AI Case Study

"Hipmunk, an up-and-coming travel search website, has launched Hello Hipmunk, a free virtual travel agent powered by A.I. Hello Hipmunk is available on Facebook Messenger and Slack; so, it’s a travel chatbot…and it’s a whole lot more. Hello Hipmunk has two major features: Hello Email and Hello Calendar. With Hello Email, you loop hello@hipmunk.com into your email conversations about travel and ask, in the email, something like “Hello @hipmunk, can you send us some flight options for a flight from Boston to Miami from August 8 to 15?” Hipmunk replies, in a conversational, friendly email, with flight options. It does hotel searches, too.

Hello Calendar searches your Google calendar and sends you flight, hotel, and rental car options by determining your out-of-town events and offering recommendations for your scheduled travel." (30secondstofly)

"Here’s how Hello Hipmunk is simplifying travel planning:

Advice and Research: You can ask things like, “Show me the best flights from JFK to San Diego” or “I’d like to take a romantic vacation from Seattle in September.” Then, Hello Hipmunk taps into its large dataset of itineraries, room inventory, and pricing to provide contextually relevant advice instantly.

Preferences and Alerts: You can tell Hello how you like to travel by using phrases such as “show me non-stops only” or “I prefer United Airlines” or “I’d like the cheapest flight”. Travelers can also request to receive price alerts based on their inquiries.

Personalization and Context: Hello Hipmunk understands the context of your conversation, just like a real-life personal assistant. For example, if you type, “I’d like to fly to Portland from Chicago next weekend,” Hello Hipmunk knows the dates for next weekend, remembers you’re flying to Portland, and can show hotels for those same dates, too." (hipmunk.com)