By Ashish Sidhra
The new wave of AI technology has ignited a transformative shift that is catalyzing the way we work. With its ability to generate, simulate and optimize content, generative AI is opening new horizons in every possible industry. He is a rising digital star who shot to fame within a few months through popular apps like ChatGPT and Midjourney.
The travel industry is no stranger to generative AI either. In fact, the industry is at the forefront of adopting generative AI to enhance the customer experience and stay ahead of the curve in the competitive landscape.
But how is generative AI helping the travel industry and to what extent can it be used? Let’s take a look.
hyperpersonalization
Gone are the days when standardized travel plans would be humans’ first choice. Now travelers want personalization.
According to a recent Accenture report, 83% of travelers express a strong interest in receiving personalized recommendations. Generative AI has the potential to analyze extensive data sets, including travel history, interests and online behavior, to offer personalized itineraries that suit individual preferences.
By providing unique and memorable experiences, generative AI can not only increase customer satisfaction, but also fuel customer loyalty and positive word of mouth.
Ongoing Customer Service
Customer service in the travel industry is not a 9 to 5 job. It needs to be 24/7 and fast. This is where generative AI can change the game.
Conversational chatbots and AI-powered virtual assistants will be able to handle booking queries, provide real-time flight updates, offer recommendations, and even help with language translations. By automating routine tasks, generative AI frees up human resources to focus on more complex, value-added interactions, creating a higher level of customer satisfaction.
Generative AI can further enable sentiment analysis to help companies identify customer feedback and sentiment. This, in turn, allows them to proactively resolve issues and improve service quality.
content creation
If there’s one generative AI superpower that has wowed everyone, it’s its ability to instantly generate content. Templates like ChatGPT are being used to create guides, itineraries, travel hacks, and anything and everything you can think of.
In fact, high quality videos and images can also be produced in minutes. Automation is also speeding up the content distribution process, saving time and increasing brand reach.
The other side of the coin
There is no doubt that generative AI has the potential to revolutionize the travel industry, delivering greater efficiency, personalization and customer experience. However, we need to be aware of the technology’s limitations and avoid being moved by the initial hype around it.
AI hallucinations
What do humans do when they don’t know an answer? They just say it. But this is not the case with generative AI. If he doesn’t know the answer or doesn’t understand the question, he still generates content, even if it’s factually incorrect. This behavior is starting to be called “AI hallucinations”.
Comments about travelers being able to construct complex travel plans with the help of AI need to be seen in the context of these hallucinations. Incorrect information or misleading content generated by this technology can lead to a poor customer experience and possible reputational damage. And we are already starting to see the first examples of such reputational damage.
Privacy and data quality
With hyperpersonalization to its advantage, generative AI is raising concerns about data and privacy. For example, AI relies heavily on the data it pulls from various sources, such as customer preferences, booking records, and historical trends. But this data is not always of high quality. In the same vein, there is a real risk that AI algorithms will develop biases if they are trained on historical data that can be discriminatory and redundant.
Data protection and privacy is another challenge that generative AI has yet to address. In fact, many countries and companies like Samsung have banned the use of generative AI due to its sensitivity to data.
Legal and regulatory issues
One of the main overlooked areas in relation to AI technology is the absence of related legal and regulatory frameworks. It is only a matter of time before debates arise about legal responsibilities in case of decisions/advice given by AI technology.
Reaching the Balance
The introduction of generative AI has certainly brought about a seismic shift. According to data from Precedence Research, global generative AI in travel market size is expected to reach around $3,581.95 million by 2032.
But there is one thing that we cannot ignore. Nobody understands humans better than humans. And nobody travels better than humans.
Even though technology is highly assistive, it is — ultimately — assistive. Each generative AI use case must be critically analyzed and leveraged under human supervision to improve customer experience and employee productivity.
(The author is the co-founder of Alike.io, a creator economy based social marketplace for travel bookings)
Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this site are personal and do not reflect the views, beliefs or views of ABP Network Pvt. Ltd.