I Let AI Agents Plan My Vacation—and It Wasn't Terrible

Trains booked, Operator thinks its occupation is done. But I’ll request location to stay, I punctual it—can it book a hotel? It asks for much specifications and I’m purposefully vague, specifying that it should beryllium comfy and conveniently located. Comparing hotels is possibly my slightest favourite facet of recreation planning, truthful I’m happy to time off it scrolling done Booking.com. I restrain myself from jumping successful erstwhile I spot it’s group nan incorrect dates, but it corrects this itself. It spends a while surveying an Ibis listing, but ends up choosing a three-star edifice called Martin’s Brugge, which I statement users person rated arsenic having an fantabulous location.

Now each that’s near is an itinerary. Here, Operator seems to suffer steam. It offers a perfunctory one-day schedule that appears to person chiefly been cribbed from a vegetarian recreation blog. On time 2, it suggests I “visit immoderate remaining attractions aliases museums.” Wow, acknowledgment for nan tip.

The time of nan travel arrives, and, arsenic I resistance myself retired of furniture astatine 4:30 am, I retrieve why I usually debar early departures. Still, I get to Brussels without issue. My summons allows for onward travel, but I recognize I don’t cognize wherever I’m going. I occurrence up Operator connected my telephone and inquire which level nan adjacent Bruges-bound train departs from. It searches nan Belgian railway timetables. Minutes later, it’s still searching. I look up and spot nan specifications connected a position display. I get to nan level earlier Operator has figured it out.

Bruges is delightful. Given Operator’s lackluster itinerary, I branch out. This benignant of investigation task is cleanable for a ample connection model, I realize—it doesn’t require agentic capabilities. ChatGPT, Operator’s OpenAI sibling, gives maine a overmuch much thorough plan, plotting activities by nan hr pinch suggestions of not conscionable wherever to eat, but what to bid (Flemish stew astatine De Halve Mann brewery). I besides effort Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude, and their plans are similar: Walk to nan marketplace square; spot nan belfry tower; sojourn nan Basilica of nan Holy Blood. Bruges is simply a mini city, and I can’t thief but wonderment if this is simply nan modular tourer route, aliases if nan AI models are each getting their accusation from nan aforesaid sources.

Various travel-specific AI devices are trying to break done this genericness. I concisely effort MindTrip, which provides a representation alongside a written itinerary, offers to personalize recommendations based connected a quiz, and includes collaborative features for shared trips. CEO Andy Moss says it expands connected wide LLM capabilities by leveraging a travel-specific “knowledge base” containing things for illustration upwind information and real-time availability.