Expedia Plans to Use Artificial Intelligence for Customer Service
Skift Take
There has been serious talk about artificial intelligence in travel for the past couple of years. While Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi wasn't talking about implementing artificial intelligence for customer service in the next quarter or two, be assured that Expedia and others are working on it hard.
How does one of the largest players in global travel view the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence?
As the tech world salivates over its game-changing potential, Expedia Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company plans to first use artificial intelligence for customer service rather than for something like trip-planning.
"For me to be able to message Expedia on [Facebook] Messenger or text ... 'cancel my hotel booking in New York next week,' it is a much more delightful experience than calling or even my getting on the website etc.," Khosrowshahi said at Skift Global Forum in New York City last month.
While leisure travelers might take on average perhaps just one or two vacations annually, artificial intelligence isn't practical at this point for travel research and planning because artificial intelligence needs huge amounts of data to work, Khosrowshahi argued.
"We are going to take it on the service side," Khosrowshahi told the audience last month in a session with online travel founders. "I think the planning experience and build for AI [artificial intelligence] has a real challenge because you are going to get a lot of null results. The AI isn't going to understand what you say."
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Jay Walker, who founded Priceline.com and is currently CEO of business
