Travelport, Cognizant and Anthropic have entered into a strategic collaboration aimed at transforming travel technology infrastructure for the AI era. The initiative will see the deployment of Anthropic’s Claude AI models across Travelport’s travel retailing and distribution platforms to modernise software development, testing and operational workflows.
The partnership is designed to address growing structural challenges within the travel industry, where legacy booking systems are increasingly struggling to keep pace with evolving traveller behaviour and AI-driven search experiences. The collaboration seeks to bridge the gap between conversational AI-based travel planning and real-time transactional booking systems.
Under the initiative, Cognizant will support Travelport’s AI transformation by integrating Claude into engineering platforms and development processes, enabling AI-assisted code generation, automated test creation and pull-request review capabilities. Anthropic’s large-context AI models will also be used to analyse Travelport’s complex codebases and streamline enterprise-scale software modernisation.
The companies stated that the collaboration is intended to accelerate AI-led innovation for airlines, hoteliers, travel management companies (TMCs) and online travel agencies globally, while embedding intelligent automation across Travelport’s platform ecosystem.
For travel agencies and TMCs, the platform is expected to automate several manual processes currently handled by agents, including itinerary management, rebooking, exchanges and disruption monitoring. The system will also provide predictive intelligence capabilities, allowing agents to identify routes with lower disruption risks and improve operational efficiency.
For online travel agencies, the collaboration aims to address limitations in current booking infrastructure that cannot effectively interpret conversational AI-based travel requests. Travelport’s MCP-based architecture will enable AI-generated travel queries to connect directly with live inventory and booking systems, converting conversational planning into confirmed bookings.
Ravi Kumar S, CEO of Cognizant, said the partnership reflects the growing need for enterprises to modernise how technology infrastructure is built and scaled. John Mangelaars, CEO of Travelport, said AI is already reshaping travel technology and added that the collaboration combines Anthropic’s AI capabilities, Cognizant’s engineering expertise and Travelport’s global distribution infrastructure.
Mangelaars also highlighted Anthropic’s development of MCP, the protocol that allows AI agents to interact directly with external systems and datasets, calling it a key factor in the collaboration. He added that reliability, safety and controllability remain critical in travel due to the sensitivity of customer data and the operational impact of errors.
The initial implementation will focus on Travelport Trip Services, which manages bookings, exchanges, refunds and servicing functions. The work is being developed on Travelport’s cloud-native platform, with the first customer-facing capabilities expected to launch later this year.
Rich O’Connell, Head of Alliances at Anthropic, said the collaboration reflects how AI reasoning capabilities can support complex enterprise modernisation projects, particularly in infrastructure-heavy sectors such as travel.
The initiative also extends the broader strategic partnership between Cognizant and Anthropic announced in November 2025 and aligns with Cognizant’s wider AI Builder strategy focused on scaling enterprise AI adoption across industries.
