Why Traineline is betting that AI will be just the ticket to transport its mobile app market success to the next station

The UK’s Trainline is Europe's leading rail app built on a market-leading customer experience with an 18 million strong user base. What it’s achieved with mobile app design and deployment, it now hopes to replicate with its AI strategy, which CEO Jody Ford attests is now “becoming a core part of how we compete”.

The rail industry, particularly in the UK, puts up some significant barriers to AI dis-intermediation that need to be overcome, Ford notes:

Rail retailing is inherently complex. Customers expect a simple, consistent and reliable user experience with end-to-end transaction capability from search to purchase to post-sales - and that's across multiple carriers with all fares, ticket types and railcards available. Online retailers must deeply integrate into a wide array of carrier APIs to offer full functionality. Those carrier APIs are non-public, so the retailer needs commercial relationships and accreditations with those carriers supported ...