The complexity and frequency of world
events significantly threaten and impact travelers more so every day. The world
is interconnected and events can cascade into a chain reaction of delays,
frustration or worse: violence. At the same time, the power of globally
connected mobile devices means information is always in the hands of today's
business travelers. It all adds up to the capability to provide real time
information directly to travelers. What seemed far-fetched a decade ago is now
achievable.
Predictive analytics, at the forefront of data science,
employs powerful information systems to scan and recognize when factors will
converge to yield problems. This is not new; hedge funds employ this to
anticipate stock market moves and medical care providers to anticipate patient
reactions to planned treatments.
Now, a new class of innovation is looking at the world in
much the same way. Because global data is increasing rapidly and events are
instantaneously reported on social media, the opportunity for predictive
analytics to anticipate problems down to the neighborhood level has arrived.
Risk management organizations, too, will benefit from a leveled-up standard for
duty of care. Connected business travelers will be able to travel with
confidence, security and knowledge and will be able to focus more on
productivity and less on uncertainty.
Imagine a business traveler or travel arranger
receiving an automated notification when they book a hotel in a location deemed
to be high risk or unsafe. The online booking tool could suggest an alternative
that is safer based on historical incident data and the possibility of an
incident occurring in the near future (e.g., 80 percent chance of criminal
activity in the area based on past events). Machine learning algorithms will
manage the process based on the risk levels the organization's risk management
team had already set.