From chatbot to top slot effective use of AI in hospitality

This convenience wouldn’t be possible without machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies actively adopted by the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries in recent years. Here, you will learn about the uses of ML and AI in travel and the changes they bring to domain businesses. Navan, formerly TripActions, also uses generative AI with its chatbot Ava which assists travel managers with booking trips. The company applies the same technology to write, test, refine, and debug code to constantly improve Ava, keeping them ahead of the competition.

However, as internet dynamics evolve, challenges emerge, particularly regarding data privacy and compliance. The storage of sensitive and personal data on these platforms may not always align with international or regional data protection regulations like GDPR or the users’ personal preferences. With AR technology, the text is overlayed with the translation, enabling travelers to read signs, menus and more. The technology can also translate spoken words to help travelers converse with others. Like voice-assisted technology, AI converts spoken words into text and can translate them into the desired language. The text can be read on a device or spoken using text-to-speech technology.

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And I certainly can tell you that — I’ll give you a lot of examples in Europe, where, unfortunately, this goes back to politics, where the protection of certain vested interests are much worse in Europe than they are in the US. So, it depends on which industry, which thing you want to talk about. But you and I, we’re on the same page, though, that we want to create an environment, an economic system, that provides the best value to the society, and one of the ways to do that is to make sure there is fair competition. Look, it all comes down to the individual cases, and what we don’t want to do is enable monopolies to continue to entrench their monopoly power. And very, very, very few companies ever become of a type that can become an IPO. So, here’s the thing, while we certainly were not pleased with being called a gatekeeper in what is one of the most competitive industries in the world, the idea that we have such, as the regulators alleged, a dominant position.

AltexSoft is a machine learning consultancy that focuses in part on the travel and tourism industry. According to LinkedIn, they employe only two people with data science in their titles, and one of them is currently still in grad school for computer software engineering. The other indeed seems to have some machine learning business experience, having worked at the consultancy as a software engineer for nearly five years before becoming a machine learning engineer and Data Science Competence Leader. He also co-organized the ongoing Kharkiv Artificial Intelligence club in 2012, which signals interest in AI before everyone started jumping on the AI bandwagon. The launch of ChatGPT, a large-scale general-purpose chatbot using OpenAI’s GPT-3 engine, marked a significant moment in the public’s perception of AI. Within a few days, it garnered a million users and sparked extensive online discussion, especially on Twitter.

Forecast annual percentage increase in hotels using chatbots worldwide in 2022, by hotel type

“The new Generative AI-powered chatbot will offer an enhanced way to book business travel, moving from a standard sequential display with predetermined filters to a dynamic, interactive conversational interface powered by ChatGPT. When fully realized, business travelers will be able to book trips with even greater ease, saving time,” said Rudy Daniello, executive vice president of  Amadeus Cytric Solutions, in a statement. Whether it is booking flights and trains or making hotel reservations, these apps have settings and filters that cater to all requirements and budgets. Apart from bookings and reservations, these apps also offer suggestions about where to eat, what to see etc. in the destinations you are travelling to. Most apps even have travel advisories and dos and don’ts for each city and country which helps if you are visiting for the first time.

Over the past two decades, new applications have emerged every 12 to 24 months, each promising to revolutionize the world. The major implications will be in the way that information is found. However, the major aggregators of content are already addressing this capability.

However, chatbots are the front-end of the administrative and customer service processes. As the use of AI for customer service increases within the travel industry, it will become more critical to find a balance between automated processes and personalized human interactions. It must have clear direction and be complemented by a human-centric approach to work to its full potential. Many organizations are experimenting with hybrid models that utilize AI-powered systems to handle mundane, day-to-day tasks and inquiries to give human agents time to address more pressing, complex issues.

Chatbots are often used in customer service at large travel companies before a caller is connected to a human employee. “Global sales platforms are already using AI to find suitable tourism offers for their customers and present them in a targeted manner,” says Petra Hedorfer, CEO of the GNTB. However, getting access to these offers depends on the correct data. Information in Investor’s Business Daily is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as an offer, recommendation, solicitation, or rating to buy or sell securities. The information has been obtained from sources we believe to be reliable, but we make no guarantee as to its accuracy, timeliness, or suitability, including with respect to information that appears in closed captioning.

The use of AI across the industry has created an opportunity for customers to quickly identify what they want from their trip and resolve any issues that arise throughout the process faster than before. If one were to play AI-marketing bingo, “trip itinerary” would get crossed off basically every time. More than a year into the generative-AI revolution, companies so frequently suggest that people use their tools in this way that you’d think chatbots would excel at it. Back in the day, this never came up, and now it starts to come up. One’s a factor of us being bigger; one’s part of it because, as you point out, the world has changed a little bit, and it does take time.

Concluding Thoughts on Travel Chatbots

The assistant helps travel agents quickly access and interpret vast amounts of data to better serve their clients. The system can analyze travel patterns, predict disruptions and suggest alternative routes in real-time. Priceline’s recent integration of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered voice technology into its booking system signals how the technology is changing the way travelers plan and purchase trips. As Priceline looks toward the future, AI will play an increasingly central role in the company’s operations.

Procurement is done across the entire organization, but of course, there can be different needs. So, you want to try and get volume scale benefits, but in the end, there are times you say, look, we’re not going to try and do this one-size-fits-all because they’re different needs, and that comes on a case-by-case basis. Do you think of those core functions, like marketing or, more specifically, technology, as things that you share? Because that’s a pretty big cost across any sort of web property or service property like you run.

Because [in] other countries, we’d already dropped that parity, we saw there wasn’t much of a change actually in the business. Look, everybody wants to be able to make sure that their customers come to them, and they don’t want it to pay for how they’re going to get there. But the nature of competition is such that if somebody doesn’t put money into Google, they’re going to lose out on business. If somebody doesn’t want to work with us, that’s a perfectly reasonable thing. But if I can provide incremental value to them, they will generally want to do business with us.

Of course, machines aren’t ready to entirely replace humans in the hospitality industry. The technology is expensive, and only major players and brands can afford it right now. But robots have already demonstrated that they can handle routine tasks, which means that, as prices fall, we can likely expect small and midsize companies to be more and more interested in them, as well. Still, the chat window format does work great for virtual assistants. For instance, ChatGPT can already handle requests like “3-day itinerary in Las Vegas for my 70-year-old parents” with flying colors.

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While AI accurately tracked the baggage, the chatbot sent me alerts on my phone, it was the human gate agent on our first leg that caused the initial error and it was the human at the receiving end that was crucial in resolving the issue. This highlights the complementary nature of AI and seasoned human expertise. Another interesting trend is the use of AI in automation and productivity tools. For instance, AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants are being integrated into customer service apps and workplace collaboration tools to streamline communication and assist with routine tasks.

Previously, Hutchings served as a Mathematician, then Operations Researcher at the Department of Defense before taking on the role of Search Quality Rater at Workforcelogic. As a Premium user you get access to background information and details about the release of this statistic. As a Premium user you get access to the detailed source references and background information about this statistic. “I think they’re probably going to be the people that are most capable, certainly initially, to get it out,” Goddard said. Other big name companies, like Expedia and Hopper, and some startups have shared their thoughts about the role generative AI could have in travel. Stay tuned to Skift for a lot more coverage on what these rapid changes in consumer and mass use of AI mean for the travel sector.

Competitors are also gearing up to use AI in their travel solutions. Vancouver-based Pilot is building an AI-focused travel planner to easily share trip ideas with friends. Airbnb and Brian Chesky have already started experimenting with AI-powered review summaries and are open to infusing the tech in other parts of the app. Kayak and Expedia have their own GPTs (ChatGPT plug-ins) and travel publisher Matador Network’s GuideGeek app shows real-time flight information.

While some travelers might have a travel agent build the perfect itinerary, generative AI has made crafting the perfect trip itinerary easier than ever before. Although 61% of consumers said they would be willing to use AI in travel planning, 81% want to verify the information AI gives them before making ChatGPT any decisions, according to a report from NRG. However, Prange is certain that travel planning will only get easier, in part thanks to artificial intelligence. In the future, tourists can carry their smart travel planner with them wherever they go — in the form of an app on their phone, for example.

For Leader, this is the perfect time for airlines to consolidate their channels of communication and get serious about automation. In an itinerary for a weekend in New York City, the Metropolitan Museum of Art was one of only three suggestions out of 15 paired with links to specific tickets. It seems there is an opportunity to suggest more specific ticketed events for those who want a simpler planning experience.

The updated version also includes a shopping cart so that users can save different aspects of a trip and then purchase them all together. Individuals from a group planning a trip can view the cart and book everything simultaneously, rather than having to book individually. Agents can book on behalf of customers, or customers can book themselves with an access link. Consumers have access to wholesale prices even when they book on their own, and the agent who provided the link gets a commission. The announcement showed a connection with Cytric Easy, the travel booking platform owned by Amadeus. One example AWS gave is that clients can create virtual agents to complete tasks, such as booking travel.

This creates a personalized, efficient travel experience, helping customers from trip planning to booking with minimal effort. More than just a novelty, this feature taps into Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) technology, allowing Penny to provide real-time, data-driven recommendations. AltexSoft is a Ukraine-based B2B technology consultancy company with 182 employees across four offices, three of which are in the Ukraine, with one in San Diego. Trip.com, a Singapore-based online travel agency, has introduced a generative AI chatbot called TripGen, powered by OpenAI’s technology. The chatbot aims to enhance the platform’s comprehensive search capabilities but is currently limited to trip pre-planning with data from 2021.

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In the future, generative AI can be trained to deliver individually tailored content, respond to and learn from customer inquiries, and create personalized marketing messages. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. Robo-advisors are digital platforms that provide automated, algorithm-based financial planning services ChatGPT App with little to no human supervision. A later 2017 study from the research firm Phocuswright, a majority of working-professional respondents said that they prefer to “go rogue” by booking their own travel, rather than using travel agents or coordinators provided by the company.

That moment where you call customer service explicitly because you want to talk to a real person? Glenn thinks you might not need that as badly as you think, in part, because the AI won’t care if you swear at it. Despite a bumpy rollout with the infamous glue-on-pizza incident, the generative web is already reshaping the travel UI. This shift holds promising implications for hotels and media outlets. In the coming years, AI will replace traditional PMS interfaces, accessing property data via APIs through voice commands, text, and future AI-driven touchpoints we can’t yet imagine. Voice assistants already offer hands-free convenience, simplifying UIs and reducing communication channels.

Not only does it help identify guests for security purposes, but it also allows hotels to offer exclusive greetings and bonuses and to customize their services to the client’s needs. The hotel sector’s current approach to artificial intelligence is very much driven by potential savings and the opportunity to replace team members. This means a focus on chatbots, with technology standing in for people and performing basic tasks, leaning on the artificial aspect of AI, rather than the intelligence.

Employees then don’t have to carry out what the organization describes as “routine tasks.” Tourism providers and destinations that want to be noticed, need to  make their data available and optimized. Tobias Blask, Professor at the Department of Economics at Harz University of Applied Sciences, also emphasizes the importance of the data that AI applications can draw from. “It’s not like we are looking (for) if the hotel has a restaurant or a gym.

In every service industry, personalized experiences trump generalized options any day. And when it comes to planning a holiday, curated trips are the buzzword. Everyone has different agendas when planning a trip and so these personalized experiences can ensure that each trip is tailormade to the traveler’s requirements.

Berlin-based startup Layla is banking on this trend to build an eponymous chatbot (along with an app) that suggests new travel destinations. United Arab Emirates-based Azizi Developments has announced its plans to invest up to $16 billion through the launch of 50 upmarket, luxury hotels and resorts and one seven-star hotel in Dubai. The developer plans to add nearly 20,000 new keys to Dubai’s hotel stock over the next five years. Azizi’s hotels and resorts would be managed by its very own hospitality division, the company said in a statement. The announcement follows Azizi’s recently revealed plans to enter the hospitality sector, with its new chief operating officer — hospitality, Michael Zager, leading the developer’s newly established hospitality division.

• Expert opinions also include reservations and concerns about the technology, such as the possibility that small companies could be left out of the equation.
• Most travel websites would display generic options based on your origin and chosen dates.
• Now, on top of that, our job is to get a bigger share of that, and we have benefits of scale and capabilities that enable us to do that.
• For several years before generative AI reached the public, tech tools and automation had already played a vital role in the growth of the travel sector.
• For travel agencies, tour operators, and destinations, it is imperative to keep up with travelers’ shifting demands and preferences as they become more accustomed to interacting with AI-driven tools to aid in their travel experiences.
• Travelpayouts, one of the largest affiliate marketing networks focused on the travel market.

As CEO of Booking.com, as CEO of the group, I always want to be careful and make sure what I’m doing is best for the entire organization, not just good for Booking.com. When we do things that may appear to be duplicative, you want to say, well, what is the cost of standardization? How much are you going to slow things down while you’re putting everything together onto just one platform? On the other hand, though, as I mentioned earlier, about driving things down to the lowest levels of the organization, letting people just run hard with what they are doing, it gives it, I think, a benefit overall. Booking.com is probably about 90 percent, approximately, rounding off of the total amount of profits coming out of Booking, and people are surprised.

But the truth is, I know that that couldn’t possibly last because in the end, we’re going to end up in a long-term run where travel goes slightly better than GDP. Now, on top of that, our job is to get a bigger share of that, and we have benefits of scale and capabilities that enable us to do that. And of course, they are separate companies, so they all have their own design, their own technology, their own CTOs, their own chief product… No, we are far and above where we were in 2019, before we went into the pandemic. As I mentioned, $151 billion of travel, that is a very large number. In the $130 billion market capitalization, these are enormous numbers for most companies, but it’s compared to the scale of the opportunity because travel is so big.

AI may be everywhere as of late, but the travel and transportation industry have been adopting this technology for quite some time. Here, we explore how the industry has successful incorporated AI to improve the customer experience, and uncover how it’s been received by consumers. Simon Goddard, chief information officer of travel search and booking technology provider Vibe, is one who warns people not to get too excited too soon. It crossed a million users in these past few days and spawned a million memes about it, mostly on Twitter. Expedia has released the first version of a travel planning chatbot powered by ChatGPT on its mobile app. But Mekki questions how many travel companies can add enough value to really compete in that environment because most travel data is not truly proprietary.

While Gemini already offers vacation suggestions, the trip planner will include an interface with customizable tools. For instance, you can punch in what time you wish to wake up and let Gemini adjust your itinerary automatically. Given their desire to personalize their travel experience, it follows that AI would find its way into the travel and tourism world. On the top of that list are chatbots, which about 40% of Millennials use on a daily basis. Deloitte estimated the size of the global travel and tourism industry at around $1.6 trillion in 2017.

Still, we can expect to see far more widespread adoption as generative AI continues to advance. This will also mean that existing chatbots will be upgraded, providing travelers with a more human-like and personalized experience. Hopper is an excellent example of making the most of this technology. The company uses AI to predict both hotel prices and airfares by feeding its algorithms chatbot for travel industry enormous amounts of historical data as well as current trends. This not only gives them a competitive edge when it comes to offering the best prices overall, but it also serves their customers well. By predicting when to book flights based on that data plus a customer’s unique travel profile, Hopper can accurately tell travelers when to book flights to save the most money.

I mean, look at what just happened the last couple of days, where things go down, people are upset, and customer service numbers go off the charts. Then you have to try and figure out, “Okay, how are we going to fix this? ” and it requires a lot of humans to do it as opposed to the AI. We’re having different groups have meetings across brands to ensure that all the companies are learning what’s working in one, what’s working in another.

The chatbot uses Meta’s proprietary generative AI model to answer questions similar to ChatGPT, which could include questions about planning trips, booking flights, and more. Executives from AWS have said they are working with major hotel brands, online travel agencies, and other companies as they move to implement advanced AI into their businesses. While there are multiple startups emerging offering AI tools to hotels and other hospitality companies, those travel companies may opt to develop their own tools. It’s been mostly talk because companies have needed time to advance the technology and build applications. While there’s still uncertainty, the picture is becoming clearer as big tech companies are starting to reveal more about their generative AI projects.

Looking forward, Watts expects to build on insights by going deeper into the analytics. The platform already has the clients’ product descriptions, FAQs, listings on various websites and reviews from all sources. Binding that information together creates opportunities for good analytics. He offered an example of a tour company bus driver named Joe who consistently gets bad marks.