AI and the Future of Travel

Artificial intelligence (A.I.) is all the rage these days. Everyone is talking about how it’s going to change the world. It’s making waves in design, art, graphics, and contracts.

But will it change travel?

I actually don’t think it will that much. At least, not in the near term.

Here’s why:

The internet is littered with failed companies that tried to reinvent travel planning. They failed because people actually want to plan their travels, as it gives them ownership of their trip. People like researching restaurants, finding hotels, reading blogs and guides, and figuring out what to do.

All this lends a sense of discovery to the endeavor. Planning a trip gives people an emotional connection to their experience. Companies that tried to remove that have failed or pivoted to booking corporate travel.

Which is why I don’t think people will say, “Hey Google! Make me an itinerary for Hong Kong!” any time soon.

First, AI isn’t that great yet. It still scrapes (steals) content from blogs like this, or from outdated posts and old websites. I’ve played around with many AI sites, asking them to plan a certain trip, and I’ve gotten results filled with closed restaurants, poorly rated accommodations, and other outdated information. It will be a long, long time before AI whips up a good itinerary.

Second, travel is such an emotional, human experience. AI can’t tell you why you should go to a destination. It can’t give you a sense of place or capture the magic of being there in a way that inspires you. It can give you the what but not the why. It’s one thing to have AI whip up a résumé or explain how to do a push-up, it’s another to inspire you.

What is more likely in the near term is people using AI to book their hotel or flights. It’s not going to take much for such sites to understand what kind of hotels or flights you like. You can probably even give it parameters (“Never book a flight before 7am” or “I prefer Delta”) as well as show it your past booking activity in order to teach it what you like.

I suspect you’ll soon be able to say, “Hey Google! Remember that hotel (or walking tour company, etc.) I booked in Vienna two years ago that I liked? Find me something in Paris that is similar for X dates and book it.”

But I think we’re a long way off from AI bots that can plan a trip as good as a human. They just can’t provide information as well as someone with on the ground experience. While you can go to them for inspiration, given that these AI bots still generate incorrect information and you’d have to likely double-check their work anyway, I would just avoid using them all together. Stick to guidebooks, travel blogs, and content creators. At least for now.