Expedia unveils travel buddy AI app for US customers

Expedia has released a new ‘progressively intelligent’ travel assistant app Romie and a raft of other new features at its annual partner event Explore in Las Vegas.

According to the US travel technology group, Romie helps with planning, shopping, booking and can even advise on last minute changes to trips such as flight cancellations or the weather.

The company also claims that Romie has progressive learning abilities, meaning that the app can learn a user’s preferences in terms of type of trips, food, activities, and hotels.

According to Expedia, the intelligent travel companion can also be added to group chats when planning a trip, to get suggestions on where to go or what to do.

Interview with Expedia’s Shiyi Pickrell, senior VP of Data and AI

The AI claims to be able to summarise these chats and bring key outcomes of the discussion into the Expedia shopping experience. Other features include extracting travel info from emails and suggesting nearby activities and restaurants.

The app also claims to be able to monitor weather changes or last-minute disruptions that may impact travel plans and can make alternative suggestions.

Expedia said in its press release that it will initially release the app on its experimental hub EG Labs, which is accessible to North American travellers only.

“We believe in re-imagining the traveller experience, and then using the latest in AI to bring it to life, and with Romie, we’ve done just that,” said Rathi Murthy, CTO, Expedia Group.

“We created an AI assistant specific to travel that helps you during your trip, not just when you’re planning at home, and gets progressively more intelligent as you interact with them, learning and building memories to create more unique travel experiences for you in the future.”

The travel group announced that its partners can also now make use with some of Expedia’s investments in AI, which include the ability to personalise itineraries (US app users only), price and destination comparison tools, as well as guest review summaries.