Trip.com Group today showcased its vision for the future of travel at its Envision 2023 global partner conference. The conference was attended by about 700 industry partners globally.
Why Trip.Com Thought It Needed a Generative AI Chatbot
25.08.2023 - 14:01 / skift.com / Justin Dawes / Generative Ai
Many companies in the travel industry have shared opinions about how generative AI could affect business, but few so far have implemented the technology.
Trip.com, an online travel agency based in Singapore, has been one of the first to add a generative AI chatbot to its platform, with the release recently of TripGen. The chatbot is powered by OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
While the technology is still in the very early stages, the approach at Trip.com is that implementing this type of AI is the next step in enhancing the platform’s existing “comprehensive search” capability, which allows users to book multiple aspects of a trip in one place, according to Amy Wei, senior director of product management for Trip.com Group. The China-based public corporation also owns online travel agencies Skyscanner, Qunar, Travix, and Ctrip.
“We have the one-stop shop strategy, and we are already providing the comprehensive search. It becomes a very natural move for us,” Wei said.
The Trip.com user has been able to search for a particular destination — Disneyland, for example — and be presented with a number of related results, like nearby hotels, car rentals, and tours and attractions.
In the future, generative AI implemented into this process could mean it becomes even simpler for the user, with a prompt for a weekend getaway leading to a detailed itinerary with the ability to compare, book, and pay all in one place. Skift’s CEO, Rafat Ali, has shared his thoughts about how generative AI, in conjunction with other technologies, could shake up travel booking and other areas.
But that vision is far from where the tech exists today.
For now, the TripGen chatbot can be used for trip pre-planning. The TripGen chatbot as it exists is not much different from ChatGPT. The user can ask a question about a travel destination and be presented with a general itinerary, but it’s based on data from 2021 and does not include specifics like hours of operation or website links.
Right now, the Trip.com product team is working on gathering data and combining it with the OpenAI capabilities to make the function more relevant to TripGen users.
“We’ve already started trying to fine tune the data,” Wei said.
TripGen has already been “taught” what it is and that it’s a product of Trip.com. Using questions that users ask the chatbot, one the next steps is to teach TripGen how to answer frequently asked questions and provide information that can be more helpful than just pre-planning suggestions. And, Trip.com is using some of the questions that consumers ask to inform the creation of some of its own marketing materials.
A short-term future version of the TripGen product could provide customer service, and voice search could
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