| Travis Markel (Chief Operating Officer, arrivia)

In the Future of Voice AI series of interviews, I ask three questions to my guests:

- What problems do you currently see in Enterprise Voice AI?
- How does your company solve these problems?
- What solutions do you envision in the next 5 years?

This episode’s guest is Travis Markel, Chief Operating Officer at arrivia.

Travis joined arrivia with more than two decades of experience in travel, loyalty, and contact center leadership. His passion for great service, knowledge of business operations, and deep understanding of the customer experience have been established through his hands-on approach with industry leaders in vacation, corporate, and loyalty travel as well as leading operations outside of the travel industry.

For more than 25 years, arrivia has powered travel loyalty and rewards programs for some of the world’s most respected cruise, hotel, resort, and financial brands, including American Express®, USAA®, T-Mobile®, and Marriott Vacation Clubs®.

Arrivia’s travel privileges technology platform provides travel loyalty, booking, and marketing solutions that deliver exceptional customer value and drive growth through exciting travel rewards and member benefits.

Recap Video

Takeaways

• Booking travel is personal. Customers crave trust, empathy, and expertise, not just convenience.

• Half of arrivia’s calls are outbound and prove that proactive voice engagement still drives growth.

• In high-stakes moments, voice builds trust faster than any digital channel.

• arrivia frames its agents as "dream enablers," showing a mindset shift from transaction to transformation.

• Your call center is your brand and every voice interaction shapes perception more than a website ever could.

• AI is turning human agents into real-time, insight-powered pros.

• Agent training is stuck in the past — AI should be the coach in every call, facilitating real-time feedback loops.

• Traditional QA takes too long. Real-time AI feedback is a game-changer for quality.

• Speed to resolution isn’t the holy grail. Confidence and personalization are what keep customers loyal.

• The future isn’t AI vs. human — it’s AI-powered specialists replacing disconnected generalists to deliver more empowered, more effective humans.

• Offshoring is a cost tactic, but maintaining quality voice-based experiences requires deep cultural training.

• Real personalization in interactions means understanding not just what a customer wants, but why they want it.

• AI can hear what supervisors can’t to give consistent, unbiased views of how interactions actually unfold.

• Agents equipped with AI get more than just scripts: they get coaching, context, and confidence.

• The biggest unlock in support with voice AI is closing the feedback gap between what’s said and what’s learned.

• Emotion and tone are as critical as the words in voice interactions and AI needs to understand both.

• Contact centers must become learning organizations where every call improves the next one.

• Tech that replaces people is lazy — tech that elevates them transforms the business.