Custom Travel Solutions wins Silver for AI customer support

Custom Travel Solutions has won a Silver award in the Best Use of AI category at the US Customer Experience Awards, recognising its use of artificial intelligence in customer support.

The US-based travel loyalty technology provider has embedded AI across its service operation to analyse member interactions across voice, email and chat. The system reviews every customer conversation, measures customer and agent sentiment in near real time, and identifies coaching opportunities for support teams.

Custom Travel Solutions provides white-label travel loyalty and booking infrastructure to banks, membership organisations, fintech companies, publishers and other partners. Its tools are used by travel brands looking to improve member engagement and repeat bookings.

The award follows the rollout of what the company describes as a full-stack AI system across customer support. Since introducing the approach in 2023, it has shifted from reviewing a sample of customer conversations to analysing all interactions across its main support channels.

According to figures provided by the company, the system has analysed more than 135,000 customer interactions, delivered 100% conversation coverage, and contributed to an 11% improvement in customer sentiment. It also reported an 80% reduction in quality review time and a 25% increase in agent productivity.

Human focus

Custom Travel Solutions said it has used AI to support staff rather than reduce headcount. The tools help managers improve consistency and service quality while giving teams more visibility over booking amendments, destination queries and travel disruption cases.

The approach also extends beyond contact centre support. The company uses an AI-based hotel booking reconfirmation tool, Reconfirm.ai, to confirm bookings are in place before guests arrive at hotels.

Paul Kitching outlined the company's position on the role of AI in service operations.

"AI should make travel companies more human, not less. By giving our teams complete visibility into every customer conversation, we're able to coach better, solve problems faster, and deliver the personalized service travelers increasingly expect. This award recognizes that AI is at its most valuable when it empowers people rather than replacing them," said Paul Kitching, Vice President of Operations, Custom Travel Solutions.

Sector trend

The recognition comes as travel companies across airlines, hotels, tour operators and loyalty programmes invest more heavily in AI tools for customer engagement and service management. Businesses in the sector are increasingly using automation and analytics to handle higher volumes of customer contact while trying to maintain service standards.

In that context, customer service has become a more visible point of competition among travel brands. Speed of response, the handling of booking changes, and the management of disruptions can all influence whether customers return.

According to the organisers, the award was judged by an independent panel of customer experience leaders, practitioners and industry specialists. Custom Travel Solutions won in a category for companies with up to 5,000 employees.

Danilo Kusmuk, an Awards Consultant for the programme, commented on the result.

"Customer Travel Solutions exemplifies what happens when a business truly invests in AI to solve real customer problems. Winning a Silver Award in the Best Use of AI category for companies with up to 5,000 employees is an incredible achievement given the competition and reflects the calibre of innovation we saw across this year's entries. On behalf of everyone at USCXA 26, congratulations to the whole team," said Kusmuk.

Custom Travel Solutions said its AI system combines interaction analysis, conversational AI and automated booking verification across the customer journey, linking support operations with booking follow-up and service monitoring.