ChatGPT will never become a verb. Soon it will be three years since ChatGPT astonished the world and put generative AI into the public consciousness. It’s had plenty of time to achieve “let me Google that” status, but it has not. Why?

The nature of AI, the fact that it is shaped by the data on which it’s trained, and that it is generative — not just answering a question but creating something on behalf of the user — puts it on a different trajectory than search engines.

Instead of mass consolidation to a single tool like we’ve seen with Google, we will see mass proliferation of custom AI tools. Every brand has its own data and its own community of customers, and thus every brand will have its own AI.

This is already playing out in the travel industry. Major online travel agencies such as Expedia were quick to announce AI integrations. What’s unfolding now is that brands further down the value chain — destinations, airlines, hotels — are realizing they don’t just need an AI strategy, they need their own AI.

Destinations have one kind of data, but also need another

Destination marketing organizations (DMOs, or tourism boards) are often the leading data source for information about their destination. They have spent decades building websites with articles and pages addressing the top interests and concerns of travelers and visitors.

This data is extremely valuable. And while all of the major LLMs such as ChatGPT have surely ingested this data, it gets mixed in with everything else ever published about the destination. DMOs can build on LLMs to prioritize their own data, drawing on other sources only to fill gaps.

This creates a higher quality result and clearer, more positive impression of the destination for the user, both in trip planning and high-level vacation brainstorming. It also allows the DMO to gather another type of data they desperately need.

One of the most common challenges I hear from DMOs is they don’t know who is coming to their destination or why. They often have much less visibility into who their customers are and how they behave than other types of businesses do.

Think about it. If you visit a city, does the DMO know you’re there? You may contribute to overall statistics about airport traffic, hotel stays, restaurant spending or museum visitors, but the DMO doesn’t know why you picked that particular hotel, what other cities you were considering visiting, or if you ran into any problems. Conversations with a custom AI tool owned by the DMO reveal all of that.

“We started to see much more specific questions than a traditional website’s content covers,” said Paula Port, vice president of global marketing for Destination Toronto, in a PhocusWire article about 6ix, the AI tool the DMO launched on the GuideGeek platform last fall. “That was really our goal, just to understand how that search and that conversation was changing.”

The best part is that once DMOs have this information, it creates a data flywheel. DMOs can use data gleaned from AI user queries and behavior to create content that speaks to concerns and trends they weren’t aware of before, which then enriches future AI responses.

Converting web traffic is more crucial than ever

Google’s use of AI summaries has reduced search traffic across all industries, and because of the exploratory nature of travel — seeking out new places and activities you don’t know about yet — it’s one industry that has been hit particularly hard. Travel industry outlet Skift called it potentially an “existential threat” to DMOs.

By having their own AI tool, travel brands are able to shift from a focus on web traffic volume to conversions. While brands previously focused on volume to bring more total visitors or customers into the top of the funnel, AI redesigns the entire funnel to be much more effective.

Instead of clicking around the menu or homepage of your site, or typing keywords into a search bar, visitors can engage with a chat platform designed to use the question on their mind as a jumping-off point for an entire conversation.

In addition, AI can help draw in traffic from channels other than search, such as social media. With a custom AI tool connected to the brand’s social media accounts, followers can get instant, customized responses 24/7 that direct users to exactly where they need to be on the brand’s website.

Guardrails and promotion are important

When we’re developing custom AI tools for travel brands, a common key interest is guardrails. In conversations about travel, ChatGPT often provides tangential information or something different than what the user is asking.

Consider a city like Boston, which is surrounded by other densely urban municipalities as well as suburbs. If you ask ChatGPT for recommendations on hotels or restaurants in Boston, you may also get some results in Cambridge or Somerville. This is, of course, not ideal for a DMO that might represent only one of those cities.

Through testing and customization, an AI tool built specifically for a brand can adhere to guardrails ranging from excluding adult content and businesses, to limiting recommendations to a specific geographic area, to not recommending itineraries or choices the brand knows are common mistakes travelers make.

Of course, none of this matters if users aren’t using the AI tool. It helps to make a big splash when it launches, and then make adjustments and integrate the AI into campaigns over time. New Zealand rolled out suggested AI prompts on the homepage of its US website in connection with a major activation around the Minecraft movie.

Ultimately, the reason every travel brand needs its own AI is because, to be successful, they have to build relationships with travelers. Because it provides travelers the ability to engage in a conversation with the brand, while simultaneously gathering information that helps the brand understand them better, AI is the best tool for building relationships at scale.

This article originally appeared on Inc.com.

Ross Borden is co-founder and CEO of Matador Network, creator of GuideGeek, the leading AI platform for travel brands. guidegeek.com/destinations