Hello to Canada’s SaaS and AI Community,
AI is changing the way modern companies think about customer experience and how they build for scale.
At HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions), it’s become the backbone of how the company operates: driving faster service, smarter personalization and more resilient operations.
Ahead of her SAAS NORTH 2025 session, From CX to AI Agents: How Modern Companies Are Reimagining Customer Experience, Jo Lai, HTS’ SVP of AI Solutions and Customer Experience, shared how the company is redefining what great customer experience looks like in the AI era and what SaaS leaders can take from their approach.
Key takeaways:
- AI should solve real customer problems, not be treated as a goal or product feature.
- Reliability builds trust; consistency matters more than novelty.
- AI agents should have defined roles, accountability, and guardrails within teams.
- Foundational data and integrations are essential; AI cannot fix broken systems.
- Futureproofing means designing flexible, AI-ready customer journeys.
Co-Founder/Producer, SAAS NORTH Conference Editor, SAAS NORTH NOW
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When Jo and her team at HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions) began exploring conversational AI, their goal wasn’t to deploy technology for its own sake, it was to build tools that deliver real outcomes for travelers. That practical focus now defines how HTS approaches every aspect of customer experience.
Grounding AI In Real Problems
Jo was clear about the challenge:
“AI in and of itself is not necessarily a business objective. It’s more so the how than the why or the what.”
At HTS, that principle guided years of experimentation.
The company began with airfare and hotel price prediction, helping travelers make smarter booking decisions. Over time, that same data-driven mindset led to HTS Assist, a new AI product launching that will be discussed live at SAAS NORTH 2025.
HTS Assist is an autonomous conversational agent that handles rebookings, cancellations, and refunds (tasks that traditionally required hours of manual effort).
“The biggest lesson,” Jo said, “is solving real problems. AI in and of itself is not the problem or necessarily the outcome.”
Designing AI As Teammates
Jo described HTS’ approach as designing organizations where humans and AI work side by side.
“We consider AI agents almost sort of new team members… just like people, AI agents need clearly defined responsibilities, integration into the right systems and environments, and transparent guardrails.”
HTS’ philosophy treats AI agents as accountable participants in the business, not just background processes.
Leaders decide which tasks AI should own end-to-end and where human judgment remains critical. For SaaS leaders, that approach provides a model for integrating AI into team structures with intention, not disruption.
Building Trust Through Reliability
When it comes to adoption, Jo stressed that functionality drives trust:
“Customers don’t just adopt AI because it’s novel. They will adopt it because it works like any other product, they’ll adopt it if it works consistently and reliably.”
HTS trains its systems on millions of real-world customer conversations, grounding them in operational data from airlines, hotels, and payment systems. That foundation gives the AI the ability to act autonomously and to know when not to.
“If users are self-selecting that they don’t want to use the technology,” Jo said, “we believe it’s important to allow them to do so because it builds better trust in the long term.”
Trust, in HTS’ view, comes from reliability, transparency and customer control.
Avoiding Common Pitfalls
Jo warned SaaS leaders against expecting AI to fix structural gaps.
“If there is no enterprise knowledge base, AI is not going to come in and magically fix that,” she explained.
Successful implementation depends on solid foundations, clean data, connected systems and documented business logic. AI amplifies what’s already there; it doesn’t replace it.
“AI works exceptionally well in the tech stack when it is deeply integrated into your technology ecosystem,” Jo said. “There needs to be input in order for there to be viable output.”
Measuring What Matters
HTS’ AI success metrics focus on impact, not novelty.
“Speed, efficiency, sentiment, and cost, those are the critical ones,” Jo noted.
Response and resolution times are the clearest indicators of performance, alongside customer sentiment captured in natural language. HTS also measures conversion rates within conversations, its AI can intelligently recommend upgrades or add-ons when appropriate.
“Our AI is really intelligent at cross-selling at the right opportunity,” Jo said. “Taking a look at that and measuring the success of conversion rates has been a really critical metric for us.”
Futureproofing The Customer Journey
Looking ahead, Jo’s guidance for SaaS leaders is straightforward but forward-thinking:
“It’s important to design the customer journey to be adaptable and AI ready from the start.”
Flexibility is the new advantage.
Technologies, models, and customer expectations will continue to evolve rapidly, but systems built with adaptability can scale alongside them.
“Future proofing isn’t just about predicting what is the next AI feature that will be released or the next tool,” Jo said. “It’s about building a holistic customer journey that can actually evolve with the way the technology changes overall.”
What to Expect At SAAS NORTH 2025
Jo’s session, From CX to AI Agents, will take attendees behind the scenes of HTS’ transformation, from rule-based chatbots to fully autonomous systems processing millions in transactions. Expect a candid discussion on what works, what doesn’t, and how to build AI that actually earns customer trust.
While many companies are still experimenting with generative AI, HTS (Hopper Technology Solutions) systems are already delivering measurable ROI at scale. At SAAS NORTH 2025, Jo will share the frameworks and lessons that got them there.
SAAS NORTH is Canada’s hub for scaling SaaS and AI companies. Founders, teams, and investors come to learn, connect, and grow with the country’s largest in-person tech community.