In a session titled ‘Forward momentum: Powering the next travel retail experience’, Kim challenged the industry to rethink not only how AI can improve existing operations, but how it could fundamentally reshape the way businesses are built, exploring the rapid pace of technological transformation and questioning whether the industry is truly prepared for the scale of change ahead.

“The world is changing at a very fast pace, but every tech wave starts with the wrong question – how do we fit the new technology into our old business?” she said.

“With AI, a lot of companies are asking how do we automate pieces of the business we already run? However most breakthroughs come when we start asking the question: how do we think about the new models that become possible with the new technologies?”

Kim, who has also invested in machine-learning technology businesses throughout her career, highlighted the acceleration of frontier AI capabilities and the implications for business productivity.

“Frontier AI capabilities are advancing incredibly quickly,” she said. “By 2027 they should be able to do tasks quickly that would have previously taken the entire workday.”

Referencing the rapid adoption of ChatGPT, she noted how companies across industries are increasingly concerned about falling behind.

“It took ChatGPT just two months to be adopted around the world, so lots of companies are asking which technologies to adopt so they don’t run behind,” she explained.

Kim identified several major shifts already beginning to reshape travel retail.

“But it is less about what to adopt and more about how to adopt AI to move you into this transition. We need to rethink what are the strategies that become possible as we make use of these technologies.”

Kim identified several major shifts already beginning to reshape travel retail, describing the sector as one entering a “technology-rich era” featuring developments such as real-time pricing, biometric gates, self-checkout, intelligent signage, personalisation and augmented reality try-on experiences.

At the same time, she argued that consumer behaviour itself is fundamentally changing.

“The way customers have found what they want to buy has traditionally been through search,” she said. “Now search is being replaced by conversation which is tech driven.” She illustrated the concept with a future-facing example of AI-assisted shopping in airports. “If you tell them that you want a gift for your mother-in-law that you can take on a plane, you will quickly be found that it has been reserved for you at gate B25,’” she joked. “AI agents are taking the action on our behalf.”

Kim challenged the industry to rethink not only how AI can improve existing operations, but how it could reshape the way businesses are built.

Throughout the presentation, Kim stressed that AI capability alone does not automatically translate into business performance. “Most companies are thinking too narrowly,” she said. “They shouldn’t just be using it to help write emails or create chatbots.” Instead, businesses must examine where AI can fundamentally reshape their production processes and remove operational bottlenecks.

Kim shared findings from an experiment involving 515 high-growth ventures across Asia Pacific, Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. Over a three-month period, participating firms received API credits, technical training, mentorship and venture capital exposure. Some firms were additionally shown how AI-native businesses mapped AI into their organisational structures and production models.

“What we found was that when firms solved this mapping problem, the economics changed,” she said. “It doubled the revenues of the average company in the group and they experienced the growth with 40% lower demand for capital. It was all about understanding how AI can reduce bottlenecks in your company and the service you provide.”

Moving to the theme of future readiness, Kim shared several examples of companies that successfully reimagined their business models through AI-enabled thinking.

One example was Gamma, the AI-powered presentation platform that allows users to create decks through simple prompts. “What used to be a service-based model has shifted to a software economic model,” she explained. “Instead of growth being tied to headcount, they are now able to serve more than 70 million users and create more than one million decks per day with just 50 people.”

Another example was Bark, originally a subscription business focused on dog toys and treats, which later launched Bark Air, a premium airline service for dogs and their owners. “They shifted their mantra from ‘we sell toys and treats’ to ‘we make dogs happy’,” she said. “The lesson was that AI didn’t deliver the airline, it delivered the freedom to imagine it.”

Kim closed her presentation with a direct challenge to delegates: “If you were building your business from scratch today with AI – what would you build?”

Kim closed her presentation with a direct challenge to delegates. “If you were building your business from scratch today with AI – what would you build?” she asked.

The session concluded with a discussion moderated by author and venture capitalist Azran Osman-Rani, focusing on the practical realities of AI adoption and experimentation. Kim acknowledged that businesses are still navigating uncertainty around best practice and implementation strategies. “You need to find a way to experiment without too high a cost,” she said. “It is a new wave so you need to find what works for you.”

She also stressed the importance of employee training and internal capability building as AI becomes increasingly embedded into everyday workflows. “We also need to think about training so staff can lead in whatever workflow they do so they can work effectively with these tools day to day,” she said. “This of course takes time, on top of a full-time job. There is no time to just play around with pilots, so we need to figure out how to fit this in.”

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