Expedia unveils AI-powered "travel buddy" Romie

Expedia Group just announced the launch of Romie, an AI-powered “travel buddy” the company says serves as a “travel agent, concierge and personal assistant, all in one.”

Designed to help with planning, shopping and booking trips, Romie — who will “roam the world” with travellers — also has the capability to lend a hand when unexpected changes pop up during travel.

According to Expedia, the more travellers use the AI assistant, the smarter it gets, learning who they are, remembering what type of trips they like and even their food and activity preferences.

“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 of Expedia Group. “We created an AI assistant with hyper personalization in mind so that travellers can choose when they want Romie’s help on their own terms. Romie can assist throughout dreaming, planning and travelling or even when things don’t go as planned, all while getting more intelligent as the traveller interacts.”

Romie is currently only available on EG Labs, a hub for experimental products available to those in the U.S. who sign up for it.

Here is a breakdown of what Expedia says Romie can do:

Group Chat Trip Planning: Invite Romie to join your SMS group chat and listen to your vacation plans. If you want advice, just @Romie to get suggestions on where to go or what to do, like you would a travel agent.

Smart Search: Ask Romie to summarize your group chat and bring what they learned about your trip straight into your Expedia shopping experience. Personalize your search even more by adding your own filters, like rooftop views and early check-in, to find your ideal hotel faster.

Building Your Itinerary: Like any good concierge, your new AI buddy is eager to help you build your perfect trip. Romie can pull in travel information from your emails and suggest restaurants and activities near your hotel that they think you and your group will enjoy.

Dynamic Service: You can rely on Romie to troubleshoot with you when things don’t go as planned. Like the perfect personal assistant, Romie monitors weather changes or last-minute disruptions that may impact your plans and has alternative suggestions ready that are convenient for you.

Intelligent Assistance: Throughout your trip, Romie updates your itinerary in real time so anyone in the group chat with FOMO can see what you’re up to, and anyone who needs to pick you up from the airport can simply @Romie to check what time you land.

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