How to Make AI Work for You as a Travel Advisor and Business Owner

On Sunday, I made an emergency trip to the veterinarian for a last-minute prescription refill.

While I was waiting, I overheard one veterinary technician at the back counter say to another, with complete confidence, “AI is stupid.”

I do not know what prompted the comment. Maybe an AI tool had given her a terrible answer. Maybe she had seen one too many ridiculous AI-generated photos. Maybe she was worried about what the technology could mean for her profession. Or maybe she simply had no interest in it.

All of those reactions are understandable.

AI can be inaccurate (though less often nowadays). It can produce generic writing, invent facts, misunderstand a request, or confidently deliver something that is completely useless. There are legitimate questions about privacy, ethics, cost, job disruption, and how quickly everything is changing.

Skepticism is healthy, but dismissal is dangerous.

There is a big difference between saying, “I do not trust this yet,” and saying, “This is stupid.”

One leaves the door open, while the other locks it.

Most People Are Somewhere in the Middle

When it comes to AI, I generally see three groups.

The first has flat out decided not to use it. Some have carefully considered the technology and concluded that it does not fit their business, their values, or their comfort level. Others simply do not want another platform, another learning curve, or another change in a world already overflowing with change.

The second has jumped in with both feet. They are experimenting constantly, building workflows, automating tasks, creating content, researching destinations, and finding new ways to use AI every week.

Then there is the largest group.

They are not convinced AI is useless, nor convinced it is magic either.

They are simply unsure. Their real question is not, “Can AI be valuable?” They have seen enough evidence to know that it can be.

Their question is, “Can AI be valuable for me?”

Can it help with my kind of clients?

Can it understand the way I work?

Can it save me time without making my business feel less personal?

Can I learn to use it without becoming a technology expert?

Can I trust myself to know when it is wrong?

Those are fair questions. In fact, they are the right questions. But you cannot answer them from the sidelines.

We Have All Dismissed Something Too Quickly

How many travel advisors have once said something along these lines:

“I will never charge a planning fee. My clients would never pay it.”

“Social media is a waste of time.”

“I do not need a CRM. I know my clients.”

“I am not a salesperson.”

“I could never speak on video.”

“My clients would never book a cruise.”

“I do not do groups.”

“I am too old or too new to learn that.”

“I am just not a technology person.”

Sometimes those statements are based on experience—and sometimes they are even correct.

But too often they are just shields protecting us from feeling inexperienced, from failing publicly, or from having to admit that someone else understands something we do not.

It is easier to call something stupid than to admit it makes us feel uncertain.

I’ve done this, too.

There have been tools, ideas, business models, and products I dismissed because I did not immediately understand their value. There have been times when I confused unfamiliarity with uselessness.

Sometimes I was right, more often I was very wrong. The only way to find out was to remain curious long enough to learn.

Discomfort Is Often the Admission Price

Learning almost always feels awkward in the beginning as an advisor.

Your first client consultation probably did not feel natural (maybe downright terrifying).

Your first sales closing conversation may have made your heart race.

Your first marketing email may have taken three hours to write, followed by another hour wondering whether anyone would unsubscribe.

Your first supplier training probably introduced twenty terms you did not know.

Your first complicated booking may have made you question everything and wonder just what in the heck you’d gotten yourself into.

But you did not become more capable by waiting until you felt comfortable. You became more comfortable by doing the work while you still felt uncertain.

AI is no different.

You may type a prompt and receive a terrible answe or not know what to ask. You may feel like everyone else understands it better than you do. You may spend twenty minutes trying to save five.

That does not mean it is stupid. It just means you are learning.

The Tools Are Changing Every Day

The AI tool you tried six months ago is not necessarily the same tool available today.

New capabilities are being released constantly. These systems are becoming better at understanding context, working with documents, researching current information, connecting with business tools, and completing multi-step tasks.

That does not mean every capability is ready for you to trust without supervision.

You do not need to become an AI expert, nor do you need to build complicated automations or spend hours reading about every new model and feature.

But you do need to participate. Use ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or another tool that works for you. At WorldVia, we provide our advisors with their own AI-powered business partner, AIVIA, that we encourage them to use.

Overall, I believe in what we are at WorldVIa building with AIVIA, and we will continue investing heavily in its future because we believe it is at the heart of what being a modern advisor looks like in the years to come.

But my larger concern is around ensuring that every advisor across our network develops the curiosity, judgment, and confidence to work alongside these tools.

The specific platform matters less than the mindset.

Start With Curiosity, Not Commitment

You do not have to declare that AI will transform your entire business. Just stop declaring that it cannot (if that’s you).

Choose one task you already do. Something repetitive, frustrating, or time-consuming.

Ask AI to help draft a client follow-up.

Use it to summarize a supplier document.

Have it organize your notes after a consultation.

Ask it to identify the unanswered questions in a client inquiry.

Let it create three versions of a social post, then rewrite the best one in your own voice.

The first answer may not be good. Give it feedback: ask it to make the response shorter, warmer, clearer, or more specific. Then correct it and challenge it. Treat the interaction as a conversation, not a vending machine.

Your goal is to discover where it can be useful, not to prove that it’s brilliant. This requires experimentation, uncomfortable experimentation.

Stay Human. Stay Open.

I understand why people are cautious.

Change is exhausting. New technology often arrives wrapped in hype. Many people have been promised that a tool would transform their work, only to discover that it created more work.

We should be empathetic toward anyone who feels overwhelmed or skeptical, including ourselves.

So, my challenge this week is simple: do not be the person in the veterinary office who dismisses something as stupid because it is unfamiliar, imperfect, or uncomfortable.

Lean in, ask questions, and try something small. Be willing to feel like a beginner.