Remember when planning a work trip felt like a second job? Finding the right venue, plotting meetings and navigating new cities could take hours, if not days. Now, AI tools are making that grind redundant, allowing professionals to streamline schedules, find their way and execute trips with efficiency that once seemed impossible.
Why AI is becoming essential for modern travelers
More and more, travelers are leaning on AI to take the guesswork out of getting from point A to B. From finding the fastest route through a new city to suggesting the right restaurant for a client lunch, these tools are becoming indispensable. Business travelers, in particular, are embracing them like a secret weapon, letting AI handle scheduling, directions and even meeting arrangements so they can focus on more important tasks.
Booking.com’s latest Global AI Sentiment Report paints a clear picture of a world increasingly reliant on AI for travel. Nearly 9 in 10 consumers say they want to use AI tools for planning their trips, while 24% trust AI assistants more than travel bloggers, who garner just 19% confidence. With AI capable of recommending activities, mapping routes and even managing bookings, travelers are embracing digital help at every step.
The July report found that 67% have already used AI in some aspect of travel, with nearly all using it to plan or book trips (98%) or while on the go (96%). Most commonly, AI helps with researching destinations and best travel times (38%), finding local cultural activities (37%) and recommending restaurants (36%).
Using AI to plan multicity business trips and smart layovers
There are various AI tools you can use to kickstart your plans. Hopper, for example, uses machine learning to analyze historical fare data and predict when ticket prices will rise or fall. Just enter your destination and travel dates and set alerts, and its AI will notify you of the best time to book—especially handy if you can be flexible, unlocking potential savings.
Skyscanner is another go-to. Enter your origin, destination and dates, and its AI scans thousands of airlines, routes and prices. Swap nearby airports, adjust your dates or explore multicity options to save even more. Its layover suggestions let you either reach your destination quickly or grab some productive work time midjourney.
If you’ve ever wished for a personal travel assistant who can help with flights, layovers and hotel options, Skyscanner’s chatbots—available across platforms like Facebook Messenger, Skype and Amazon Alexa—are as close as it gets.
Since launch, they’ve surpassed one million unique traveler interactions, offering AI-powered guidance on finding the best flights, alternative routes and nearby airports. While not a traditional chatbot on the Skyscanner website or mobile app, these bots let users interact via messaging or voice, helping them search and explore travel options in a more conversational way. Once the bot helps you identify your ideal flight, it always directs you to the Skyscanner website or app to complete the booking. This means you get the convenience of a conversational AI to narrow down options, but all final selections, price comparisons and bookings happen on Skyscanner’s main platform.
Midtrip, it doesn’t just sit there: It can give advice on layovers, shuttle options, airport services and even local tips to make the journey smoother. And when it’s time to share your experience, the chatbot can even help you draft reviews for flights or hotels.
Chatbots like ChatGPT and Copilot are other useful digital companions to consider on your travels. Ask them to compare airlines, check flexible dates or find faster, cheaper routes. Refine prompts with instructions like, “Show flights with layovers under three hours” or “Get me there in time for a morning meeting.” They can also handle the smaller details like finding airport workspaces, shuttles, baggage rules and perks. For busy executives, these tools make flying cheaper, faster and stress-free, so you can focus on work, not tabs.
Study: Over half of global travelers would let AI book their trips
A recent survey by Talker Research shows younger Americans in particular are increasingly turning to AI, including ChatGPT, to plan study getaways. Among 2,000 respondents evenly split by generation, only 29% of millennials and 33% of Gen Z reported never using AI for trip planning, compared with 70% of baby boomers who stick to traditional methods.
According to Accenture, AI is becoming an essential part of the travel toolkit not just in the U.S, but globally. Among 18,000 respondents across 14 countries, over half said they would let AI manage their bookings, while frequent generative AI users are increasingly turning to it first for discovering destinations.
Using AI to optimize travel schedules around meetings
Why waste a layover in a boring terminal? AI mapping tools can plot your day so you crush your meetings and explore the city at the same time. It can identify shortcuts, suggest nearby attractions and even flag hidden gems, letting you make the most of every spare hour without stressing about travel logistics.
Take MindTrip: Enter your destination, travel dates and priorities, and it instantly maps out a full itinerary from flights, hotels and restaurants to personalized cultural experiences. For busy executives, it’s a lifesaver: the platform can suggest the perfect nearby gallery or café to prep for a meeting, sneak in a bit of leisure, or simply stretch your legs. A tight schedule suddenly feels manageable.
What makes it even smarter? You can chat with MindTrip’s chatbot to refine your plans in real time so you can swap activities, adjust meeting times or explore hidden gems, all through a conversational interface. Teams can collaborate too, planning flights, hotels and meetings together, while the platform tracks bookings and divides expenses.
The real advantage comes when you let these tools learn your habits. They start to anticipate your preferred airlines, optimal meeting times and even the best workspaces in unfamiliar cities. That means less time fretting over logistics and more time focusing on the purpose of your trip. Treat AI as your unseen travel assistant, and suddenly, business trips feel less like a grind and more like a well-oiled operation.
Oracle (ORCL) is set to report its fiscal first-quarter earnings Tuesday after the bell, with Wall Street expecting a 30% jump in cloud business revenue fueled by AI. Investors will also be watching closely for details on the company’s $30 billion deal, reportedly with OpenAI.
Shares in the software giant have soared more than 60% over the past year. The stock was down less than 1% ahead of the earnings report.
The company has been securing a massive amount of Nvidia’s coveted GPUs (graphics processing units, or AI chips) and renting out that computing power through its OCI cloud business.
Analysts expect sales in the Cloud Services business, the company’s largest revenue driver, to increase to $7.3 billion in Q1.
For the quarter ended in August, analysts polled by Bloomberg expect the company to report adjusted earnings per share of $1.48 and revenue of $15 billion. That’s ahead of the $1.39 earnings per share and $13.3 billion in quarterly revenue in the previous year.
But Barclays (BARC.L) analyst Raimo Lenschow wrote in a note to clients Monday: “We argue that this Q1, investor[s] should pay more attention to the additional commentary from management rather than the quarter itself.” He pointed to Oracle’s announcement in June of a deal set to bring in over $30 billion in annual revenue starting in its 2028 fiscal year, sending the stock to a new record, with multiplemediaoutlets reporting the customer is OpenAI.
Other analysts also stressed the importance of the deal, with RBC Capital Markets analyst Rishi Jaluria writing: “[T]he stock reaction will hinge on clarity around incremental contribution from the presumed OpenAI deal, Stargate timing, and OCI growth and profitability.”
Investors will also be listening for details about the Stargate AI project — a massive $500 billion AI infrastructure deal between Oracle, OpenAI, and SoftBank (SFTBY) unveiled at the White House in June by Trump, Oracle chairman Larry Ellison, OpenAI chief Sam Altman, and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.
It’s unclear how much of the $30 billion deal with OpenAI is represented by Stargate, or when the project will come online fully. OpenAI in July said its partnership with Oracle to launch an Abilene, Texas data center that would run “over 2 million chips” as part of Stargate was “progressing,” with some of the facility already “up and running.” But SoftBank in August said it’s taking longer than expected to get Stargate off the ground.
Questions remain, however, over whether Oracle can continue to ride the AI wave profitably.
“While Oracle’s substantial momentum within its emerging AI infrastructure business is clear, the underlying margin profile of this incremental revenue remains a key debate,” wrote Morgan Stanley (MS) analyst Keith Weiss, noting that the company last quarter refrained from reiterating its prior 45% margin target for its 2026 fiscal year.
Varshney comes from IBM, where he was the head of data and artificial intelligence for the technology pioneer’s consulting business. At Citi, he will report to Anand Selva, the bank’s chief operating officer; and will work closely with the firm’s chief technology officer, David Griffiths, to scale AI across the company, according to a memo sent to Citi employees on Tuesday morning seen by Business Insider.
Citi has already given about 175,000 employees access to AI tools like Stylus, Workspaces, and Assist. The bank has also begun using AI to strengthen customer service in its US personal banking business through a “multi-year initiative to enhance our customers’ experience through specialized GenAI tools, driving efficiency and operational excellence,” Selva wrote in the memo.
“With Shobhit’s leadership, we will accelerate the hard work that has been underway for more than a year to integrate the power of AI into Citi’s strategy and operations,” Selva wrote in the note to employees. “Our firmwide goals are clear: responsibly build AI capabilities that enhance the client and colleague experience, strengthen internal controls and boost internal productivity.”
This summer, Business Insider reported that the Tribeca-based firm was “accelerating” its AI plans with the appointment of three senior leaders to steer the bank’s strategy. Gonzalo Luchetti runs US Personal Banking and brings a focus on consumers. Tim Ryan runs Technology and Business Enablement and has the tech skills. Selva will help spread the strategy across operations.
The move highlights the broader race among banks to deploy AI. As Business Insider has reported, firms from JPMorgan to Goldman Sachs are experimenting with ways to automate routine work, improve risk controls, and boost efficiency through new tools. At a Barclays financial services conference on Monday, Goldman CEO David Solomon said he was extremely optimistic about the potential for AI to boost efficiency and release capital for new investments.
Any conversation about technology at Citi invariably turns to “the transformation,” the bank’s efforts — which are overseen by Selva — to reconcile with its long-running data management issues. It’s in the process of revamping the sprawling firm to appease regulators.
“Citi is modernizing our infrastructure and automating manual processes, simplifying our ways of working and upgrading technology and platforms,” Selva wrote in the memo, adding: “Our firmwide AI integration is a natural continuation of this work.”
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Here’s the full text of Selva’s memo to staff:
Message From Anand Selva
Dear Colleagues,
I’m excited to share that Shobhit Varshney has joined Citi as Head of AI. Shobhit joins Citi from IBM — a leader in AI implementation.
Shobhit’s Mandate
Shobhit has worked at IBM, as well as with large organizations, to drive AI-led transformations at scale, partnering with a broad range of stakeholders. Building on this experience, he will partner closely with Citi’s Executive Management Team and leaders across the firm to co-create an agile process and data-driven approach for scaling AI responsibly across our firm. Working together with our established AI community, including our AI Leads, Champions and Accelerators, Shobhit will drive adoption and deployment of AI across Citi.
In this role, Shobhit will report directly to me, working in lockstep with David Griffiths, our Chief Technology Officer, who’s leading the development of our firmwide AI technology tools and capabilities.
At IBM, Shobhit was Head of Data & AI, and was responsible for leading the AI, Data & Automation business at IBM Consulting across the U.S., Canada and Latin America.
AI at Citi
With Shobhit’s leadership, we will accelerate the hard work that has been underway for more than a year to integrate the power of AI into Citi’s strategy and operations. Our firmwide goals are clear: responsibly build AI capabilities that enhance the client and colleague experience, strengthen internal controls and boost internal productivity. We’re already seeing progress:
Our Citi AI tools — Stylus, Workspaces and Assist — have been rolled out to ~175,000 colleagues globally, and we’re seeing our teams use these tools in new and creative ways.
We’re using AI to assess and strengthen our internal controls, for example within our improved Manager’s Control Assessment (MCA), where teams used AI to prioritize controls improvement work.
In U.S. Personal Banking, we’ve launched a multi-year initiative to enhance our customers’ experience through specialized GenAI tools, driving efficiency and operational excellence. We’ve rolled out our new tools, like Agent Assist, to over 5,000 agents so far across our three businesses: Branded Cards, Retail Services and Retail Banking.
Citi is modernizing our infrastructure and automating manual processes, simplifying our ways of working and upgrading technology and platforms. Our firmwide AI integration is a natural continuation of this work. We have established a strong foundation for the development of AI technology and its responsible deployment at Citi. As we continue to build on our foundation and continue to invest, we are at a point to scale and expand our capabilities across the firm.
Please join me in welcoming Shobhit to the firm. I know he shares our excitement and vision for Citi’s future and will hit the ground running to strategically expedite our AI capabilities. As a firm, we share a commitment to becoming a better bank every day and embracing AI is a critical part of this journey. Thank you all for your enthusiasm and curiosity so far — there are many more exciting milestones ahead!
Active sourcing can help recruiters find candidates that are a better match
Retail teams note the lowest satisfaction with existing tools
IT and marketing teams will spend the most on new tools
TestGorilla’s latest report found that barely more than one in three (37%) US hiring and recruiting leaders are well-prepared for AI, automation and advanced analytics.
This is despite three-quarters (77%) of them stating that active sourcing is ‘essential’ or ‘very important’.
Even though HR and recruiting professionals acknowledge the important of active sourcing, where teams go out and actively find candidates instead of waiting for people to apply, only 27% have actively sourced more than half their hires.
HR and recruitment are due a technological makeover
Talent acquisition teams are still struggling with key steps in the process, such as struggling to verify skills on resumes (58%), identifying if candidates align with the company culture (47%) and finding skilled workers at all (43%).
IT organizations also noted outdated candidate data (44%) and integration gaps between tools (48%) as major hurdles – even in a tech-first sector, while retail teams reported the lowest satisfaction with sourcing tools (31% vs. 54% on average).
“[Sourcing teams are] expected to deliver quality hires in a market where AI is rapidly reshaping talent acquisition, skills are harder to verify, and outdated tools can’t keep up,” Test Gorilla CEO Wouter Durville explained.
Looking ahead, IT professionals expect more of a disruption from AI and automation (54%) than they do skills shortages (27%). This is despite two in three (67%) IT teams planning to invest in new sourcing tech within the next 12 months, with marketing teams most likely to budget for new tools (75%).
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“Better sourcing comes down to three things: smarter signals on skills and culture, tools that integrate seamlessly, and clear ROI measurement so you can double down on what works and fix what doesn’t,” Durville added.
