The use of artificial intelligence in the travel and hospitality industry. Civil liability profiles by Caterina del Federico IJTTHL PRE-PRINT

AI companies continues to drop, from 1051 companies in 2019 and 762 companies in 2020 to 746 companies in 2021. In 2020 there were 4 funding rounds worth $500 million or more; in 2021 there were 15 . 7 The tourism industry is also taking advantage of AI to revolutionize the way it operates. Travel companies use AI in various processes from travel planning to landing in the destination. Before the AI revolution traveling was required time and research. This was before Booking.com could recommend cheap fights to the tourist’s target destinations, before Airbnb could better assist the tourist’s accommodation based on previous trips, and before fellow tourists could tell some other tourist about destinations on Tripadvisor. Back then, the tourist had to spend time outlining his itinerary, searching for fights, and sorting through several flters to fnd that one hotel. The arrival of artifcial intelligence has changed all that, introducing new ways of experiencing tourism and the travel experience. Below just a few examples involving artifcial intelligence systems that can be identifed as trends in the feld of tourism: AI assistants for travel booking, robots for face-to-face customer services, AI driven applications for fight forecasting, data analytics to identify valuable insights, sentiment analysis through social media, room mapping + dynamic price tracking, facial recognition at the airports for border identifcation check. Chatbot, facial recognition and other AI systems used in tourism Thanks to artifcial intelligence, travelers no longer need to visit travel agencies to book fights or search for accommodation. AI assistants and intelligent chatbots have now taken the place of travel agents allowing travelers to book fights and accommodation and hire vehicles online, just to give a few examples. These chatbots are normally deployed in social media sites like Facebook messenger, Skype, WhatsApp to ofer users a more personalized booking experience. The travel reservation giants like Booking.com, Skyskanner and Expedia are utilizing such chatbot by entering the details of the tourist’s intended journey. Then the bot will search through the booking sites and fnd the tourist the best deal. Chatbot technology cover an important part of AI systems used in the feld of tourism, and it is not surprising that many travel brands have already launched their own versions in the last year or so. That of Skyscanner is just one example, creating a smart bot to help See chap. 4 of the Report made by the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artifcial Intelligence (HAI). 7 4

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