Say hello to Hipmunk's new artificial intelligence-powered travel planner
All-seeing, all-knowing travel metasearch company Hipmunk is dipping its toe (or paw, maybe?) into the virtual assistant game, today announcing an artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant, Hello Hipmunk.
The assistant intuits travel needs by scanning a user's email and Google Calendar and offering up suggestions in real-time. For example, it can search through your inbox and calendar, looking for events that are scheduled for more than 100 miles from your home. It will then start serving up recommendations for flights and hotels.
Hello Hipmunk can also be directly called up by sending an email to the little matrix-surfing robot rodent – or you can just cc: the service (hello@hipmunk.com) when you're emailing your colleagues or travel buddies about your upcoming plans. It will then reply to everyone with flight and hotel recommendations and – if you forgot to mention any crucial data, like your preferred departure airport – it'll write you back to inquire about that, too.
Hipmunk CEO Adam Goldstein proudly announced the news, telling RWV:
“Every day we look for ways to take the agony out of travel searching. We thought: why not start at the places people are already thinking and talking about travel: their emails and calendars? Right now, people can try out the first iteration of Hello Hipmunk, which gives a taste of what’s to come. As people use it over the coming weeks and months, they’ll see it become even more sophisticated and powerful."
Goldstein is referring to Hello Hipmunk's initial reliance solely on A.I., but says as the assistant learns and grows, actual human Hipmunk employees will fine tune the service. VP of Hipmunk Product Nancy Hang explained:
“Twenty-five years ago, we never could have imagined that we'd be getting information from computers with touchscreens and our voices. Twenty-five years from now, we'll wonder how we lived without artificial intelligence understanding our needs and helping us proactively. We're excited to be leading the way in the travel industry.”
Hello Hipmunk email and calendar are now both in beta, beginning today.