AI Hive has been set up by travel entrepreneur and AI enthusiast Steve Endacott, who led a session on the subject at a recent Debate ITT event hosted by the Institute of Travel and Tourism.
AI was a major focus of this year’s ITT conference agenda, which saw delegates explore – in detail – the onset of AI, its application and benefits, as well as how it could be deployed in what is traditionally a very people-centric industry that prides itself on its human touch.
"There’s so much AI being chucked at everybody every day," Endacott explained. "It’s coming thick and fast – there are lots of businesses that don’t know what to do. We’re here to explain things and get away from the jargon.
"AI Hive is a community to share knowledge – what’s good for travel and what’s not. It’s open to anybody who wants to join, whether you just want to learn or share information about what works. It’s about cutting through the noise and sharing the best tools and updates."
Endacott is starting AI Hive initially as a WhatsApp group and LinkedIn channel, and will also produce his own blogs and emails on the subject with webinars also planned in the future.
"There’s a massive elephant [in the room] out there that you can’t ignore,” he said. “You have to get onboard, it’s a revolution that’s going to happen in the next five years. It’s going to change our world so quickly.”
Endacott added new AI-based interactive platforms such as Perplexity’s Comet and Chat GPT’s Agent will be able to research and book holidays.
"An individual only books a holiday once or twice a year, but it’s complicated to set up all the [AI] tools, so they probably won’t want to do that," said Endacott. "Whereas an agent can use AI all the time – it does all the work for you and is much quicker at doing research."
Endacott said he personally uses AI to prepare for meetings, including tools which can create summaries of the people he is due to meet and also producing presentations on companies by simply inserting the URL of their websites.
Those interested in joining the AI Hive conversation can go to the website – ai-hive.co.uk – or join the WhatsApp community.
