I often wonder how travel is being affected by technology. AI (artificial intelligence) can already recommend top-rated places, suggest activities, and build itineraries—but there are still limits to how much help you can get with ChatGPT or Gemini. An AI can tell you what the best-rated walking tours and hostels, but it can’t tell you if you’re going to make friends on a trip. It can tell you the best time and place to catch a sunset—not whether it’ll feel meaningful to you.

I think some companies look to AI as this shiny, new thing that will cut down personnel issues, substitute hiring, and be a winner all-around—without actually knowing what the best way to use AI is. In my experience, the biggest benefit of using AI is the time saved by letting it do research, make suggestions, and generate work. If I had an AI magic wand, here’s how I’d hope I’d get to use AI while I’m travelling:

I want a virtual assistant on my phone to do all the admin I hate. Why pivot from Expedia to British Airway’s app to copy codes and access reservations? I want to be checked in by an AI that knows my passport information already, who’s already alerted me to the VISA I’ll need and filled out the forms required.

I’d like to snap a pic of my cabin bag and have AI tell me whether it’ll be allowed as a carry-on item instead of pulling up the airline’s website and grabbing a tape measure. In the airport, I want to know which is the least-busy bathroom and the closest water fountain. All of these things take time—time I’d rather spend packing or in the duty-free shop!

Cut the “waiting” time down. When things go wrong with an airline, my experience is usually that of being kept on hold for a very long time. There’s got to be a way that AI can do the annoying part of listening to hold music (while I do literally anything else) until a person picks up—then alerting me to it.

Search for legitimate competitors locally. Usually when we travel home to Canada, my partner and I rent a car—and we go with one of the bigger, internationally-known companies, because we trust them based on the fact that their reputation is international. But I’m sure there are local, smaller car rentals that don’t have the price tag for being most well-known; and I’m sure the same could be said of temporary cell phone carriers, sports rental equipment like skis or snowboards, or taxi rentals. I want the option to be cheap—but not so cheap that I worry I’m being scammed. If you’re planning an event abroad, like a wedding or a conference, you might want to know who’s the best for reputation and price for transport busses, table rentals, décor…all of this takes so, so much research. If AI could do it, it would be a huge time saver.

What elements of travel annoy you the most, and how could AI make them better? Let me know in the comments! As always, happy exploring x