AI on Board: Discovering the Future of Ferry Travel

by Vasileios Lahanas, CTO at Ferryhopper

Imagine the first time you streamed a movie, ordered food through an app, or controlled smart home devices using your phone. It was a novel, exciting experience, wasn’t it? These were advancements that made technology more accessible and interactive. That’s the same kind of leap we see with AI and ChatGPT, OpenAI’s large language model (LLM). It’s not reinventing the internet, but it is definitely changing the way we use it.

Since its release, almost a year ago, ChatGPT has become more than just a buzzword for most people; we use it in our everyday tasks, we discuss it with friends and colleagues, and we try to find potential use cases that will allow us to get the most out of this technology.

In this article, I’m going to share about a cool project we’ve been working on, our Ferryhopper plugin for ChatGPT. But before we jump into that, let’s chat about why artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming really important in the travel industry.

Why AI could change the game in the online travel industry

Travel is all about discovery, and making those discoveries as smooth as possible is a challenge that the travel industry faces every day. Users can be demanding when it comes to online services and rightly so. A single glitch, a point of friction or ambiguity in a booking process can be enough to make someone think twice about using an online service.

This is where artificial intelligence (AI), with its potential to streamline processes and anticipate user needs, could come into play.

The integration of AI tools with booking platforms like Ferryhopper makes it feel like everyone gets to have their very own expert travel agent planning their next vacation. This virtual (and very experienced) travel agent that could help find the best deals, suggest the most efficient routes, or even anticipate potential disruptions in your travel plans before they become a problem.

But it’s not just about making things easier for travelers. AI also has the potential to analyze large amounts of data to improve services and streamline operations. By identifying patterns, predicting trends, and extracting valuable insights, AI could assist platforms like Ferryhopper in enhancing their services, ensuring a smooth customer journey and achieving a more enjoyable user experience.

In short, AI has the potential to reshape the online travel industry, making it more user-friendly, efficient, and enjoyable.

What is the Ferryhopper plugin for ChatGPT

If you’ve read this far, you can probably tell that we at Ferryhopper have a deep belief in the potential of AI. When ChatGPT came into the scene, we were not just intrigued, we were curious to see how we could combine this new technology with our services.

When the first announcement about the introduction of plugins came out, including KAYAK in the list of 10 plugins, we set the goal of being the first ferry plugin that will make its way to the plugin store!

So, having established why we created our plugin, you’re probably wondering what it can do. Well, think of the Ferryhopper plugin for ChatGPT as your dedicated personal travel assistant for ferries. It’s here to make your travel planning process more efficient and less time-consuming.

Our plugin enables ChatGPT to directly access Ferryhopper’s APIs. This means that users can now get real-time information about ferry schedules, compare routes and find the best prices — all through a simple conversation with ChatGPT.

But it’s not just about providing static information. The Ferryhopper plugin also allows ChatGPT to assist users with more complex queries, like finding the best routes based on their preferences, or providing insights on the optimal travel times. Effectively, ChatGPT becomes a different layout of our booking flow, helping users book their ferries with the assistance of AI.

How to access the Ferryhopper plugin for ChatGPT

To the date this article is written, plugins are only available on the paid version of ChatGPT. If you have access to plugins, you can simply enable the Ferryhopper plugin by following these steps:

1. Click on “No plugins enabled” beneath the GPT mode toggle.
2. Click on “Plugin store”.
3. Search for Ferryhopper, find our plugin and click “Install”.
4. Repeat this process for every plugin you are interested in. We suggest that you combine our plugin with other travel plugins (Expedia, Kayak, GetYourGuide) to transform ChatGPT into a true travel companion.

We hope that in the near future ChatGPT plugins will be available to a wider audience. For now, we are thrilled to be the first ferry plugin for ChatGPT and we’re even more excited to see how it will transform the user experience.

Ps: This article was written with the assistance of ChatGPT.