With an overarching goal of automation and convenience, artificial intelligence has been making serious inroads into our daily lives. From suggesting our next series on Netflix to the development of cryptocurrency trading tools, the AI revolution is well underway. In the sphere of travel booking, though, the current AI capabilities might make you chuckle rather than wow you.
Ever considered having an AI take over the bothersome task of booking your flights and hotels? Interestingly, AI chatbots like Bard and ChatGPT are being optimised to perform just that. Before you swap skimming through dozens of tabs for a swift chat with your AI assistant, though, it might be wise to tread with a healthy dose of scepticism.
A recent interaction with two popular AI chatbots – Bard and ChatGPT – revealed that while practical, the novel approach still has substantial room for improvement. Bard pulled up impressive results in response to a flight search query. After refining the query to fetch the cheapest direct flight including seat selection, meal, and a minimum of 15kg luggage, Bard’s choice of an Air Asia flight from Melbourne to Osaka was surprisingly cheaper than a personally booked flight to Tokyo. However, where Bard triumphed, it also fell short by being unable to provide a booking link.
On the other hand, ChatGPT, with a new Kayak travel agent plugin, didn’t fare as expected. Instead of pulling up direct flights, it offered a 29-hour flight via Atlanta and Detroit, while entirely ignoring the existence of numerous direct flights. Particularly for US-focused sites, results may vary greatly.
In terms of hotel booking, highly reviewed and affordable lodging in Shibuya was in demand. The Kayak plugin’s choice was an hour’s walk away from the requested locale; however, would have been a dream come true compared to Bard offering non-existent hotels in Shibuya. Despite these varying forms of AI humour, both chatbots provided well below desired efficiency.
Though bursting with potential, AI chatbots revolutionising travel bookings might be further down the road than originally anticipated. Reliability is the cornerstone of consumer trust; therefore, until imaginary hotels become a reality, you’ll likely find most of us sticking to the tried-and-true manual forms of travel arrangements.
Source: Cointelegraph
