In the ever-evolving world of technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a pivotal force, transforming industries and reshaping the way we work. At trivago, we recognized this potential and decided to leverage it to our advantage. That’s how the AI Ambassadors group came to life – a guiding beacon for our teams navigating the expanding possibilities AI has to offer.
The Mission of the AI Ambassadors Group
The AI Ambassadors group was created to fulfill trivago’s commitment to integrating AI solutions into our products and daily operations. To promote a deeper understanding and explore AI solutions across our teams, the group aspired to be a guiding light, helping the organization drive innovation.
“AI is not new to us. We have been using AI and machine learning to improve the trivago product for years. Now, with recent breakthroughs, especially in GenAI, we have new tools to help our users to find their ideal hotel at a good price. It’s still early days, but we believe that AI will have a big impact on our product.”
Sören Weber, AI Ambassador from the Hotel Search team
When Johannes Thomas and Andrej Lehnert rejoined trivago, they brought with them a renewed passion for AI. Along with Carolina Muradas, a project manager and the group moderator, they saw an opportunity to unite AI enthusiasts from different teams. They launched the AI Ambassadors group to help integrate AI into our daily work and foster a culture of innovation. This initiative is a strategic step towards making AI a core aspect of our work at trivago.
“Creating awareness about AI is like planting seeds of innovation throughout trivago. Each shared insight sparks new ideas and applications across the teams.”
Carolina Muradas, AI Ambassador from the Strategy team
Inside the AI Ambassadors Group
At trivago, AI Ambassadors play a key role in driving technological change. Their role encompasses a broad range of responsibilities, from planning and managing the execution of AI initiatives to stakeholder management and company-wide collaboration.
In practice, this means that ambassadors help teams find AI use cases, promote AI in different areas of the company, and act as internal experts for AI-related questions. One of their notable achievements is the launch of an internal trivago Copilot. The group’s goal is to ensure that every trivago talent has access to the latest AI technology and understands its uses and potential.
We started the AI Ambassadors initiative because we believe AI is not merely a trend, it is essential for business success. By incorporating AI into our daily work, we add value for our users, partners, and ourselves. This initiative is a strategic move. It helps us prepare our workforce for an AI-focused future and stay ahead in the competitive travel industry.
“Identifying use cases for AI within each vertical of our operations has not only been exciting but also eye-opening. It’s amazing to see how AI can revolutionize the way we work.”
Tanja Hüsch, AI Ambassador from the Finance team
Objectives of the AI Ambassadors Group
In our current strategic cycle, the AI Ambassadors group has three main Objectives:
- Objective 1: Create awareness and understanding of AI in general.
We’re dedicated to fostering a broad understanding and awareness of AI, highlighting its applications and the opportunities it presents.
- Objective 2: Help teams identify potential use cases for AI at trivago.
This initiative is about more than just technology; it’s about nurturing a mindset shift that embraces AI as an integral part of our day-to-day operations.
- Objective 3: Give trivago talents access to the latest AI technologies, in a convenient and centralized manner.
We aim to empower our trivago talents by providing seamless access to the most cutting-edge AI technologies. Our centralized approach is designed for efficiency, ensuring experiences are tailored in the most convenient and cost-effective manner.
We also had a series of engaging events to support these objectives and help increase both engagement and visibility of AI within trivago:
- AI Coding Challenge: In April, Thomas Khalil, SRE Lead at trivago, organized and led a hands-on event on campus, encouraging participants to develop innovative AI solutions for our product.
- AI Meetup: In June, we hosted an event on campus with both internal and external speakers, covering the topic of Large Language Models (LLMs) and their evaluation, and applications of LLM’s at trivago for a specific product use case.
- International Conference: In September, Saad Mahamood, Data Science Lead at trivago, will represent trivago at a prestigious event (17th International Conference on Natural Language Generation) in Tokyo, Japan.
Final Thoughts
The AI Ambassadors initiative at trivago is about more than adopting new technology; it’s about cultivating a fanatic-learning mindset, staying ahead in digital advancements, leveraging this new technology to solve tangible problems, and engaging with external research and industry partners. As we move forward, our AI Ambassadors will continue to partner with our talents, ensuring that trivago remains synonymous with innovation and excellence in the travel industry.
Thanks to Carolina Muradas and other members of our AI Ambassadors group for compiling this article!