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A lot of articles this week covered the drop of an Amadeus sponsored report into the current status of travellers planning and booking their trips.

The core finding was “The year-over-year analysis reveals a stark trend towards digital platforms in the realm of travel inspiration. Social media, once relegated to second place behind family recommendations, has usurped the top position.”

Here is how the report rated sources of inspiration:

Social Media: 34% (up from 28% last year)
Family and Friends: 33% (unchanged)
Online Travel Agencies (OTAs): 25% (up from 21%)
Social Ads: 24% (up from 22%)
Influencers: 21% (up from 18%)
AI Tools: 17% (up from 13%)
Traditional Sources: Decline in reliance on newspapers, travel agents, and celebrities.

3 of the top 5 are all happening in social media. AI tools are on the rise at 17% but social is clearly dominant and rising.

Some good news for those in the AI answer engine game was that “A substantial 68% of respondents indicated a willingness to pay a one-time fee for an AI travel assistant capable of providing in-trip information and bookings.”

TBH, that figure really surprises me – but let’s see how that shakes out. The one to watch here would be Layla AI which charges this fee currently. I guess you could also argue that this is also covered by those paying for ChatGPT?

Videreo is the place for brands and creators to meet, create and (finally) measure the success of their creator & influencer campaigns beyond just “awareness” (like this one for example).

Contact me to learn how we can make this happen for you.

This content is provided by the (interim) newsletter sponsor Videreo.com

Business values create value in the AI world

Vinay Dhavala dropped an interesting piece this week arguing that our business values are the core element that will differentiate companies in the AI world.

To illustrate Vinay uses an example we’ve all no doubt experienced where companies “built around what was technically feasible, not what customers actually needed. Businesses locked users into predefined scenarios, making it difficult to reach a human for complex issues.”

I think PayPal were the first I came across who perfected this model. Not a great place to be when they suddenly stop accepting your online payments and there is no-one you can call….. (those were fun times). If you Google “Reid Hoffman house on fire” you should find some podcasts where they talk about this.

Businesses that came later “turned this hardship into a business model. They created premium service tiers where human support — sometimes local — was reserved for high-paying customers. The rest were left to navigate the maze.”

In a world where it possible to create the veneer that anything is possible – but then have no substance sitting behind it, we risk burning the consumer out.

As Vinay explains “Technology is neutral. It’s the business’s value system, integrity, and capability that determine how it’s used. Product and engineering teams must design AI solutions with the customer at the center. Executives must resist the allure of short-term gains and invest in empathetic service models.”

The role of Digital ID’s in our AI future

The final in Phocuswire’s AI series dropped this week focusing on the subject of Digital ID’s in an agentic world.

The overview of this discussion was summarised as “Autonomous agents will have the ability to oversee the booking process for travelers, which will also mean use of their digital IDs. These IDs have primarily been controlled by travelers themselves, leaving many to wonder what verification processes will look like and how this will change travel booking and how companies operate.”

The thing about these digital ID’s is that they don’t just contain the keys to our identity and payment info, but they hold our preferences, which is at the heart of a future world where our AI agents are making “informed” decisions on our behalf.

As Jamie Smith, founder of Customer Futures noted, “Identity is starting to not just be a really interesting way for businesses to add value, personalize and so on, but it also starts to smooth the experience.”

Friend of the podcast Stu Waldron is one of the panelists imploring that this critical piece of infrastructure be open source to save us creating just a big future headache.

The whole session is well worth a watch.

Th-AI-land

According to this article it looks like Thailand have gone out on their own* to build the things that MindTrip and GuideGeek are selling to other DMO’s.

*actually the article namechecks two companies Insightist.ai and Good Mood Co. Ltd – neither of which seem to have a LinkedIn presence.

“The initiative includes an AI-powered Travel Assistant and the “Amazing Thailand” plug-in on OpenAI’s platform, designed to act as a real-time personalised guide for visitors. The system can suggest tailored itineraries, accommodation, restaurants, activities, festivals and local events, based on individual interests.”

I asked Stuart McDonald from Travelfish if had taken it for a whirl given he has spent decades pulling together SEA information for travellers. At time of sending I hadn’t heard from him (but I’m guessing he thinks it is ). Keep an eye on the LinkedIn version of this newsletter where he may update us.

The great bundling and unbundling with AI

Possibly a bit of a weird source coming from investing.com (not investment advice ) but actually a sharp bit of analysis of how AI could be taking us back to where we came from, in reporting on the appearances of Brian Chesky and Glenn Fogel at the Skift conference this week.

The article is actually titled “Can AI fix the travel mess the Internet created.”

The thesis here is that by taking travel online we actually complicated things for travellers now overwhelmed with the choice of everything. We then tried to uncomplicate them by putting in lots of boxes and filters.

The article finishes with “The Internet’s abundance overwhelmed travelers, while AI aims to narrow their options again. If it works, the technology will complete a strange cycle: giving back the simplicity consumers lost when they abandoned the travel agent’s desk.”

Meanwhile all the travel agents who are still happily selling to the top end of town, be like ‍♀️

OpenAI’s Board Chair chats travel

Another coup coming out of the Skift forum was the appearance of OpenAI’s Board Chair Bret Taylor.

In the reporting by Phocuswire on the interview Taylor talked about ““the packaging of AI,”… the introduction of digital experiences that can “come close to those wonderful, high-touch human experiences that I think define great travel experiences.”

Taylor talked about the multimodal capabilities of AI by saying ““We have agents now where you can talk to them with your voice, and it will actually give you a multimedia experience,”

He also hinted that video is the next component in that.

But I think this is where it gets tough for OpenAI in particular. Google has YouTube. Meta has Instagram. They have the videos (real ones made by real people in real places). OpenAI doesn’t have that and there isn’t really a great source of videos for them…. except for what is happening with the new US TikTok.

The other option is AI created videos but if that is their option then for travel at least – they might be better to bow out now from thinking they will steamroll this vertical.

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Marketplace Spotlight: Tripian

It’s not build or buy? It’s buy-to-build!

Jeff Kischuk from Tripian dropped an insightful article this week that I think captures a moment in time – the one we are in right now.

Jeff argues that the “build or buy” argument is over. “I'm going to call it: this debate is dead.” says Jeff.

Instead, we have moved into an era of microservices that anyone can buy and then assemble together in unique ways to create something totally new in the world. I see this reality play out in nearly every conversation I have – especially on the podcast where I mainly talk to those building things but often, they are actually re-assembling API’s into unique formations with bespoke UI to create a new experience for the end user.

In a world where everyone is a coder (that’s now BTW) it is actually the power of your vision that can be most compelling. Lots of people are building things to help you overcome with ease what could otherwise be complex.

Like the Colonel’s secret 11 herbs and spices, keeping the source of your API’s secret might be important in this brave new world.

If you have a B2B business underpinned by AI and looking for people to notice you, you can sign up to the marketplace for peanuts (top right corner, 5 mins, bring your logo).

I’ve priced for bootstrapped startups but also accepting larger companies too.

Building with AI is easy! (Right? )

I don’t often put images in this newsletter because (if I remember well) it creates some problems in getting the LinkedIn version together. But today I’m doing it anyway because my own co-founder Adrian sent me this one after I added yet another feature request to the roadmap.

I think in here we might also find the answer to why so many AI pilots fail to materialise into business gains.

Slack Group!

Podcasts and Sponsors

Podcasts now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts:

New podcasts are now showing up on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for your easy listening pleasure!

This week I caught up with none other than Alex Bainbridge to set the scene for our in-person meetup happening as part of the Arival AI Forum next week! If you can’t make it, this pod is for you. If you can make it, this pod is for you!

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Most clicked last week was the link to YouGov report that young Americans are abandoning AI Trip Planning.

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 focusing. 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

Glossary

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Artificial intelligence leverages computers and machines to mimic the problem-solving and decision-making capabilities of the human mind. (source IBM)

Generative AI (GAI) is a type of AI powered by machine learning (ML) models that are trained on vast amounts of data and are used to produce new content, such as photos, text, code, images, and 3D renderings. (Source Amazon)

Large Language Model (LLM) is a specialized type of artificial intelligence (AI) that has been trained on vast amounts of text to understand existing content and generate original content.

ChatGPT – Open AI’s LLM; sometimes referred to by its series number GPT3; GPT3.5 or GPT4. These are used by Microsoft & Bing.

Gemini – Google’s suite of LLM.

If wanting to go even deeper into the AI lexicon – check out this handy guide created by Peter Syme for the tours & activity sector