traveller experience through modernisation and collaboration, bringing best of breed technology to everyone.¡±?

BCD is initially making the SkyLink integration available to ¡°large-scale¡± customers in North America with Europe and other markets ¡°to follow¡±.