AI in tourism: speed over quality

As more and more young people, especially within the 18 to 35 y/o range, admit to using AI when planning their travels, it’s inevitable to question the impact of artificial intelligence on the tourism industry. In many fields AI and robotics have changed the world, allowing for long-distance surgeries, fast patient diagnosis and the analysis of huge volumes of data in a blink of an eye. AI is made to imitate the human mind and do better than us: it reduces the possibility of human error and it is supposed to avoid any biases when making decisions. But as social media and other technological advancements have proven, it’s always better to take a closer look at things.

AI might have no biases, but this also means that it has no emotion or creativity whatsoever. It takes data from all over the internet (sometimes going against copyright laws and stealing content from others) and regurgitates it into what it thinks is the best answer to your needs. And if it doesn’t know what to say, it simply makes it up: this phenomenon is called “hallucination” and it leads to AI spitting out nonsensical answers, proving that it’s not perfect. This leads to the spread of misinformation and even the skewing of historical events.

So, does it make sense to use AI in tourism? Especially in this world, where emotion and cultural accuracy play such a big role, my answer is negative. New companies introducing AI-generated tour guides and AI-based trip planners seemingly leads to people losing their jobs and tourists getting a worse product. The human element is fundamental in our field! When you are travelling you should talk to locals, ask them for suggestions and take in every bit of information they give you. Even when I’m designing a trip for someone, I consider way more than just what my client “tells” me: I take into consideration their personality, who they are travelling with and of course my hands-on experiences, which make me good at my job.

AI is a tool: it can help with offering a 24/7 customer service, with predicting tourism flow and saving airports from overcrowding, and simply as a colleague to brainstorm ideas with. It can’t and shouldn’t substitute humans, because it simply lacks what makes us, us. And after all the dystopian books and movies, do we really want to see a world where robots take over? I didn’t think so.