ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Meta AI: A Frenetic Year With More to Come in 2025

The year is closing with a slew of generative AI updates from OpenAI, Google, and Meta. It’s a big end to a year of huge advancements for the new tech and the way it relates to travel. 

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, said this year that the company's goal is for a “universal agent that will be useful in everyday life.” OpenAI has a similar vision, and Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil said it could happen as early as next year.

AI companies have made considerable progress toward this vision in 2024 — glitchy as the tech may be.

Despite some big acquisitions and record-breaking startup fundraises elsewhere, this year's advancement in AI was the most important story for travel tech and the future of the industry.

The long-term vision in travel is for an AI assistant that can search and book travel for users, as well as be a guide and translator during trips, and remember details and preferences for future trips.

Below is a look back at the progress AI has made in 2024 and a bit about what to expect in 2025. 

One of OpenAI’s biggest criticisms when it was first released was that it couldn’t provide real-time information. 

That’s no longer the case since it released SearchGPT in late October. The tools enable the ChatGPT chatbot to search the Internet and provide results about flights, restaurants, events and more. Search results can include pins on a map with links to driving directions a