Mark Halberstein: 20+ years in tech, travel, real estate, finance, hospitality and AI. Founder of Simplenight, MBA, investment expert.
Super apps are by no means a new concept. They have been alive and well and fully integrated into many users’ day-to-day in parts of Asia, merging services like messaging, transportation and payments into one digital environment.
The concept of a super app is not limited to use cases in Asia, though. The West has made strides toward building equivalents of WeChat over the past decade, such as Facebook with messaging, dating and marketplace housed under one roof. This further underscores the growing opportunity for digital ecosystems to offer frictionless experiences for end users across multiple use cases at once.
With the advent and mass adoption of generative AI (GenAI), super apps have the potential to become more powerful and expand the scope of use cases further. Being the founder of a super app engine that uses GenAI and is focused on travel and booking, I believe one such area of opportunity is travel and lifestyle, especially as domestic and international travel continue to pick up pace since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Let’s take a look at how super app developers can use AI—and what's important to keep in mind to leverage this technology successfully.
AI Use Cases
Personalization
As it stands today, traditional recommendation algorithms leverage search history data and fixed user profile information to cater specific product and service recommendations to customers. Where developers might consider having GenAI come in is accounting for additional contextual information—such as a user’s live location, for example—to tailor its recommendations more specifically. For instance, if a user finds themselves in Tokyo on a rainy Tuesday, the app could suggest an indoor activity like a local museum or a nearby ramen spot with a coupon, all while working around their provided schedule and availability. This type of agile personalization reduces the onus on the user’s plate.
Booking
AI could also be used to help streamline booking. One of the biggest pain points users face with travel is the fragmented booking process. Super apps can help address this frustration by allowing users to book multiple transportation needs, and developers could incorporate AI to help enhance the experience. For example, a user could open the app, type in, “Book me a three-day weekend in Bali and a surfing lesson,” and get a personalized itinerary they can adjust.
Anticipatory Support
As AI learns based on the data it’s fed, it can learn to anticipate user needs and remain a few steps ahead. Instead of waiting for a user to prompt a request, AI can be used to offer support proactively, like re-arranging an itinerary if a user's flight is delayed.
Additionally, with the majority of travelers booking online or via apps, developers could integrate an AI-driven chatbot within their app to build on users’ predisposition toward using their mobile phones. This could mean easier access to user behavior data and further opportunities for personalization and predictive support.
Best Practices For Building An AI Roadmap
However, to leverage AI effectively, super app developers need to build an AI roadmap. Begin by defining user pain points and how your solution will help alleviate them. Then, work backward to identify where AI will come in. The truth is, not every feature or offering needs AI, and the biggest trap you can fall into is over-engineering your solution.
Similarly, it’s important to invest in a clean data infrastructure since the effectiveness of any GenAI model is highly contingent on the quality of the data it’s trained on.
As you build your foundation, embed AI task forces across product teams in a cross-functional manner to avoid siloing AI into one innovation lab. You want to ensure AI adoption and development align with product goals and user feedback loops. This is especially important since AI integration requires appropriate safeguards like feedback or privacy controls to monitor model performance, ethics and build protections against edge cases.
In addition to an AI roadmap, businesses can explore strategic partnerships with other players in the space to build shared digital ecosystems with complimentary offerings that bridge the gaps between multiple experiences consumers typically seek. This also means building AI-native teams that build new features and offerings responsibly and in controlled environments.
Building Trust And Loyalty
Trust is a prerequisite to driving wide user adoption, particularly when it comes to their willingness to share their data with a platform. In fact, 48% of global consumers expressed willingness to share their personal data if it will lead to higher-quality experiences, according to a Jack Morton survey of 5,000 consumers across five different regions (registration required). This means that if super app developers can crack the code on delivering true value, they'll be more likely to win user buy-in.
To further solidify this trust beyond highly customized experience, super apps should provide clear and transparent insights into how user data is stored and used. Giving the user intuitive avenues to opt in and out of sharing sensitive data (e.g., toggles) is one way to build this level of trust.
Future Outlook
Looking ahead, I believe AI use cases will evolve from focused, centralized applications to many more areas where there is a clear need for more intuitive and frictionless experiences for the end user. I expect planning support in super apps to evolve beyond trip bookings and itinerary planning to possibly include health, finance and social features.
While super apps have been around for some time, their potential can multiply with GenAI applications if applied thoughtfully. Building a unified platform that solves multiple friction and pain points for the end user can serve as a key competitive advantage in a crowded space.
That being said, don’t jump on AI use cases without having a plan for the necessary safeguards and protections for user data. Once broken, user trust is extremely hard to regain, so having the right foundations in place for ethical and transparent user data protections is as valuable as building AI capabilities in the first place.
Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
