Meet Oliver A.I. | Travel Research Online

There is a lively, ongoing conversation about the role of “artificial intelligence” (AI) in article and blog writing. While there is little doubt that ChatGPT can be incredibly useful as a tool for generating content, some people object to using it for a variety of reasons. One common concern is that using AI-generated content may be seen as a disingenuous outsourcing of your writing to a machine, leading to a lack of authenticity or originality in the content produced by AI. Others point to the potential for errors or inaccuracies in the output generated by AI.

All of this is true, there are risks involved in new technologies. It is also true that the paragraph above was written with ChatGPT. I want to emphasize it was written “with” ChatGPT, which is different from it being written “by” ChatGPT.

I speak with travel professionals almost daily about the necessity of content creation, both text-based and graphical content for social media. Blogging about your niche and creating exciting articles on topics your clients will find interesting is a challenging undertaking. It takes a great deal of time to develop a topic, outline your points, and edit the beginnings of an article down to a polished product. Beyond the mere time commitment, however, is the skill necessary to create a good essay. Writing is an art form, and the fear of not writing well keeps many from trying.

Despite these concerns, there are good arguments in favor of using AI to assist in writing. AI can help save time and resources, allowing writers to focus on other important tasks such as research and editing. Using AI, writers can increase their output and produce more content in less time, which can be especially useful for businesses like travel with a high demand for content.

Furthermore, by setting clear guidelines and editing the output generated by AI, it’s possible to ensure that the content produced is accurate, original, and on-brand. When one uses AI as a starting point or a source of inspiration, the final output can be refined and customized by human writers. This can help ensure the content is engaging, informative, and relevant.

Today, Travel Research Online and Voyager Social are announcing the launch of OliverAI, a new writing assistant for the travel professional. In one week, our beta clients will have access to OliverAI, and we will then release it to all of our clients who want the upgraded products. For the past two months, we have been “training” OliverAI in the travel industry.  Our testing has gone well, and I am eager to share the results. Below is a video of one recent exercise.

Understand the limitations: While AI is incredibly powerful, it’s not perfect. You have to appropriately “prompt” AI to give you good information. The more specific your prompt, even down to the tone of voice, the better the results. Importantly, the output will not be perfect. You cannot just let AI “write” the article and post it. The output is far from perfect.  You have to take the time to edit and refine the output. We also use a plagiarism and grammatical checker to ensure the content is original and grammatically correct.

Can you “trick” AI? Can you make it give you silly answers? Yes, you can. But you can also use it to get work done, which, for me, is the more interesting exercise.

Want a trial account? We are looking for 100 beta testers to work with us during the first two weeks of March for feedback. Sign up below, and we will be in touch at the beginning of next week!