Former Microsoft travel technology manager Steve Clagg has joined UK-based managed travel consulting firm Festive Road as AI architecture and delivery lead, the company announced on Wednesday (15 July).
The move comes as large language models, artificial intelligence and Model Context Protocol – and all the sales and marketing spin that has come with these technologies – is both transforming and scrambling the managed travel marketplace at record pace.
Consulting companies have been eager to secure travel-literate technologists to help translate conceptual change to on-the-ground application for travel managers.
Goldspring Consulting in January acquired Travel Tech Consulting, the firm led by Norm Rose, who stayed on in the short term as an advisor and partner to the consultancy. Partnership Travel Consulting hired former Disney travel manager Chris Singh in March, and Festive brought in former Ikea chief technology officer Susan Standiford as a strategic advisor last month. Data consulting firm Cerebri AI announced on Tuesday it had hired recent Meta travel manager Shane Earley as a "special projects" VP. Similarly, Clagg's appointment at Festive bolsters the team with influential and hands-on travel tech expertise.
"We are committed to helping clients stay ahead of [AI-driven] change rather than react to it. Steve brings the insight, experience and innovative thinking needed to help organisations unlock the opportunities AI presents while maintaining strategic control of their programmes and data," said Festive Road CEO Caroline Strachan in a statement.
Clagg added that the opportunity to join Festive was an "easy yes." He noted that "everyone has an AI point of view right now. Far fewer can turn it into architecture and deliver that hold up in the real world."
The latter will be Clagg's focus, according to the firm, as he shapes the advisory services and consulting solutions at Festive and supports clients in navigating the next generation of travel tech and transformation.