Would you let AI to arrange your upcoming trip?

Jason Brown didn’t consult a travel guide or browse Instagram when planning his summer vacation to Amsterdam and Ireland this year.
Rather, the creator of People Movers, a recruiting firm, sought advice from ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence platform developed by Open AI.

In order to help arrange an itinerary for his 10-day vacation to Amsterdam and Ireland, which included Dublin and Galway, he asked the AI a variety of queries. He was traveling with his wife, their two sons, ages 20 and 16, and a friend of their son.

I used to always use websites like TripAdvisor, but then I realized that, thanks to artificial intelligence, I had access to all of the knowledge, and it could be found online in 15 seconds. He calls the encounter “fantastic.”

It gave me a four-day plan for other parts of Ireland and a golf schedule for Dublin. The way it was divided into the morning, afternoon, and nighttime was incredible.For instance, it was advised to arrive early on the first day, see Trinity College and Grafton Street in the afternoon, and then head to Temple Bar in the evening. He claims that when it came to Amsterdam, the Jordaan neighborhood, the Van Gogh Museum, and the Anne Frank Museum were its highlights. His questions changed as the tour progressed ChatGPT.

Even though he implemented many of the AI advice, Mr. Brown claims that he continued to rely on word-of-mouth referrals from friends they visited in Amsterdam and an online community of people who went to the same college as him.
We discovered a couple things that we would not have discovered using ChatGPT in this manner. However, it provides the ideal outline for a vacation and includes all you require and desire to see.

AI is influencing every aspect of our lives, and travel is no exception. In addition to ChatGPT, there are additional generative AI tools like Microsoft’s Copilot, Google’s Gemini, and specialized travel AI websites like Ask Layla and Trip Planner.

According to a survey by Sainsbury’s Bank Travel Money, 10% of Britons have used AI for travel planning, suggesting that it is starting to be included in some people’s trip plans. Five out of ten stated they would probably utilize it later on.
The report did note, though, that travel AI is still a ways off from taking over all of your vacation arrangements.

It was discovered that among individuals who had utilized AI to plan their travels, over a third (38%) claimed it displayed generic responses, 37% claimed it had missing information, and 30% claimed it contained inaccurate information.
Although generative AI can assist in providing recommendations and customized travel itineraries, its effectiveness depends on the data it uses is out of date, biased, erroneous, false and so on, then the AI will perpetuate the misinformation, points out Caroline Bremmer, head of travel and tourism research at analysts Euromonitor International.

Ensuring factually accurate information in real time is a difficulty. There are risks if customers don’t use due diligence to confirm the information generated by Gen AI with additional sources, such as speaking with knowledgeable persons like travel agencies or locals.”

Sardar Bali is a co-founder of Just Ask Layla, an AI travel advisor and planner situated in Berlin.
He states that precision is essential to the service.

Bali replies, “We have internal tools.” “We have a more manual process where internal teams look at different content and do some research on it, and we have a two-step verification process where all content is subjected to.”
He acknowledges that some stuff “might slip through,” nevertheless.

“For example, it once mentioned an Eiffel Tower in Beijing; it might be tagged incorrectly. But it’s getting better and better every day.”

That improvement is likely to come, particularly as more services come online.
Earlier this year, travel giant Expedia launched an AI service for US customers. Called Romie, it’s part of the company’s iPhone app.
“A trip can involve complex planning… there’s gazillions of options,” says Shiyi Pickrell, senior vice president of data and AI at Expedia Group.

She says Romie can help narrow down the choice of destination, and compare different locations. If you want a beach theme, it can compare British beach destinations to Spain and France for example, or look at which ones are family-friendly.

But things with AI don’t always go as planned.
Rebecca Crowe, a 29-year-old freelance writer from Liverpool, says she frequently uses artificial intelligence (AI) to assist plan her travels, but she proceeds cautiously after a number of ineffective encounters, such as a trip to Lecco, an Italian town near to Lake Como.

According to Crowe, “It wasn’t a great experience.” “It listed all the popular stuff to do that you’d find with a standard Google search, and the itineraries didn’t make a lot of logical sense.”They attempted to arrange for us to visit Bellagio in the afternoon and Milan in the morning, but this was not really possible given the ferry and train timings. The next day, we returned to Milan to continue our exploration. After this itinerary, we’d have spent more time on transport than anything else.”

She’s also referred to AI to find gluten-free restaurants when travelling with a friend who has coeliac disease.
“This pulled back results that were massively out of date and just wrong in some cases. I found myself having to manually cross-reference each suggestion to see if the place was even still open.

“If I’m looking for seasonal things like ferry timetables in the shoulder season [months around the peak season], AI just doesn’t seem to be up-to-date and accurate enough. Same for museums with seasonal opening times.”

Instead she advises people to only use it as a sounding board for broad inspiration. “You can find blogs and websites with complete guides and itineraries that are a lot more reliable and up-to-date. If you want a rough idea of things to do in a certain city, it’s a great jumping-off point, but the amount of fact-checking it requires means that it doesn’t really save you much time in the long run.”