It’s 7:30 AM in Chicago, and a storm has grounded flights across the Midwest. Business travelers are stranded; meetings are at risk of being canceled; and airline call centers are flooded with customer queries. For companies that rely on corporate travel management firms, this is the moment of truth. 

At Acendas Travel, part of the BCD Travel network, automation has become essential to meeting rising traveler expectations. Whether it’s a routine booking to Los Angeles or a last-minute re-route during a weather crisis, customers demand fast, personalized support. And increasingly, it’s customer experience (CX) technology, not just manpower, that makes that possible.  

Acendas sees automation through CX technology as the key to resilience, providing the agility to navigate airline IT issues, weather disruptions and even the challenges of a shrinking travel agent workforce.  

“We’ve always taken pride in providing high-touch service, but we had to find a way to make bookings faster and more efficient,” said Dan DeSive, Director of IT/Telecom at Acendas. “Automation allows us to do that without sacrificing quality.” 

Delivering consistently high-quality service is especially important for Acendas because its service delivery is integral to its corporate customers’ employee experience. “This really is about serving the client’s customer,” Vince Fulgenzi, CEO of implementation partner Vitec. “It’s about helping those business travelers.”  

But Acendas was struggling with a legacy system that didn’t offer visibility into performance or the flexibility needed in an increasingly digital, unpredictable travel environment. 

Elevating Customer Experience to New Heights

Acendas aimed to use CX automation in new and creative ways to elevate service levels while also improving the employee experience. Travelers would receive faster, more accurate responses, and agents would be freed to focus on the moments when human reassurance and expertise matter most. The journey began with implementing a cloud-based CX platform. 

When Acendas first evaluated CX technology options, the Genesys Cloud™ platform stood out as the optimal choice for its scalability, openness and responsiveness. DeSive points to the platform’s open APIs and deep analytics as game changers — enabling the company to complement the platform’s functionality with solutions from the Genesys AppFoundry® Marketplace and elsewhere.  

“Genesys is such an open platform,” said DeSive. “It allows us to connect to third-party systems, collect data in real time, and use that information to personalize and speed up service. That’s been huge for us.”  

Beyond scalability, Genesys Cloud provides access to robust analytics that inform decision-making and enable continuous improvement. By pairing Genesys Cloud with tools like PureInsights, an AppFoundry partner, the Acendas team can explore interaction data, combining it with information from external booking systems to build a fuller picture of the traveler’s experience. 

These insights not only drive efficiency projects like email automation, but also help Acendas anticipate customer needs, balance agent workloads and continually refine the quality of service. 

Before moving to Genesys Cloud, for example, the company measured its performance primarily by transaction volume, with little visibility into factors like handle time or agent utilization. Now, Acendas can track detailed metrics across every interaction — data that revealed a 24-minute average handle time for email bookings and justified investment in automation.  

Much of that handle time came from back-and-forth exchanges: A traveler might request “a trip to LA next week,” leaving agents to chase missing details about departure airports, hotels or rental cars.   

Acendas reimagined this process using third-party AI vendors in the Genesys AppFoundry. The system now scans incoming emails, extracts key details and generates smart follow-ups when information is missing. It can also tap into historical booking data and traveler profiles to suggest personalized options.  

Travelers receive tailored itineraries within minutes — often cutting booking times to just 12 minutes — before agents step in for a final review. This allows for a faster, smoother experience that encourages quicker traveler responses. 

“We’re trying to bring solutions to the table that require less agent touch,” said DeSive. “Like many companies, we want to book more transactions more quickly and accurately without having to grow headcount.” 

Balancing Automation and Human Touch 

Critically, automation hasn’t replaced Acendas travel agents. Instead, it has amplified their value.  

Implementing Genesys Cloud has allowed the travel management company to use AI-power capabilities to handle repetitive tasks like information-gathering and option generation, freeing agents to focus on complex needs or distressed travelers. 

This balance ensures that travelers never feel like they’re at the mercy of a machine. Instead, they get faster responses to simple queries without losing the empathy and expertise of a seasoned travel professional for their more complex travel needs. 

“We have to provide a better experience than travelers would get waiting on hold with an airline for 45 minutes,” said DeSive. “Automation helps us get there, but the human element is still essential.” 

The push toward automation is also a response to workforce realities. Many experienced travel agents have been in the industry for decades, navigating complex global distribution systems that resemble old mainframes. Training younger workers on those systems has proven difficult. 

As older agents retire, the talent pool shrinks. This creates urgency for automation to fill the gap.  

“We’ve got agents moving out of the workforce and there’s nobody coming in to replace them,” added Fulgenzi. “That unique skillset is tied to systems that new hires just aren’t interested in learning.” 

The Future of Travel Management 

Looking ahead, Acendas sees automation as central to its long-term success in delivering outstanding experiences. Whether it’s navigating weather disruptions, responding to airline IT meltdowns or adapting to a shrinking workforce, automation provides the agility needed to meet modern demands. 

DeSive is also watching closely as Genesys rolls out new AI-driven capabilities. “There’s always a new wave of innovation coming from Genesys to consider,” he said. “We’re a small shop trying to do more with less. Genesys helps us accomplish that.”  

The goal is clear: Empower agents, speed up transactions and deliver a service experience that’s better than anything travelers could achieve on their own. In an industry often defined by uncertainty, CX automation has become an asset Acendas can count on. 

Read the 2026 Buyer’s Guide for AI and CX to see how you can evolve your customer experience with AI-powered technologies.