It's hard to believe that it's only been about a year since travelers started exploring the itineraries created by ChatGPT. This year will bring even more experimentation and innovation. “AI is like a teenage intern,” said Chad Burt, co-owner of travel advisor network Outside Agents, “better, smarter, faster than you, but you have to guide them.”
The increasing use of AI could impact how we book online, what happens when flights are canceled or delayed, and even how much we pay for tickets.
“In 2024, we will see a new generation of intelligent travel agencies based on chatbots,” said Oren Etzioni, professor emeritus of computer science at the University of Washington. That means travelers are starting to interact with sites like Airbnb, Expedia and Priceline by typing questions and checking boxes to search for accommodations, restaurants and amenities like swimming pools.
AI will also dictate what happens behind the scenes at airlines and airports, said Gilbert Ott, director of partnerships at Point.me, which helps travelers find flights to buy with rewards points. For example, automatic rebooking to new flights could be improved if customers miss connections or the weather is bad Runways. At United Airlines, for example, smarter software can offer rebooking options and issue meal and lodging vouchers when a flight is canceled instead of just rebooking a flight.
On the ground, AI software will be able to make more human-made decisions, such as how to most efficiently reposition baggage carts and staff in response to close connections or flight delays.
Eventually, AI systems trained on larger and more current data sets will allow airlines' dynamic ticket pricing algorithms to better use data like weather forecasts and customer searches to charge as much as possible while filling planes. At the same time, companies like the online travel agency Hopper, which says it uses 70 trillion data points in its price prediction model, is working on the problem from the other side, in a kind of AI-powered arms race between airlines and customers.