Expedia announced an exciting new use for artificial intelligence 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.
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GLOLast year, Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI and a board member of Expedia Group, attended an event organized by Expedia. During the event, Altman showcased a new technology called ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that had not yet been revealed to the public. Altman, alongside Expedia’s chairman Barry Diller, sat on stage and engaged ChatGPT by asking it to narrate the story of how Diller and his wife, fashion icon Diane von Furstenberg, came together.
Now, fast-forwarding six months, on April 4, 2023, Expedia announced an exciting new use for artificial intelligence 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.
Expedia also recently built a plugin for ChatGPT so a traveler can start a conversation directly on the ChatGPT site and select the Expedia plugin to bring a trip to life. When they’re ready to book, they go straight to Expedia. With today’s news, conversational trip planning powered by ChatGPT is directly in the Expedia app, allowing members to now get the benefit of dreaming about travel in the app experience. It’s also easier for members to access exclusive discounts and rewards for their trip.
Expedia already integrates artificial intelligence (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 travelers:
- To help travelers 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 today’s flight price with historical price trends and track price fluctuations, so travelers can confidently decide when to book and earn rewards.
- For unexpected trip changes, travelers can resolve issues quickly using Expedia’s AI-powered Virtual agent available 24/7.
This collaboration with OpenAI is currently in the beta testing phase, allowing Expedia to rapidly evolve the experience based on how members interact with it. It’s also important 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 employees and all those using the experience will be continually looked at to make sure responses meet our standards.
The conversational trip planning beta experience is rolling out globally in the English language on the Expedia iOS app.
Moreover, the company is contemplating the integration of ChatGPT into their technology solutions, which they are developing for partners, including travel advisors.
“We’ve seen that ChatGPT will drive real change in the experience, and there are lots and lots of ways to use it,” Expedia Group vice chairman and CEO Peter Kern said. “There is real potential to use generative AI broadly in more of our own experiences and partner experiences, and we have teams working hard to discover its best uses right now.”
Following its remarkable debut in the field of artificial intelligence this year, ChatGPT has sparked a surge of interest in generative AI, swiftly becoming “the talk of the town,” as aptly described by Diller. Expanding its reach, ChatGPT has been seamlessly integrated into Expedia’s application, revolutionizing the way users interact with the platform. By employing natural language queries, individuals can now receive insightful responses from the AI. While it presently does not provide hotel rates, flight availability, or bookings, it excels in offering recommendations for attractions to visit, accommodations to consider, and ideal timings for exploration. Moreover, the integration introduces a captivating feature called “trips” within the app, where ChatGPT generates potential itineraries, enabling users to seamlessly search and incorporate items and bookings from Expedia’s extensive inventory.
Kern heralded Expedia as the pioneering force among major industry players, fully embracing the potential of generative AI within their app experience. The integration of ChatGPT was strategically implemented to enhance the discovery phase of a user’s journey on the platform, injecting it with unparalleled depth and richness, as stated by Kern. Diller proudly acknowledged Expedia’s early adoption of various AI technologies, including generative AI, which they pioneered even before others began contemplating the adaptation of AI tools in their respective domains.
Over the past year, according to Kern, Expedia has been resolutely focused on advancing the technology it offers, particularly in the realms of AI and machine learning (ML). ML, a variant of AI that leverages algorithms and statistical analysis to harness the power of data, has been at the forefront of their efforts. This commitment to innovation aims to ultimately deliver highly personalized experiences for travelers, constantly evolving and improving based on individual preferences and feedback.
For instance, Kern gave an example of how Expedia’s intelligent shopping feature has been successful in persuading more customers to purchase premium products since its introduction last year. This feature employs machine learning to analyze numerous descriptions of rates, extracting important attributes that are then presented together in a convenient manner for shoppers. Similarly, the implementation of flight price tracking has resulted in increased conversion rates.
Expedia is also leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance its service experience. Kern stated that their virtual agent has saved over 2 million hours of service time in just one quarter. Specifically, this virtual assistant utilizes AI and large language models, which are networks with numerous parameters that learn and improve through prompts.
By utilizing the virtual agent, human agents are able to focus on handling more complex issues, leading to reduced costs and higher customer satisfaction scores. Kern referred to this as a “win-win-win” situation for all parties involved.
Expedia’s Travel Agent Affiliate Program and use of AI
During a press conference, Kern and Ariane Gorin, the president of Expedia for Business, announced that Expedia has plans to incorporate ChatGPT into various other experiences. This includes incorporating it into their Business-to-Business (B2B) offerings such as the Travel Agent Affiliate Program (TAAP). Gorin mentioned that TAAP already utilizes AI-powered technology employed by Expedia in their consumer-facing products. This technology helps in determining the display of property images and content, as well as the sorting order. Expedia is also contemplating the idea of making its AI and machine learning capabilities accessible to the broader travel industry. Kern emphasized that such capabilities are challenging for most travel companies to develop, creating potential opportunities for Expedia.
