I go down the AI rabbit hole so you don’t have to!

A word from our sponsor!

Videreo has a mission to make video simple for everyone in travel! How is it in 2024 that it has been basically impossible to deploy vertical video on our websites and apps?

With YouTube shorts now up to 70 BILLION views a day - it’s probably something to start thinking about. This how people research & plan now.

Videreo makes it simple to deploy vertical video onto your site and apps the way social media does it. A scrolling feed opens full screen from the “Stories” bubbles, just like you see on Instagram, except with Videreo you can put the link to the matching product right there in the video.

Because they are travel focused, they plot your video on a map too so users can search by the area they are researching.

You can even send out a simple weblink for your suppliers or partners to upload their videos directly. No WeTransfer or WhatsApp’ing video across. Just click, choose and send.

If you want to download the video you are sent and use it in your own socials, you can do that too. A huge time and effort saver.

They use AI to re-size videos, improve resolution and best of all, deep tag the video so it can be matched to a user for personalization of their feed.

Haven’t got enough great videos of your own? No worries, they’re building a b-roll marketplace to pick up expert shot video of your points-of-interest you can choose for just a couple of dollars.

How much for all this? They’ve got a free version coming out soon. Check out more here and grab a demo.

AI >SaaS? 

Not specifically travel related but a good indicator of what is happening in the early movers into leveraging AI when this week the payments solution Klarna announced they were ditching some of their expensive SaaS products in the CRM product Salesforce & the workflow management tool Workday.

The LinkedIn piece by Santosh Sharan from RB2B suggested “They’re not replacing Salesforce or Workday, but instead reimagining their entire workflows using AI. They’re realizing that many SaaS tools designed for old workflows are now obsolete. “

Sharan predicts “As more companies adopt this model, the TAM for SaaS will shrink dramatically. SaaS vendors that quickly adapt to AI use cases will survive and thrive, but many will fade away as the market contracts.”

“This is just the start of a long, painful trend.”

This is part of the disruption of generative AI. Those digging in and willing to redesign how their business operates in line with the new technology will find smarter, better, faster and cheaper ways of doing things.

The next episode of the Everything AI in Travel podcast also tells a similar story that is 100% travel related where travel agencies who were still running on degraded tech built in the 90’s are swapping that out for AI powered technology and transforming their capabilities and workflows. Look out for it in the next couple of days.

Mindtrip bags another $12M

Not that long after their first $7M raised late last year, Mindtrip COO Rudi Thun highlighted on LinkedIn hat they’ve picked up another tranche of funds to keep barreling towards the ultimate AI Travel planner.

The raise came from Forerunner and Costanoa Ventures.

It coincided with the release of a new chat feature within the Mindtrip product so that everyone in a travelling group could co-plan the trip together with each other and the @Mindtrip helper in the chat.

Crucially, this is not only a helpful tool that aligns with how people actually undertake the task, but also serves to swell the user numbers.

Mindtrip CEO Andy Moss was kind of enough to demo the feature for me on a call this week and it works in a very similar way to slack in the way you tag in those you are asking questions of, and of course can filled with lots of emoji goodness   ‍  

The Mindtrip goal is for people to start their search right with them, not Google and the comprehensive set of features they’ve built certainly make that a compelling prospect.

Agoda co-founder says with AI, the big players win

Agoda co-founder Robert Rosenstein said in a WIT article this week that like all technical advances, it is the big players who stand to win most. And he didn’t mince his words: “Can a small company with five engineers get it done or do they get wiped out in the face of AI?”

It wasn’t bravado however that was driving this sentiment however but concern. “If the big companies can operate customer service at triple the efficiency, and can invest in engineering and marketing, well, I am really concerned.”

In this statement provides a clue to where Rosenstein sees the current advantage of AI. Big players have always been able to outspend on engineering and marketing. That is not a new paradigm. But operating customer service at triple the efficiency? As a “personal advisor to Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings” you would think this comment is coming from a place of knowledge not speculation.

Customer service innovation has been the first big battleground in this wave of innovation but even this early on, we are seeing commoditization in that area and products to fit all budgets. Whereas many are quick to bemoan the chatbot, the results are in. It is simply more efficient and when they are set up well, they make the customer happier too.

Of course it is not just one tool. The people in CS roles also have more tools now that mean when they are delivering support, they aren’t reliant on having to ask the other humans around them for the answers that once just lived in the more experienced people’s heads or maybe made it to page 368 of the manual.

Rosenstein dropped one other little nugget in the interview which I thought was interesting. He said that growth from Western markets was topping out and that the big players in travel chasing growth need to start looking East. The one area he singled out however where growth is still possible in the West: the “new businesses such as tours and activities” which should put a smile on the faces of some of those from my old world.

Maybe the dream transaction might come after all!

Sabre introduces Chatbot-as-a-service for hotels

In an announcement this week with Google, Sabre talked about a new product for their hotel clients called Booking Engine Concierge.

“Hotels will be able to embed an AI-powered bot into their websites. The tool will also respond to specific requests, such as a room with a dog bed.”

The bot will be able to surface photos as well as show price comparisons with the OTA’s compared to the direct site.

Of course, that is only useful if combined with a lower direct booking price, which weirdly is not always (or even often) the case.

It is a smart move by someone like Sabre to feed down this new type of tech which immediately improves the operability of most local hotel sites without the actual hotel owner needing to anything much themselves.

“It will also complete a booking in frictionless fashion using a credit card saved by the user in a web browser,” Gary Wiseman, Sabre Travel Solutions' chief product and technology officer said, solving another problem often encountered when trying to book direct.

Not sure yet what the cost to the hotel owner might be, but hopefully it is reasonable or based on a success metric like actual bookings as it can be a great way to make this technology more accessible down into areas where technical innovation often lags.

The open question in my mind however is, will AI agents use AI bots on hotel websites to find the information they need, or do they not require this? If the information in the Hotel Concierge bot is more complete and better structured, then I think a visiting agent may well take this path. If they universally don’t then this tech is just a short-term bridge.

Sabre seems pretty cozy with Google so maybe that is a question they can ask there.

Chesky says the fruits of AI are years away

In his interview at the Skift Conference this year, Brian Chesky said he isn’t in a rush on AI.

Chesky laid out his thinking by saying the application layer of AI is still not yet decided. He thinks it almost certainly isn’t the chat interface of the LLM models and so he isn’t jumping right now into AI beyond some obvious operational and backend areas like customer service and developer co-pilots.

He actually thinks we could be a decade away from knowing how this AI thing will ultimately shake out.

He mentioned Apple and Steve Jobs a lot.

He also finally conceded that it is OK for people to want to go see the Eiffel Tower when in Paris and that he will now also put his hand in their pockets to make that happen.

Why the change? Well, the Eiffel Tower is an Icon, right? And Barbie is an Icon and that’s why they launched Icons last year.

Give it a couple more years and the founding story will no doubt revise around Obama being an Icon and the Obama-O’s stunt was really the forerunner to just being a normal travel OTA.

If you think someone (or everyone) you know or work with could grow from being more informed on the topic of ai + travel (or could use the training above) then please forward this email to them and they can click the button below:

Smartvel acquires AI company Avuxi

Spanish travel content giant Smartvel has continued on its acquisition run picking up the AI first company Avuxi.

Smartvel is quietly consuming many of the pieces in the content piece having previously acquired ArrivalGuides last year.

“Avuxi’s platform TopPlace analyzes geotagged data to uncover the highlights of cities and local areas. In addition, the platform, which is used by online travel agencies and metasearch sites to help drive conversion, enables travelers discover and decide on a location for their stay.”

if you are going to personalize, you need to have the content to back it up. That is the bet Smartvel are making here by becoming the most complete and comprehensive provider of that service.

Inigo Valenzuela, CEO of Smartvel said of the acquisition "Avuxi’s innovative positioning and relevance solutions will fit seamlessly with Smartvel's AI enriched content and digital technology to collect, classify and geolocate all aspects of experiences, services and local places of interest in any destination worldwide.”

The bet here is that the LLM’s won’t themselves figure this same information out.

What is happening with AI and Travel in China?

Xinhua's Li Ziwei takes us inside the AI tourism services at the 2024 China International Fair For Trade In Service (CIFTIS) as you can see in a little video posted here.

Lots of VR and AR going on here but also a ……………………….. AI Trip Planner!

Slack Group!

Where is Tony?

There are a few places upcoming where you can find me if you like.

I’m also moderating an AI panel at the Travel Agents Days Australia being held in Melbourne on 2nd October 2024. You can find out more details on that one here.

I’m looking at coming over to both TIS in Seville (late October) and WTM in London (early Nov). If anyone is interested in catching up at either of those places, please send me a message.

This spot used to be about how to work with me but between existing consulting work and joining Videreo as co-founder, there isn’t really a lot of time for new consulting work I’m afraid.

More than happy to catch up at a conference somewhere and give my two-cents as always. Also happy to field speaking spots at conferences.

At Videreo, we still have a couple places left in proof-of-concept group - please get in touch. We currently have an OTA, a Chamber of Commerce, an Influencer building their owned media space, a small tour operator, a larger tour operator, a media company, a conference organiser but would love to get a DMO and a hotel group in there also to ensure we build a product that works for all scenarios. It comes with 6 months of free and very attentive service.

We’ll be opening a public beta with a free plan available to small operators very soon also and are speaking with production houses about a way to put their b-roll back to work for them. If you have a ton of travel b-roll, reach out and you could b-rolling in it too!  

The Everything AI in Travel marketplace is now launched - please just jump on the site to grab your listing if you have an AI tool or service that you want the industry to know about.

Most clicked last week was the link to the Travel Agents Day Australia link! Great! See you all there!!!

That’s it - you’ve made it to the end of this edition. I’ll be putting the result of the most clicked post in next week’s edition so you can see where others are focussing. If I’ve missed something, you’ve got a tip or any feedback at all - you can simply reply to this email and it will come straight to me. I’m doing this for You so please don’t be shy to tell me what you think