Can AI be your ideal travel companion?

Detailed summary

According to Booking.com’s 2025 Global AI Sentiment Report, 46% of Kiwi travellers have used AI for travel purposes. Kiwis are using AI for travel help both before and during…

Nearly half of Kiwi travellers have used AI to plan, navigate and translate. Photo / Unsplash

Like all new disruptive technologies, the use of AI in travel is proving divisive, but on a recent trip to Japan, writer Chris Stead found it to be the ultimate travel companion

I’m lost. Not the kind of lost where I’m starting to think about rationing my water and carving SOS into the sand. The kind where every street sign is in an alien language and my phone’s GPS appears to have taken up ballet; the little blue arrow doing pirouettes.

I’m running out of time before my evening flight, too. My son had only one request for my Tokyo trip: Pokémon cards. And I’m not leaving without one last bowl of delicious ramen. I want all this, plus transport, with the cash left in my pocket.

Well, it often feels that way. It’s certainly led me astray before: to “budget” restaurants that cost you a kidney and tourist attractions that closed years ago. I’m far from convinced it’s more help than hindrance. Has it gotten smarter?

Pointing my camera at the intersection, I take a picture and prompt the AI: “I’m looking for the cheapest place to find Pokémon cards near my current location.”

Much to my surprise, it works. Noticing details in the image I can’t even see, the AI establishes my location and indicates that if I continue straight ahead, I’ll come across a tall red building. If I take the pedestrian street to its left, I’ll see a multi-storey pop-culture store. On level 7 is a highly rated, official Pokémon card reseller.

I can already see the red building, which is all the confidence I need and sure enough, within a few minutes I’m in an elevator.

I furrow my brow in frustration as the clerk indicates all the Pokémon cards are sold out. The AI isn’t surprised, however, revealing that new deliveries of cards can frequently sell out in the early morning – bit late with that detail! However, it’s adamant that on level 5 I’ll find a Pokémon trading shop that on-sells packs at a higher price.

Opening of the article, excerpted from NZ Herald. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.