How would you like to speak with an artificial person the next time you need to make travel arrangements? Startup tech company exClone in New York City has been developing talking agents that harness the power of human expertise, with the latest project being Phil the Voyager.
Most of us already have some familiarity speaking with artificial entities, For example, when you call a bank or other business, you might find yourself speaking to an automated voice prompt system that determines if you just want to check your balance or if you have a special situation and need to talk with an actual human.
ExClone recently unveiled its new artificial intelligence-fueled solution for people needing help with their travel plans. Phil will talk with uses to help them find new places to travel, based on information that it has on file about more than 30,000 destinations around the world.
It includes videos and photos as well, which people can access in a user-friendly interface.
Examples of what you will be able to do with Phil the Voyager include: Ask where you can go on vacation in the Bahamas and the Caribbean. You can tell the AI that your family enjoys spending time on the beach but that you would like to know which bars are best to go to at night. You would also like to know where your kids can see dolphins or where you can enjoy some spicy Thai food.
Such questions would take a long time to address if you used a standard search engine. Instead, the artificial intelligence powering Phil will tease apart your questions and reply with the information you need much more quickly than if you conducted the searches yourself.
Phil the Voyager is currently only accessible to people who have been approved to participate in private testing, and will be available to people on Facebook for a brief trial as well. The company says it plans to roll out a full commercial version of Phil the Voyager later in 2015.
What do you think? Will artificial intelligence agents start appearing in the travel industry? With so many aspects of business being automated, it seems inevitable that we will increasingly come to rely on AI to help us accomplish routine tasks, enabling actual humans to focus on more creative and important things.
