It wasn't that long ago that travelers planned their trips without the internet.
“Back in the day, our parents would go to these travel agents and really express what they were looking for and what kind of vacation they wanted,” says Layla, an AI travel planner. said Saad Saeed, co-founder and CEO. The website was launched this year. “Slowly, we got used to starting to use these search boxes, clicks, forms, and filters.”
Artificial intelligence-powered tools like Layla can now turn back the clock on that experience, engaging with users in an almost human-like way, leveraging lightning speed and all the resources of the web to plan their trip. can be customized. But does AI actually make travel planning easier, and can it compare to human expertise?
Yes and no. Here's why:
Can AI really understand us?
You can try it.
“What are you personally looking for in this trip and what do you want from it?” Said asked. “For example, do you want to be reunited with your partner, or do you just want adventure and thrills?”
A human travel agent may ask a series of questions to understand a customer's needs. The same goes for generative AI that recognizes keywords. Mindtrip, an AI planner that opened to the public on May 1, asks users to prioritize things like, “Is your ideal vacation day an exhilarating adventure or a relaxing getaway?” There are real travel quizzes you can ask for. Use a sliding scale.
“What you get at the end of the quiz using AI is a truly customized explanation,” explains Mindtrip founder and CEO Andy Moss. This will inform what the AI will suggest to the traveler.
Informed suggestions not only save users time narrowing down their destinations and experiences, but also introduce them to places they would never have discovered on their own.
Click here for AI trip planning:How to use it to plan your next vacation and what you need to know first
Can AI completely replace humans?
No, Layla might sound more human when she uses conversational phrases like “I have three cozy nests that won't make your wallet cry.”
“She has a personality. We try to make her interesting and so on, but it's that friend who actually gets to know you and recommends the perfect thing,” Said said. Ta.
But some of Layla's expertise is based on the real-life experiences of the roughly 1,600 travel content creators the Berlin-based platform partners with. Their videos and insights can give users a richer picture of what to expect.
Mindtrip also relies on human expertise, employing a limited group of travel influencers for curated content, ultimately allowing anyone to share their travel itineraries and experiences with the general public. We are planning to publish the content.
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Is AI a threat to privacy?
AI has advanced so rapidly over the past year that some users are concerned about its safety.
“Data privacy is definitely one of our biggest concerns, and we basically ensure that no personally identifiable information ever reaches our model providers. That all stays with us.” said Said of Layla. “Their personally identifiable data is essentially never used to profile them or get into the systems that are training the various models.”
As the nation's largest provider of AI to the federal government, Booz Allen Hamilton adheres to government policies regarding data collection and is focused on ethical and safe AI.
“To provide a secure transaction, we collect as little information as possible,” said Will Healy, senior vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton. National park. “Search results are not saved. Credit card data is not saved. We are very careful about the data we save.”
Yun Kim, an assistant professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, doesn't worry too much about security during the initial brainstorming stages of AI-powered travel planning.
“At this point, we don't know how AI-generated advice is psychologically different from a travel guide article you might read on a particular website,” he says. “Travel planning is one very good use case for these models, albeit narrowly, because it's a scenario where you want to be given an idea but don't have to actually commit to it. .”
What’s next for AI?
However, the situation may change if AI is used for more than just travel planning. Deloitte sees AI being incorporated into every part of travel.
“The real engine has a chance. We'll use the general term engine. It allows you to search everything, bring it together, sort it based on your personal reasons for prioritization, and ' When someone says, “Hey, give me a list,'' or “Here's what we need to do,'' we say, “Okay, let's create an itinerary, help with the reservations, and track the entire travel process.'' Matt, leader of a U.S. airline.・President Soderbergh said. Deloitte.
Deloitte's Future of Facing travel report, released in early April, explores how AI intersects with travel, from personalized recommendations based on past trips, online purchases and trends, to same-day pain points and post-trip pulses. Seven possible stages have been identified. Ask about their experiences and start thinking about future trips.
“If we could solve all of these things, that would be the holy grail,” Soderbergh said. “The challenge is that it doesn't all fit in one place. So how do you take the right information, the right data, and bring it all together to give the consumer one experience? Is it good? And who will own it?”
Layla and Mindtrip, among others, already offer bookings through partners such as Booking.com. “The key is to make things doable,” Moss said.
But for now, if something goes wrong during a trip, AI tools can't solve it the way humans can. Humans still have to be involved.
