How the travel titans are using AI
AI ASSISTANTS
For many people, planning and booking a holiday includes a shop, a uniformed travel agent and wall-to-wall glossy brochures. These things are still a thing, but the thirst for cheaper and faster everything is driving all industries to drink from the well of AI. Travel & Tourism is no exception, with the industry undergoing a dramatic conversion from the traditional human travel agent to the sophisticated AI agent. The change is replacing rigid search filters with fluid, natural language conversations that enable customers to plan a full holiday itinerary in minutes.
Leading this planning revolution are five global giants: Booking Holdings, Expedia Group, Airbnb, Tripadvisor and Marriott International. The businesses are creating“ conversational concierges” that understand personal nuances and“ vibe-based” requests. By integrating Large Language Models( LLMs) with proprietary data, they are seeking to make trip discovery as personalised as a bespoke human consultation.
Connected trip vision expands Booking Holdings is at the forefront of this evolution, using AI to recreate the intimacy of human service. Glenn Fogel, CEO, believes that artificial intelligence is poised to bring back the kind of personalised service travellers once got from a human agent, through the devices they use every day. Through tools like its AI Trip Planner and Penny, the group creates bookable, curated itineraries that actively manage the full travel experience.
How the travel titans are using AI
• Integrating AI across its business to deliver a“ Connected Trip” experience
• AI Trip Planner and Penny on Priceline function as conversational concierges
• Travellers can describe specific needs – such as a romantic petfriendly weekend – and receive an instantly bookable itinerary
• The company uses AI to manage disruptions like weather-related changes and missed reservations
• The integration of generative AI into customer service has produced lower cancellation rates and better customer conversion.
Glenn says:“ We’ re advancing our connected trip vision and continuing to build out AI capabilities that create more value for travellers and partners.”
The technology also manages realtime disruptions, such as reworking plans due to weather or missed reservations.
Internal superpowers drive efficiency Glenn accepts that there are huge challenges to face saying:“ It’ s the dawn of a new age and the problem is nobody has a good sense of what the future’ s going to be.” aimagazine. com
69