Digital travel provider Agoda has launched its AI-powered travel assistant to users in Singapore and 20 other markets, promising a new booking experience that allows travellers to plan and book trips through a single conversational interface.
The feature brings together travel recommendations, itinerary planning, real-time pricing and booking capabilities, allowing users to move from exploring destinations to making reservations without switching between multiple platforms.
This new capability aims to address the fragmented nature of travel planning, which often requires travellers to switch between AI chats, search engines, review sites, maps and booking applications.
The app combines conversational trip planning with Agoda’s live inventory of over 6 million accommodations, flights, tours, attractions, and travel ancillaries.
Travellers can explore ideas, compare options, check prices and availability, and continue booking through Agoda without starting over at every step. The assistant retains users’ preferences and trip context as their itinerary develops.
For example, a traveller planning a five-day family trip to Osaka can use the assistant to compare neighbourhoods, explore restaurants and attractions, and identify accommodations and flights.
A trip planner canvas is designed to bring together upcoming bookings, places to visit, potential activities, and other itinerary details in one place. Users can respond through a conversational interface or tap through suggested choices while keeping their itinerary and previous decisions visible.
The integration of Web search into the assistant enables it to offer up-to-date information from the Web alongside Agoda’s live inventory.
Powered by Open AI and Google models
The AI assistant, first run as a trial in September, uses AI models from OpenAI and Google for different aspects of the travel planning process.
OpenAI is used for its core conversational capabilities, while Google Gemini with Google Maps Grounding is used for information on restaurants and points of interest.
Omri Morgenshtern, chief executive officer at Agoda, said the company developed the assistant to simplify the organising of trips across multiple digital services.
“Travel planning today is fragmented. People jump between apps, tabs, messages, and spreadsheets just to organise a single trip,” he said.
“With Agoda’s AI Assistant, we’re changing that,” he added. “We’re giving travellers a smart companion that understands their preferences and trip context and adapts to their needs.”
The goal, he noted, is to remove the repetitive work from travel planning, to help travellers make travel decisions with more confidence.
