Airbnb adds Google's 'AI ambassador' to its board of directors

Airbnb has added Google's 'AI ambassador' to its board of directors

CNBC reported this week on the recruitment by Airbnb of James Manyika, Google’s head of Research, Technology and Society to its Board of Directors.

Brian Chesky has dropped plenty of hints about how Airbnb plans to leverage AI to create seamless experiences for guests and hosts. (skip to about 9.30 in the video). Chesky says Airbnb has the opportunity to build one of the definitive interface layers of AI based around personalisation and knowing who you are.

Airbnb have always sort out quality people from successful companies like Apple or AMEX with diverse skillsets to sit on the board. It is clear they needed someone in there who could ask the hard questions and maybe give some directional advice on AI.

Can AI can be a solution to over-tourism?

Adam and Larry Mogelonsky, partners of Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited, a Toronto-based consulting practice have outlined in this piece some of the affects they think GenAI can have on the tourism industry.

Surprising (to me at least) was to see their belief that they believe AI will help with over-tourism due to a “democratization of travel, as powered by generative AI tools, may over (sic) a solution through the redistribution of travelers to said lesser-known destinations”.

I find this surprising because the way GenAI works. As explained by McKinsey in this article 

“text-based machine learning models rely on what’s known as self-supervised learning. This type of training involves feeding a model a massive amount of text so it becomes able to generate predictions.”

Each word is chosen therefore based on a predictive algorithm which is trained on the content of the internet. It is basically a popularity contest for words that have been MOST written previously on the subject being asked about. Over-touristed destinations are generally the ones most written about because the writers of the internet (generally) chased the biggest keywords to get the most traffic for their writing. (Hello SEO).

Adam & Larry do predict the Chatbot to become a ubiquitous interface that is expected by customers via the rise of a Wordpress or SquareSpace of Chatbots entity, which sounds like a sound bet! There are plenty startups trying to build this and OpenAI are also trying to facilitate it.

There is also a checklist of things hotels should be working through starting at “Start with a chatbot or enhanced AI assistant to facilitate basic inquiries on the website”.

What problems do travel companies really want solved with AI?

I loved seeing this post from Andrea Lamperini on Linked In shouting out exactly what AI help they would like at WeRoad.

I recently listened to great piece on Lenny Rachitsky’s podcast with Deel’s Head of Growth, Meltem Kuran Berkowitz. Meltrem says that if you are solving a real problem as a startup then there should be a place on the internet where people are seeking help for that problem, asking for advice or help or links to a solution..If you can’t find that place, then…. well is it a real problem you are working on?

For builders in AI - look, we’ve found that place!

For companies, use that place to seek what you need. It is a signal of strength not weakness! If not wishing to go so public, then you can also use our Slack group. Basically, that is what it is for, alongside getting yourself or some people in your org up to speed on what, how and who is possible.

AI will soon be helping to land our planes

Air traffic control looks from the outside like a big video game so it is probably no surprise that AI taking on that role at some point is inevitable.

For those aghast at the thought of machines taking responsibility for our safety in the air, autopilot apparently was first trialled in 1912 and this study found 80% of flights spend just 4 minutes on manual flying.

Pilots reading this - I’m just reporting the news!!

More time Tango-ing with AI

We gave a brief mention last week about tangotrips.co and this week they bobbed up on Phocuswire’s Startup Stage. If you aren’t across them yet, “Tango is the OTA killer for the mass affluent traveler.”

The report also strangely heads off talking B2B which seems a strange place for a an “OTA killer” to be. The article is pretty lengthy so I’ve used a bit of AI magic to create a summarised audio version you can find here.

HINT: You can also just get the quick audio overview of this entire newsletter if you prefer? It comes out the same time as the written one and you can sign up here.

“Take the manual jobs away so we can focus on the hospitality”

An early clubhouse leader for quote of the year comes in this brief video where James Turnbull of KSL Resorts sums up the opportunity probably better than anyone else I’ve heard to date.

The goal here is to get rid of they really boring and monotonous stuff and turn our attention fully back to the customer. Well said James!

If you’ve ever stood in the check-in line whilst the team stare down at their computers and feverishly click their mouses whilst you just continue to wait - you’ll understand how amazing the future is going to be!

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Skyskanner’s ChatGPT Plug-in is live.

Travelmole broke this news a little while back.

I’m still not sure who is using plug-ins? I need to dig deeper and find out more how these are going in general. If anyone sees a report, please kindly send it my way or tag me in.

The original buzz was that this is the new App store to sit alongside the new homepage of the internet. Whilst lots of people are certainly using ChatGPT for lots of different things, it feels more like Page 4 than page 1.

No one from Travel makes it into TIME’s 100 most influential in AI

No one from Travel is in Time’s 100 Most Influential People in AI for 2023.

Closest line I could draw this year was Noam Shazeer, founder of Character.ai because it seems totally reasonable (to me at least) that Louis XIV is undoubtedly the best guide for Versailles.

I haven’t yet found anyone working on this BTW.

It seems Character.ai however is immensely popular. The Deep View newsletter reports that in terms of AI app users “Since its launch in May 2023, the platform has amassed an impressive 4.2 million monthly active users in the U.S., closely trailing ChatGPT's nearly 6 million.” 

According to TIME however, those stats seem pretty heavily skewed in favour of people creating characters to talk dirty to them….

I’m prepared to go the early prediction that we’ll see Brian Chesky on the list in 2024 but I’d love to see someone new from travel also breaking through.

I’m beginning to regret making this promise of reviewing 1 new travel planning startup each week for a year.

It’s my least favourite time of the week.

I’ve been saved again this week however, this time by Jeff Kischuk from Tripian releasing this video explaining exactly who they are and what they do.

Unlike most others, Tripian has already pivoted from D2C to B2B. Jeff doesn’t mention it in the video but I also know they are not just a thin layer above ChatGPT but rather have built their own Points Of Interest (POI) data set and work from that. They also exclusively work on the “in-destination” problem, so not flights or hotels.

For someone building the co-pilot or AI agent that helps you what to decide what to do, see, eat or visit next when in destination, Tripian is your partner, not your competitor.

This is potentially a great picks and shovels business in the AI boom.

Tip! The best way to embed knowledge is to talk about what you’ve learned with someone else. Share this email with a curious friend with whom you can brainstorm the ideas.

Not everyone wants AI!

At POLITICO’s “Into the Age of the New Traveler” conference Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) said people need to be on the other end of a connection, not algorithms.

“I don’t want to talk to an algorithm to help me reschedule a flight or make sure my tour is going to happen,” Larsen said.

I guess that is a sample of 1. I wonder if Rick would even know it was AI or if he’d think that AImee was lovely and super efficient?

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.

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