Oneworld already uses artificial intelligence in one of its programmes

16-07-23

Generative artificial intelligence chatbots, such as ChatGPT, quickly took the travel industry by storm. When the technology's factual shortcomings and potential bias were discovered, companies developed add-ons or other solutions.

But now that the industry wants to move from a sudden romance to a more serious relationship, it faces the same dilemma as all the romantic comedy heroines created by Hollywood: How do you match the seductive huckster with the smart, reliable - if a little dull - guy who will always be honest?

In travel, as in romantic comedies, you have to go around the world to try that mix, which is just what the Oneworld airline alliance is trying to do by incorporating generative AI into its signature Round the World ticketing process. The alliance includes more than a dozen airlines such as American, British Airways, Iberia and Qatar.

With hundreds of possible destinations and too many flight combinations to count, round-the-world travel has largely remained the province of travel agents, even if a chatbot is ideal for trying out all the different permutations that might come to mind.

"By making the process more accessible, our goal is to attract more potential customers," said Rob Gurney, CEO of Oneworld. "Often, these are trips of a lifetime, and travellers want to explore the options thoroughly. They appreciate help in finding ways to make their travel goals practical."

For its solution, Oneworld turned to Elemental Cognition. The startup was founded in 2015 by computer scientist David Ferrucci, a commercial AI pioneer best known as the creator of IBM Watson. Much of his work since then has focused on developing an AI model that combines the erudition of a chatbot with the logical reasoning that a human would employ.

In the case of Oneworld, the tool presents users with a global map and a chatbot dialogue box on the side. It asks the user to choose a home city, and then the game begins: the user adds cities. Will he or she visit all continents? How many stops? The ticket can have up to 16 different flights with stopovers of different lengths, as long as they are completed within a year. 

Once all the cities have been chosen, the tool presents the optimal route, although users can make changes. (The base price depends on the number of continents the user chooses to visit. For an adult travelling in economy class, base fares for six continents start at $6,899 plus taxes and fees).

Oneworld says users are four times more likely to create bookable itineraries using the tool than with the standard interface, although Gurney would not say how many of them have booked a trip.