Can AI agents plan and book our trips?
Here, I’ll share my AI agent tests, what works, where I get stuck, my thoughts, and what’s new in AI × travel
I work on travel infrastructure at @jinkohq
I got a bunch of customers writing me today asking if we should be worried about UA bots blocking
best answer is no as you decided to work with Jinko (API) and not computer use to perform your travel bookings
Personal assistants are starting to figure out travel, and users are expecting more than a list of flights or hotels
Before Jinko, our clients already had a travel API or used browser automation, but had the same problems:
• Travel APIs are built for destinations and dates. But we’re seeing that people using personal assistants want to explore where to go first, without knowing exactly what to book. A good travel assistant helps you build the whole trip. Yet some travel integrations are still built for destination and date requests, and some don’t even let users book
• Browser automation is slow and unreliable. I tested it myself, and a basic search sometimes took 12+ minutes. And you often can’t even complete the booking
That’s what we’re building @jinkohq for, helping personal assistants handle travel from the first idea to the booking
The best AI founders have a life outside their personal agent
Tell me if I’m wrong
Loved @ekuyda’s talk at @thecultureslop
Art, surfing, books… I think what founders care about outside work comes through in what they build
That’s the feeling I got with Wabi
Personal agent
Personal assistant
AI agent
AI assistant
AI companion
Virtual assistant
...
So many ways to talk about the same thing. What's the difference and why don't we just use one term?
OpenAI didn't just acquire a startup, they acquired a software-enabled travel agency
and it makes sense why
when i tested every agent on travel, Dots was one of the worst. 33 minutes to get from flight search to checkout!
travel is the hottest vertical in personal AI agents, and OpenAI just told the world they're here to compete
Let's go!! Starting a new format: taking real life cases we got at Jinko of people planning trips
I put it in a cool format and changed names and some infos but I think it's cool!
The first AI persona you’ll actually want to meet face-to-face.
Most AI personas stare blankly while you talk. Emma reacts while you’re still speaking.
After 18 months of research at @nuance_ai, this is Emma, built on Nuplex, our full-duplex audiovisual foundation model.
@ebloch That could be really cool, especially if I don't even have to ask for a trip. If my agent knows I have a free weekend, the budget for it and somewhere I've been wanting to go, it could just suggest something that makes sense for me
@vikramchopra I totally agree, I'd happily let an agent figure out the layovers and compare all the flight options for me. Once all of that is automated, booking a trip will be so much easier, and it's honestly surprising this isn't already how we do it
@evnsio@OpenAI I'd still double check things today, especially when I'm asking an agent to handle a trip with lots of specific details. Getting all of that right isn't easy, but I agree that catching small mistakes between bookings is already really useful
@CoolestAK87 I agree, I still want to look at the places and choose where I'm staying, but I don't want to read all the cancellation policies. I just want the agent to tell me what I need to know before I book
@BoBrainerd LLM are already starting to get behind, models of AI Agents are improved more than ever. Wouldn't suprise me to see some LLMs getting down in a few months