OpenAI debuts "Operator" agent that can book travel

OpenAI has released an artificial intelligence-powered agent tool that can interact with websites by typing, clicking and scrolling. Dubbed “Operator,” the tool can search and complete purchases for things like travel, groceries, events, restaurant reservations and more.

In a blog post announcing the tool, which is currently in a research preview stage and only accessible to OpenAI Pro subscribers, OpenAI showed a screenshot of Operator going through the steps to complete a request to “find and book me the highest rated one-day tour of Rome on Tripadvisor.”

On LinkedIn, an OpenAI employee working in product partnerships thanked Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Priceline, Uber, Hipcamp and several other companies as “early contributors who are starting the agent journey with us at OpenAI.”

PhocusWire has reached out to several of these companies to get more details on how they are working together.

Tripadvisor's Rahul Todkar, head of data and AI, said the partnership is a "pivotal step" in the direction of building agentic AI workflows that are dynamic and drive innovation.

"Tripadvisor continues to push boundaries in travel innovation, partnering with leading AI and tech companies to enable new capabilities which make the entire travel planning journey easier for our users," said Todkar. "We have been partnering with OpenAI to bring new and innovative capabilities like GenAI based trip planning, and now we have also collaborated on its Operator product to lean into AI agentic workflows and innovate on behalf of our travel users, so they can seamlessly complete travel planning tasks."

Todkar said the research preview combines Tripadvisor's traveler data and intel across hotels, experiences and restaurants with Operator to better the travel experience and provides new opportunity to connect with consumers.

Alyssa Ravasio, founder of Hipcamp, said that her company has been focused on what technologies will provide increased access to the outdoors.

"We are proud to work with OpenAI on the early research preview of Operator and to have the opportunity to leverage the world’s best AI technology to get more people outside and under the stars," Ravasio said. "In a future where technology is becoming more omnipresent, we believe spending time outside in nature is more essential than ever. Our work together allows OpenAI’s growing audience to have streamlined access to all that Hipcamp has to offer, including the largest collection of bookable private campsites, cabins, RV, and glamping options, plus 120,000+ sites you won't find anywhere else."

In the blog post, OpenAI explained, “Operator can ‘see’ (through screenshots) and ‘interact’ (using all the actions a mouse and keyboard allow) with a browser, enabling it to take action on the web without requiring custom API integrations. If it encounters challenges or makes mistakes, Operator can leverage its reasoning capabilities to self-correct. When it gets stuck and needs assistance, it simply hands control back to the user, ensuring a smooth and collaborative experience.”

Users can customize Operator with instructions for all sites or specific sites, for example to set a preference to only select fully-refundable hotels that offer free breakfast when searching Priceline, as demonstrated in the video below. OpenAI said Operator is trained to ask the user to take over for tasks that require login and payment details.

While still very early days, the development of agents is moving fast — in October, OpenAI competitor Anthropic unveiled computer use capabilities with its Claude tool — and raises questions about the evolution of marketing strategies and search optimization. A common question is whether, if only agents are navigating websites, should site design be simple and content heavy rather than visually engaging like what would appeal to a human.

In a post on LinkedIn following the release of Operator, Ethan Mollick, an associate professor of management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote, “Next big thing for brands: knowing what sites agents prefer. If you ask for stock prices, Claude with Computer Use goes to Yahoo Finance while Operator does a Bing search. Operator loves buying from the top search result on Bing. Claude has direct preferences like 1-800-Flowers. And all of this is subject to change and we don't know why agents like some things more than others. It is going to keep getting weirder.”

In early January Tripadvisor announced a partnership with AI-powered answer engine Perplexity aimed at improving the travel planning process. The partnership involves the integration of Tripadvisor’s reviews, AI-generated summaries and more than 300,000 experiences from Viator with Perplexity’s chatbot-style search capabilities.

OpenAI said it will continue to improve Operator and eventually expand access to Plus, Team and Enterprise users and also to integrate capabilities into ChatGPT.