Marrying rich data with travelers' personal preferences in the ChatGPT environment creates something that Rahul Todkar, Tripadvisor's head of data and AI, likens to "magic."
Like other websites rich in data, Tripadvisor -- which houses more than 1 billion reviews and contributions from users -- has a subset of content that is publicly available and can be found by search engines. But there's much more rich content behind what's public, Todkar said. Tripadvisor can also connect reviews with traveler preferences, recognizing the context in which a user submitted a review and what their travel styles and preferences are.
"Connecting that user information, the clickstream information, financial or transactional information, all that, to the review becomes important," Todkar said. "That's behind the firewall, and that information is proprietary, first-party data for us. As you think about more personalization, this is that rich information. Connecting that with the reviews is what brings the magic together."
It is this proprietary, context-rich data that Tripadvisor is leveraging in a new partnership.
In the next month, Tripadvisor will launch an app on ChatGPT that enables users to access reviews, ratings and images within their chat. Expedia and Booking.com already have apps that went live earlier this month as launch partners with OpenAI. All of the apps are built on the Model Context Protocol, which enables ChatGPT to connect with external tools and data to provide current and specialized information.
Todkar described it as an App Store-like environment, enabling companies to host their own apps on ChatGPT (Tripadvisor had already been working with OpenAI for several years to build products and use its APIs).
"The goal is to make trip planning highly personalized by combining all the Tripadvisor content with OpenAI's advanced AI capabilities," he said.
For Tripadvisor, it's key to be wherever its travelers are, and right now, ChatGPT has drawn many to its platform. Todkar called its adoption rate among consumers "fantastic," noting that "if our travelers are in ChatGPT looking for trusted guidance and recommendations and personalized insights, we want to be available there for them."
Tripadvisor also works with another generative AI platform, Perplexity. Announced earlier this year, the partnership integrated Tripadvisor's travel resources into Perplexity's search capabilities.
As to whether one GenAI platform will move to the front of the pack like Google's search capabilities did, effectively turning "Google" into a verb, Todkar said the "jury's still out."
A company like Tripadvisor, Todkar said, has the experience to identify how AI can improve the travel-planning process: search, discovery and inspiration, or pre-trip planning and deciding where to go, when and with whom, and choosing what to do in-destination among myriad options.
"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 said he believes the decision-making process can be streamlined, giving travelers options that are tailored to them, thanks to added context like their travel preferences.
"OpenAI and ChatGPT already work with hundreds of millions of travelers, customers, all over the world," Todkar said, "and with that, you get scale where you have deeper understanding."