Fora Innovation, Technology & Agility

What is the unique story that you feel your company has with AI? If you were writing about it, what would the title of your blog be?
One of the most common things I’ve been asked about AI since joining Fora Travel by people outside the company is if we are going to replace travel agents with AI.

This is top of mind for everyone these days, and everyone is scared of how they will be impacted by AI. While AI isn’t broadly replacing human jobs yet, it is only a matter of time before many repetitive, mundane aspects of people’s work will be automated. Ideally they will be freed up to work on things that require a human touch. Fora is uniquely focused on empowering the next generation of travel entrepreneurs — not to replace them like online travel agencies are trying to do. Our edge is building an unstoppable combination of travel advisors supercharged by the kinds of AI tools only we can build.

Travel advising is a job where the human touch will always have the upper hand. Imagine you’re on the other side of the world and you are having a big problem with your travel plans. Who would you rather talk to? an AI chatbot? a random customer service rep at some huge corporation? or your dedicated travel advisor — someone who knows you, your itinerary, your preferences and has been with you every step of the journey?

What are you most excited about in the field of AI right now?
I’m most excited about AI coding assistance, particularly in the context of building prototypes from scratch, because it really works today and it’s like magic. The current buzzwords are “zero-to-one” and “vibe coding.”

We recently had a hackathon at Fora and it was one of the most productive hackathons I’ve ever seen. Every project felt like something that we could launch as a real product. We even had some teams with minimal coding experience build impressive, functional prototypes with the help of AI — and the prototypes themselves used AI services.

Of course, the elephant in the room is the automation question: Will software engineering disappear? I don’t think so. It will evolve, just like software engineering has always been evolving. In the old days, coding involved thinking about low-level details of how the computer works. But over time, programming has gotten more abstract and closer to natural language like English. Tools change, and people who work in cutting-edge technologies must continually adapt. I’m optimistic overall, but the challenge will be in finding the right balance between leveraging AI and not outsourcing human creativity and critical thinking.

How do you learn from one another and collaborate?
I’ve been in the field for about 25 years, so I guess I’m one of those people with years of experience to draw from. But no one — regardless of experience — has seen the current pace of change in AI. It’s truly historic.

Continuous learning means being curious and humble. AI is mainstream now, and many updates are in the mainstream media. This means that you may hear about a new model or technical paper from anyone, so you need to be open to learning from anyone and everyone.
The book is not written on how to use generative AI to get the best results — it’s being written now, in real time, and we’re all learning by doing it. So it’s essential to make time to talk to others and learn how they’re using these tools.

At Fora, this means I’m regularly connecting with travel advisors and team members across the company — not just the AI and engineering teams, but everyone from marketing to sales to finance to legal and everything in between.

Outside of Fora, it means connecting with my colleagues, networking and attending conferences and webinars. The only way to be successful with the deluge of new research, models and techniques is to leverage the power of your social network.