Julia to open Paris forum on fragmented AI in travel

Dr Luc Julia will deliver the opening keynote at the Global Travel Futures Forum in Paris, where participants will examine how different regions are developing separate AI systems for the travel industry.

The Global Resilience Network is convening the forum with Atout France, the European Travel Commission, the European Tourism Association and Sorbonne University. About 250 senior figures from travel, technology, finance, government, destinations and academia are expected to attend sessions at La Sorbonne and the Hôtel de l'Industrie.

Julia, known as a co-creator of Siri and a former technology executive at Samsung and Renault, is due to speak on the limits of artificial intelligence in a keynote titled AI Without the Hype: What Artificial Intelligence Can and Cannot Do. He is expected to focus on the gap between claims made about AI and the practical constraints on what systems can do without human judgement.

At the centre of the forum is whether companies can operate across AI ecosystems shaped by different rules on data, trust, sovereignty and scale. Instead of treating AI as a single global market, the programme compares approaches emerging in the United States, Europe and the UK, China, the Middle East and India.

Travel has been chosen as the test case because journeys cut across multiple systems, operators and jurisdictions. A single trip can involve airlines, airports, rail services, hotels, payment networks, border controls and digital platforms, raising questions about how AI tools interact when no single company controls the full process.

Regional divide

That divergence is already visible within Europe. Figures cited by the organisers show EU enterprise AI use rising from 13.5% in 2024 to 20.0% in 2025, but adoption rates vary sharply, from 42.0% in Denmark to 5.2% in Romania.

The spread suggests differences in AI readiness are widening even before cross-border interoperability issues are addressed. For the travel sector, those gaps matter because operators often rely on data flows, payment tools and customer service systems that must work across several countries at once.

Discussion topics include identity and data ownership across borders, interoperability between AI agents and payment systems, and governance questions around AI tools that search, plan, book and respond to disruption on behalf of travellers. Organisers have also emphasised where human oversight should remain in control.

Speakers from travel, consulting, technology and investment groups are due to take part. Confirmed names include Leon Li, Vice President of Public Affairs, and Ada Xu, Director International, from Alibaba and Fliggy; Javier Cabrerizo, Chief Strategy, Transformation and AI Officer, and Carlotta Galvin, Head of ESG, at HBX Group; Rylan Henriques, Managing Director and Partner at BCG; and Philippe Person, Director of Investment at Caisse des Dépôts.

Senior representatives from Alibaba Cloud, Sabre, MMGY, G2A, Rednote and Worldia are also listed, alongside tourism leaders including Eduardo Santander, Chief Executive Officer of the European Travel Commission, Tom Jenkins, Chief Executive Officer of the European Tourism Association, and Adam Oubieh, Chief Executive Officer of Atout France.

Industry test

The organisers argue that travel offers an early view of the practical problems created by fragmented AI development. As AI agents become more involved in trip search, booking, payments and disruption management, systems built in one jurisdiction may need to connect with others that follow different assumptions on access to data, liability and consumer protection.

Laurie Myers, Chief Executive Officer and Global Strategist of the Global Resilience Network, framed the issue as one of operational resilience rather than choosing a single model. "AI is not arriving as one global system with one set of rules," Myers said.

"Travel cannot prepare for only one future. Resilience will depend on operating across competing ecosystems while protecting trust and human agency. Paris puts those futures side by side and asks what leaders must do now," Myers said.

Julia's contribution is intended to offer a more sceptical view of the technology at a time when many sectors are racing to deploy AI products. His published position rejects the idea that AI is an autonomous force in itself and instead places responsibility on the people and institutions that design and use it.

That message was set out in a quote released ahead of the event. "If I had to say something nowadays, that would be 'Breathe, AI isn't going to kill us,' but also 'Be afraid of ourselves, not of AIs,'" Julia said.