The days of relying on a travel agent may be making a come-back, but not with humans. Google is reportedly bringing its own AI engine to online travel agency Priceline (not the pharmacy) to help customers book trips through a chatbot.
Google and Priceline told Reuters that the new feature could go live as early as this summer, and will consist of a more sophisticated chatbot. Since Priceline will now have access to Google’s generative AI, the platform will be able to extract data on hotels, for example, more efficiently. That data can then be served up to the customer in a format that appears like a human wrote it, which Google’s Bard is famous for doing. Martin Brodbeck, Priceline Chief Technology Officer, told Reuters that the chatbot will serve as “a personal concierge” for users.
“You can easily find out that in Bryant Park there’s a Christmas market that runs from early November all the way through the beginning of January when you’re actually booking your hotel,” said Brodbeck to the outlet.
On the backend, Google will also be helping Priceline’s digital infrastructure. The artificial intelligence will reportedly generate code for the hundreds of software developers that work for Priceline. Also, Google’s search engine will be woven into the company’s intranet and the tech giant’s AI will aid with marketing popular destinations to consumers.
“You could have it create images like a beautiful beach, and you could marry that with great generative-AI copy,” Brodbeck told Reuters.
Travel site Expedia also has its sights set on an AI-assisted travel planner. In April, the company announced plans to put a beta ChatGPT interface into its app that’ll let users plug in their travel preferences, budget, and time of stay, and in return, the system should create some natural language responses offering hotel or activity suggestions.