Under the overarching conference theme of “The Future of Travel”, the organisers of ITB Asia, Messe Berlin (Singapore), have announced that this year’s keynote speeches will be delivered by industry leaders from IBM and Google.

Both will speak on the very latest trends in artificial intelligence, including the impact, use and benefits on the travel industry.

Starting from 09:00 on October 25th, the keynote addresses will be delivered by Tony Menezes, vice president of industrial and distribution sector at IBM Asia Pacific, and Rob Torres, managing director of advertising and marketing at Google.

Sharanjit Leyl, presenter and producer at BBC News, will moderate the keynote session.

Menezes will speak about the opportunities to fundamentally transform the travel industry with cognitive technology, and how IBM Watson is making travel experiences more personal, relevant and convenient.

In his role he is responsible for building and growing relationships across IBM’s portfolio of industry solutions, software, services and platforms.

Torres will be speaking about how consumer expectations for seamless, assistive experiences in travel are higher than ever before.

He will share how the Google Travel team is leveraging new digital trends and machine learning to build more immersive experiences for users across the travel journey.

“Artificial intelligence is making real waves in the travel industry and changing the way business is done.

“We’re seeing an increasing number of travel and hospitality brands integrating AI into their online strategies in efforts to improve customer service and engagement and it is clearly a major trend that is here to stay,” said Katrina Leung, executive director of Messe Berlin (Singapore) and ITB Asia.