Artificial Intelligence tips

Some business travelers whose employers are Uber for Business clients will no longer have to email or take screenshots of their Uber rides or Uber Eats receipts when submitting their expense reports, Uber said Tuesday.

There’s already is a tug of war between corporations that want their employees back into the office full-time, and workers who don’t want to give up working from home or as digital nomads.

Guests staying at select Renaissance Hotels will soon have access to RENAI, a virtual concierge.

Trivago is rolling out its first major brand advertising campaign since the company changed its leadership seven months ago, and the multi-country ad blitz replaces its roster of professional pitch people with one actor who speaks numerous languages thanks to the power of AI.

Travel brands have increasingly looked to use emerging technology in their operations, especially generative artificial intelligence. What are major trends in travel technology? We put the question to Ask Skift, our artificial intelligence chatbot. It used information appearing in both our past news coverage and Skift Research. We also conducted additional reporting.

Google this week released a new version of generative AI technology that it says rivals ChatGPT. The technology, called Gemini Pro, has replaced the previous tech that powers the chatbot Bard. 

The spotlight is on Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. But Delta Air Lines had some interesting things to say last week as well.

Delta Air Lines is already bringing artificial intelligence into its operations. At an investor conference Wednesday, Delta executives said that they started experimenting with AI in the past month for its reservations team and to determine pricing. 

Travel platforms have traditionally prompted users to search with specific queries for flights or hotels. But AI is driving a shift towards conversational search methods, and tour operator TUI is trying to stay ahead of the curve.

Good morning from Skift. It’s Friday, December 8. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Amazon Web Services had a weeklong conference last week, where it shared a slew of updates to services that travel companies are using to build tools powered by generative AI.

It’s not without its tensions, but Google and Booking Holdings have long had a mutually beneficial relationship: Google gets billions of dollars from Booking’s ads, and Booking benefits from all of the customers Google sends along.

Peek, a San Francisco-based tours and activities software vendor, is launching two artificial intelligence data features for its tour operator customers.  

Trip.com Group said Thursday that it has selected Amazon Web Services as its “strategic cloud provider” in a multiyear deal meant to drive innovations in travel bookings, personalized recommendations, and customer service. 

Amazon Web Services is having a conference all week in Las Vegas, and there have already been several reveals of next-generation offerings for the travel industry. 

Travel searches by Indian travelers for Thailand have spiked. Online travel agency Agoda’s search data for the peak December travel period shows recent visa policy changes have impacted travel preferences and top destination choices for Indian travelers.   

Indian travel tech firm RateGain, which is publicly traded, raised $72 million for investments and acquisitions to “build an AI-powered integrated tech stack” to power its travel and hospitality clients, the company said.

From his posts and re-posts on X, it’s clear that Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky is highly supportive of Sam Altman, the ousted CEO of OpenAI, and now-former board Chairman Greg Brockman, and Chesky seems to be in-the-know about some of the maneuverings behind the scenes.

California-based RedAwning has introduced updates to its communication features for Airbnb superhosts. 

Mondee has acquired an AI company called Purplegrids in an all-stock deal valued at roughly $19 million.

Airbnb made public filings on Tuesday showing that its acquisition of AI company GamePlanner.AI was paid partially with stock valued at about $104.5 million.