Kayak is the latest business to turn to AI in an effort to make planning a holiday simpler, and has introduced a new ChatGPT-based tool for finding the cheapest possible flights.
The travel search engine says anyone who has found a flight connection online on any website can use its new PriceCheck tool to quickly find out whether there is a cheaper alternative for this route before booking.
The idea is that you take a screenshot of the website with the flight connection and upload it to the Kayak app - just like you would upload and share a picture on WhatsApp or some other messenger. This can be done with just a few taps of the screen, and during our test it worked without any problems.
The app's AI, relying on ChatGPT, then filters out the relevant data from the screenshot, which Kayak uses to search for possible cheaper alternatives for the respective flight connection across all providers.
Kayak isn't the only company exploring the use of AI in travel planning, and Qatar Airways recently unveiled a chatbot called Sama, which has an avatar in the form of a flight attendant.
Sama answers verbal or written questions about the airline's services. The AI avatar can be started via the airline's website and mobile app.
During a test at Berlin's recent ITB tourism fair earlier in March, she was not able to speak, but chatting with messages worked smoothly.
It is also integrated into a virtual environment in which you can explore Hamad Airport in Doha and the interior of an aircraft, a digital space that the airline is calling the Qverse.
The German airline Eurowings also recently announced the launch of a chatbot for its tour operator brand Eurowings Holidays.
Holly is an AI-supported online travel advisor that not only provides ideas based on individual preferences, but also enables package holidays to be booked immediately.
Google and Microsoft meanwhile both regularly tout holiday planning as a key are where their AI services offer help.
Tourism researchers believe AI will play an increasingly important role in all areas of the travel industry, particularly in finding and suggesting suitable holidays - a discipline in which well-trained machines are much faster than humans.
Currently, customers typically need to know where they want to go, and will then search online for offers based on that.
In the future, however, you will be able to tell an AI what is important to you when travelling and how much money you want to spend, and the AI will churn out suitable offers that you may not have had on your radar, industry experts believe.
That might be destinations that you hadn't previously thought of, or forms of travel such as cruises or camping that you have never considered before.
