Rahul Todkar, Head of Data and AI at Tripadvisor: “AI Will Revolutionize Travel Interfaces in the Next 3 Years”

In an insightful discussion, Rahul Todkar, the Vice President and head of Data and AI at Tripadvisor, unveiled a visionary outlook on how generative AI, conversational interfaces, and hyper-personalization are poised to transform the future of travel planning.

“In just three years, the landscape of travel user interfaces (UIs) will become entirely conversational and multimodal, with personalization at the heart of the experience. The explosion of AI-driven content will create a profound synergy between travel companies and social, AI-first search platforms,” he asserted.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is advancing rapidly in the travel industry. The company has strategically positioned itself as the leader in this sector. This is possible due to the usage of innovative AI tools.

In an interview with Indianexpress.com, the Vice President and head of Data and AI said that the company is changing their methods by using the latest technical search-based experiences for users for their travel planning journey.

The company has been in the market for more than 25 years. The Vice President and head of Data and AI feels that the company can operate in many more countries & may support several languages. 

He is proud that they are helping close to 300 million monthly active users. Besides, they are gaining close to 1 billion reviews and featuring 13 million businesses. Even amidst this success, their latest strategic pivot marks what may be their most significant transformation to date. 

“About a few years ago, under the leadership of Matt Goldberg, we started to make the shift from a click-centric strategy to an engagement-focused approach,” he said. This strategy was aimed at making meaningful experiences.

So that it may inspire users to explore, plan, and engage deeply with the platform. The Vice President and head of Data and AI felt that this strategy is divided into three fundamental pillars, which include enhancing contributions and contributors, expanding trip planners and activity engagement, and increasing direct bookings through their platform. 

The Vice President and head of Data and AI also stated that it plays a crucial role in driving this transformation. Todkar revealed that AI has been used even earlier in the company. However, this time the approach is particularly distinctive. 

“We have a rich history of developing core recommendation models, personalization techniques, pricing optimization, and marketing enhancements,” he noted. With the advent of generative AI, consumer expectations have dramatically shifted.

The Vice President and head of Data and AI identified three pivotal trends shaping their AI strategy, which are the emergence of conversational interfaces, multimodal experiences blending text, images, and videos, and the rise in demand for hyper-personalization.

The company’s AI roadmap encompasses three major dimensions: product and marketing integration, enhancing internal productivity, and cultivating external partnerships. “We’ve initiated content collaborations with platforms like Perplexity and Alexa, and launched innovative projects in partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft.” 

Todkar remarked, showcasing their philosophy of “Tripadvisor everywhere,” bringing user experiences to where they naturally are. Discussing the future of the travel industry, Todkar offered a compelling prediction about travel interfaces. 

He believes that the traditional model, characterized by rigid date fields, filters, and hotel listings, will soon give way to dynamic, conversational, multimodal experiences fueled by social validation and network effects.

Todkar pointed to the success of Tripadvisor’s AI trip planner, which debuted 18 months ago, as a testament to this transformative shift. This generative AI-driven solution has already crafted over 2.5 million trips, with users exhibiting “three to five times more engagement on our platform compared to traditional users.” 

Furthermore, the company has reported remarkable increases in average revenue per user from these AI-engaged travelers. When asked about the impact of Tripadvisor’s partnership with Snowflake in modernizing its data infrastructure and enhancing AI capabilities, Todkar spoke to the partnership’s significant results. 

He added that the company manages 10 petabytes of structured data. This is with large amounts of semi-structured and unstructured data. It also includes more than a billion text reviews & a billion user-uploaded photos. 

This is when the company required a modern, scalable platform that can not only handle & manage the storage, but also the privacy controls. The company has not partnered with Snowflake. 

They have been able to come up with innovative features and solutions. This has enabled the company to make a tangible impact across the business. Besides, he added, that their storage costs have also come down significantly.