Expedia has announced a new use for artificial intelligence (AI) with the beta launch of a new in-app travel planning experience powered by ChatGPT.
Expedia members can now start an open-ended conversation in the Expedia app and get recommendations on places to go, where to stay, how to get around and what to see and do based on the chat. But much more than that, the new trip planning experience brings in intelligent shopping by automatically saving hotels discussed in the conversation to a “trip” in the app, helping members stay organized and making it easier for them to start choosing dates, checking availability and adding on flights, cars or activities.
Every great trip can be made or lost while planning and shopping.
Peter Kern, Vice Chairman and CEO, Expedia Group
“As the leader in travel tech, Expedia continues to build out the core operating system for the industry, constantly enhancing capabilities and making trip planning faster, simpler and even more informative”, said Peter Kern, Vice Chairman and CEO, Expedia Group. “By integrating ChatGPT into the Expedia app and combining it with our other AI-based shopping capabilities, like hotel comparison, price tracking for flights and trip collaboration tools, we can now offer travellers an even more intuitive way to build their perfect trip.”
Expedia also recently built a plugin for ChatGPT so a traveller can start a conversation directly on the ChatGPT website and select the Expedia plugin to bring a trip to life. When they are ready to book, they go straight to Expedia. Now, conversational trip planning powered by ChatGPT is directly in the Expedia app, also making it easier for members to access exclusive discounts and rewards for their trip.
Expedia already integrates AI and machine learning (ML) throughout its platform to create a seamless experience from planning to post-booking. Here are examples of how this comes to life for travellers:
- To help travellers shop, AI and ML are used to deliver personalized and relevant trip options out of 1.26 quadrillion variables like hotel location, room type, date ranges, price points and much more.
- For confidence in flight booking, Price Tracking uses Expedia’s comprehensive flight data, AI and ML to compare on the day flight prices with historical price trends and track price fluctuations, so travellers can confidently decide when to book and earn rewards.
- For unexpected trip changes, travellers can resolve issues quickly using Expedia’s AI-powered Virtual agent available 24/7.
Rolling out globally in the English language on the Expedia iOS app, this collaboration with OpenAI is currently in the beta testing phase, allowing Expedia to evolve the experience based on how members interact with it. The group asks members to remember that while many measures have been taken to limit inaccurate results and inappropriate responses, at times the experience may not work exactly as expected. Feedback from both our employees and all those using the experience will be continually looked at to make sure responses meet our standards.
