Use Case | How De Jong Intra Vakanties and AI Opener are making the travel industry smarter together
“You shouldn’t use AI to replace people, but to help them work smarter.” This isn’t just a tech cliché — it’s daily practice at De Jong Intra Vakanties. Since 2024, the tour operator has been working with AI specialist AI Opener to make employees not redundant, but more effective. The result: more speed, more scalability, without losing the human touch.
14 okt 2025
4 minutes
Thierry de Vries
Faster, more personalized, more creative
AI changes the work, not the people
When Maaike van der Windt joined travel organization De Jong Intra Vakanties, she had a clear goal in mind: to ensure the company stayed ready for the opportunities and challenges of the future. Growth, new markets, satisfied customers and partners, plenty of ambition. But with a compact team of eighty people, that is easier said than done. Van der Windt knew the key was not to work harder, but smarter, and in that, she saw an important role for artificial intelligence.
To explore the possibilities, she brought in the Amsterdam-based startup AI Opener to host an introductory AI workshop, a low-threshold way for the team to discover what AI could do for them. “We were all a bit shocked by what is already possible,” Van der Windt laughs. “But once you see it with your own eyes, it really comes to life.”
The brainstorming session sparked a wave of ideas. How can AI take over routine work? Which processes could become faster, more accurate, or more customer-friendly? Gradually, the image of a first virtual assistant began to take shape, and that colleague got a name: Eva, after the first woman.
Eva is not a robot with a headset, but a smart AI agent trained to write and optimize travel information. With a sense of language, nuance, and even the company’s own tone. “Eva knows which words we do and do not use,” Van der Windt smiles. Adding a new travel offer, once hours of writing, cutting and pasting, is now 60 percent automated. “The employee is no longer the writer, but the director. We call that ‘human in the lead.’ The control always stays with us.”
But Eva is only the beginning. Behind the scenes, much more is happening. AI now helps answer customer questions, handle complaints, and create clear daily itineraries for tours. “Designing a trip will always be human work,” says Van der Windt, “but AI ensures everything is presented quickly, accurately, and attractively.” This creates more time for genuine personal attention to the needs of travel agents and direct customers.
Together with AI Opener, more existing workflows are being mapped out. By literally drawing how processes run within the organization, it becomes immediately clear where there is room for improvement and where AI can add value. AI Opener observes, asks questions, develops smart solutions, tests them in practice, and keeps refining until everything works perfectly. The partnership now feels like a well-choreographed dance. “Thierry from AI Opener is full of ideas. He challenges us and spots opportunities we might overlook ourselves. But we set the pace,” Van der Windt explains. “We have limited capacity, so big thinking is fine, but no castles in the air. If we see an opportunity that can deliver value right now, we go for it. If we are unsure, we skip it for now.”
The introduction of artificial intelligence at De Jong Intra Vakanties has made the company more efficient, innovative and personal in a short time, says Van der Windt. Yet despite the technological progress, the human touch remains central. “AI is mainly a tool; it helps us work faster and serve customers better. But when it really matters, for example when a flight is canceled or a customer is stranded abroad, people want to talk to a person. No machine can replace that,” Van der Windt states firmly.
She is realistic about the future of AI in the travel industry. “We will work differently, certainly. AI will mainly change our tasks, not us as people.” She expects the rise of more digital assistants in the coming years: smarter systems that support employees and provide customers and partners with instant advice. But, she adds, “when it comes to large sums or important decisions, the need for reassurance and human advice remains as strong as ever. Technology is a tool, but in the end it’s our people who make the difference.”