Tripadvisor Integrates AI Magic with New ChatGPT App

The Magic of Personalized Travel Planning

Rahul Todkar, Tripadvisor's head of data and AI, believes something akin to "magic" is created when a company's rich data is married with a traveler's personal preferences inside the ChatGPT environment. While a portion of Tripadvisor's massive library of over one billion user reviews is public, Todkar explains that the most valuable information lies behind their firewall.

This proprietary, first-party data connects reviews to a user's complete context, including their click history, transaction information, and unique travel styles. "Connecting that user information... to the review becomes important," Todkar stated. "Connecting that with the reviews is what brings the magic together." It is this deep, context-rich data that Tripadvisor is now leveraging to power its next major innovation.

Tripadvisor's New ChatGPT App Arrives

In the coming month, Tripadvisor will launch its own app within ChatGPT, allowing users to access the platform's extensive reviews, ratings, and images directly within their conversations. This move follows competitors like Expedia and Booking.com, who already launched similar apps as initial partners with OpenAI.

These integrations are built on the Model Context Protocol, which enables ChatGPT to connect with external tools for current and specialized information. Todkar describes the new environment as being similar to an App Store, and noted that Tripadvisor has been working with OpenAI for several years. "The goal is to make trip planning highly personalized by combining all the Tripadvisor content with OpenAI's advanced AI capabilities," he said.

A Strategic Move into Generative AI

For Tripadvisor, the strategy is simple: be wherever travelers are. With ChatGPT's "fantastic" consumer adoption rate, it has become a critical platform for engagement. "If our travelers are in ChatGPT looking for trusted guidance and recommendations and personalized insights, we want to be available there for them," Todkar remarked.

This is not Tripadvisor's only venture into generative AI. The company also announced a partnership with the AI platform Perplexity earlier this year, integrating its travel resources into their search capabilities. When asked if one generative AI platform will become as dominant as Google Search, Todkar said the "jury's still out."

How AI Will Streamline Your Next Trip

Tripadvisor is focusing its AI efforts on improving the core phases of travel planning: the initial search and discovery, the pre-trip planning, and the in-destination decision-making. "This is where we are focused squarely with AI," Todkar said. "I feel very strongly that AI can be a big force multiplier in that."

He believes the often overwhelming decision-making process can be significantly streamlined. By understanding a traveler's unique preferences, AI can sift through countless options to present choices that are perfectly tailored to them. Leveraging the scale of OpenAI and its hundreds of millions of users provides a platform to gain deeper understanding and continuously improve this personalization engine.