Travel technology company Travelport has partnered with Cognizant and Anthropic to modernise travel booking and distribution systems using artificial intelligence, the companies announced on Tuesday. The collaboration aims to build an AI-powered travel ecosystem capable of improving how travel technology is developed, tested and maintained, while also bridging the gap between AI-driven travel planning and real-time booking systems.
Under the partnership, Cognizant will deploy Anthropic’s Claude AI models across Travelport’s travel retailing and distribution platforms. The initiative is expected to help airlines, hotels, travel management companies and online travel agencies improve efficiency and automate complex travel processes. The companies said existing booking systems are struggling to keep pace with the growing use of AI tools by travellers and the increasing complexity of itineraries handled by travel agents. The new AI infrastructure is expected to automate tasks such as rebooking, exchanges and disruption management while helping agents identify better travel options faster.
For online travel agencies, Travelport’s MCP-based architecture will allow conversational AI requests from travellers to be directly converted into confirmed bookings with live availability. Travelport CEO John Mangelaars said the partnership would help define the next era of travel technology, while Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S said the collaboration would enable faster and higher-quality software delivery at scale. The first customer-facing AI capabilities are expected to be launched later this year.