Planning a trip can be a daunting maze. Guidebooks by their very nature lead all readers to the same destination. Also, web searches can produce unhelpful and confusing content.
However, some tech-savvy travelers are using artificial intelligence chatbots such as ChatGPT and Bard to inspire, inspire, and succeed. plan a vacationtreat these services like a free on-demand travel agency.
“I like the idea of ChatGPT because it gives me a very clear list,” says Alpa Patel, an avid New York City-based traveler.
Patel is planning a family trip to Edinburgh, Scotland for the summer. Frustrated with Google’s cookie-cutter travel website, she had this idea. Why not ask ChatGPT for advice?
“I started with the best places to stay, and then I was given a list of neighborhoods and the best hotels. I actually picked a hotel from that list,” says Patel.
set your preferences
Patel liked the simplicity of these answers, but quickly found another reason why AI chatbots like ChatGPT could help with travel planning: customization.
Google gave her endless recommendations for the Scottish Highlands, but Patel’s younger son gets car sickness, so she says it’s impossible to spend hours in the car to get there. I thought. She found ChatGPT to offer a reasonable alternative.
“I asked very specifically, ‘What’s a good day trip if you have a kid who suffers from car sickness?’ I came up with some ideas that could be done by train,” she says.
Steven Kreimendahl, co-founder of the blog Travel to Blank, is planning a trip to Japan in the spring with his wife and mother-in-law, and used ChatGPT’s personalized guide to explore the group’s different travel styles. Used the recommendations.
“My wife and I like to travel all day, but my mother-in-law prefers slower trips,” says Klimendael. “I gave ChatGPT as much detail as possible and let it do its thing.”
This approach differs from the traditional way of researching travel ideas. It takes a certain amount of creativity on the part of travelers to identify niche interests, such as his 1950s architecture in New York City or the best tonkotsu ramen in Tokyo’s Ginza district. Using an AI chatbot to plan a trip requires inputting preferences that are important to the user into the chatbot, rather than simply reading a list of ideas.
“The more information we have, the better response we get,” says Klimendael.
push back and confirm
Unlike real travel experts, artificial intelligence models are incapable of hurting emotions. In other words, it’s okay to cross out ideas you don’t like. In fact, it is encouraged.
While web search results are essentially reset with each new query, the language model that powers chatbots can sustain long conversations, remember questions and feedback, and respond.
“Sometimes it can be very broad, like, ‘Just relax for the day,’” says Klimendahl, citing the multi-day itineraries ChatGPT recommends. “Don’t be afraid to dig deeper and ask for more specific requests.”
And while these models are great at generating ideas and answering simple questions, nothing they say should be taken as truth. For example, ChatGPT is based on his historical information through 2021, so it doesn’t provide up-to-date details like you’d find on search engines like Google. Chatbots may recommend restaurants that are closed during the pandemic or train lines that are not operating on the day of your travel.
For example, Klimendael visit japan At the end of the cherry blossom season, ChatGPT did not know when and where the cherry blossoms would actually occur.
get inspired
AI chatbots like ChatGPT may look like tech wizards, but they are still quite limited in what they can do. Don’t expect to know current flight prices to Dubai or book restaurant recommendations.
However, some travel companies are working to integrate AI chatbots into their booking process. Expedia Recently, we introduced an integration with ChatGPT to store its recommendations in the Expedia app.
“All hotels recommended in ChatGPT-powered conversations are automatically saved to a new ‘trip’ within the app, allowing travelers to return when they are ready to shop or book trips, flights, activities, and more.” , cars, etc. said Rajesh Naidu, senior vice president and chief architect of Expedia Group, in an email.
These integrations are still in their early stages, so travelers still have to do the actual booking work. But the fun of using AI chatbots lies in the ideas they generate and the collaborative approach they foster.
“We’re in the idea stage right now,” Patel said. “It gives me inspiration as to what to look deeper into.”
This article was written by NerdWallet and originally published by The Associated Press.
How to maximize your reward
You need a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here we chose Best Travel Credit Cards of 2023which is best suited for:
