In the old version of this story, they’d spend the next hour on hold, then wait weeks for a reimbursement check to show up in the mail. Elad Schaffer, co-founder and CEO of AI-powered, end-to-end travel insurance platform Faye, is building toward a different version, one where the claim is already resolved and the money is already on the traveler’s phone before they’ve found a place to sit down.
Schaffer described Faye to PYMNTS as an autonomous platform for traveler care, combining insurance, travel assistance, information and financial tools into what he called a traveler’s “protector and companion” anywhere they go. The company operates as a full-stack insurance provider, meaning it sells policies, services them, decides claims and pays customers directly, rather than acting as a middleman between travelers and outside insurers.
Travel and insurance are filled with uncertainty and constantly shifting data, Schaffer said. Faye’s bet is that artificial intelligence can absorb much of that on the traveler’s behalf. The company already detects flight delays and cancellations on its own, often before the airline notifies the passenger, and can trigger compensation automatically.
Faye is aiming to fully automate more than half its claims volume in 2026, Schaffer said.
However, the business case for automation isn’t just about cutting servicing costs. Paying a customer their refund in seconds, rather than mailing a check the way insurers did decades ago, changes what customers expect and how fast a company can scale. Faye uses digital wallets and virtual cards to pay claims while someone is still on their trip. Schaffer pointed to a delayed bag as an example. A traveler photographs the airline’s form, and reimbursement lands on their phone in time to buy replacement clothes.
“It creates very memorable moments,” he said.
Judgment and Empathy Stay Human
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Not every part of the business goes to AI. Complex medical cases and emergency evacuations require judgment, care and empathy that Faye isn’t willing to automate, Schaffer said. AI can support those cases, but it won’t resolve them. The same holds for claim denials. Faye is comfortable using AI to approve claims, but a human always makes the call when a claim is denied, a distinction Schaffer described as deliberate.
That restraint extends to how Faye works with partners. The company distributes coverage through airlines, travel agencies, online travel agencies and banks, and AI lets those partners move away from one-size-fits-all policies toward coverage tailored to a specific traveler or trip, something the heavily regulated insurance industry has historically made slow and expensive to build. Products that once took months to file and rate across state and national regulatory regimes can now be built in days.
Insurance Sells Trust, Not Software
Travel insurance is unusually resistant to AI-driven disruption because insurance isn’t software that AI can simply replicate, Schaffer said.
“It is an exchange of trust,” he said. “You’re buying a promise to be made whole when something goes wrong.”
Schaffer said he also expects AI to expand the travel market itself, adding that freed-up time and income will send people traveling more, not less.
Looking further out, Schaffer said he expects the exchange between insurer and traveler to become less human on both sides. Rather than a customer filing a claim themselves, a customer’s own AI agent could scan inboxes and receipts to assemble documentation automatically, communicating directly with Faye’s systems. Many claim delays today come down to travelers lacking the right paperwork, not disputes over what’s owed, Schaffer said. Agents talking to agents could resolve that friction before it starts, although the move raises its own question: If both sides of a claim are eventually run by AI, what exactly remains of the trust Schaffer said the product is actually selling?
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