Artificial intelligence-powered travel concierge Mezi has
pulled out of its travel management company relationships, cutting ties to the
corporate travel space after being acquired by American Express in January.
Mezi, which began as a generalized shopping assistant in
2015, pivoted to travel about 18 months in and courted corporate travel
agencies aggressively in 2017 as an AI-enhanced, chat-based travel booking and
communication platform that offered aggregated GDS and non-GDS content as well
as dining recommendations tailored to individual preferences and corporate
policy. Last July, the company announced three TMC contracts: Adelman Travel,
Casto Travel and WTMC (formerly W Travel).
Mezi co-founder and CEO Swapnil Shinde told BTN in January
that the company would continue to support TMC partners and operate as an
independent company with its own leadership even as it moved under the American
Express umbrella. "When it comes to existing TMC clients, we will
continue," he said, noting, however, that the company would not take on
any additional agency partners as Mezi concentrated on scaling AskAmex for the
card company.
Six months later, those TMC partnerships are out.
An American Express public relations representative on
Friday attributed the following statement to Shinde: "We are no longer
working with these travel management companies. We've decided to prioritize our
work on integrating our technology into American Express products and services."
WTMC CEO Sarosh Waghmar told BTN that American Express had
asked Mezi to wind down its agency relationships over the next two weeks. Asked
how the loss would affect WTMC, Waghmar shrugged it off.
"They were building a lot of things with us sharing
with them how to do it," he said, downplaying the AI enhancements and
focusing on backend content aggregation. "For us, the UI/UX at the front
end is the easiest piece. The focus we have right now is on the pipes [and]
plumbing. Using the GDS [and] NDC as pipes and aggregating all of that and
displaying that to the right source. Fortunately, it won't impact us at all."
Casto Travel, which launched the Marco travel assistant on
the Mezi platform in September, saw the writing on the wall soon after Mezi was
acquired. CEO Marc Casto said the two companies parted ways a couple of months
ago and Casto re-tooled Marco accordingly with Sabre. The new version launched
last week.
Casto Travel's website no longer identifies Mezi as a
technology provider and the description of the tool no longer specifies travel
booking capabilities.
"The changes in service scope were done in conjunction
with client feedback," said Casto. "In large measure the interest was
for simple rebooking and information requests, less on itinerary creation."
Casto told BTN in September that among launch clients then on the Mezi platform
only about 10% of bookings were initiated through the tool.
He added, however, that some clients had also expressed
concern about requiring travelers to download "yet another app,"
which, he said, motivated Marco's pivot to webchat and Facebook Messenger.
Asked about Mezi's defection from the corporate market to a
consumer-side-only strategy, Casto said, "I continue to have very high
regard for everyone at the company. AskAmex is an excellent service for Amex
card holders and a very smart addition to their product offering."
BTN was unable to reach Adelman Travel for comment.
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Source: Business Travel News