Ethan Mollick writes that the AI noticed an airline credit of his was about to expire and, when he asked, contacted American Airlines to request an extension — an example of agents catching deadlines their owners miss.
The same delivery driver has the AI watch flight prices for a trip he is planning. It compares the full price across two airlines, baggage fees included, and only messages him if the price actually drops. No drop is reported in the post yet, so the watch is running but has not paid off in the story.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
Jared Lee was flying to New Bern, North Carolina, where his father may be dying, when delays at lunch told him he would miss his connection. His rental car was booked for New Bern airport. From the taco restaurant, he asked the AI to change the rental to a Charlotte pickup for the 4.5-hour drive. A couple of text messages later it was done: new rental, new confirmation. He estimates it saved him at least an hour of hold time, spent instead present with his wife.
He plays tennis a lot. He asks the AI which courts are open, picks one, and the AI books it and puts it on his calendar. The same flow works for movie theater showtimes and tickets, and for restaurant reservations anywhere with an online booking page.
Type-B traveler Chelsea used her AI 'Sir Wiggles' (penguin avatar) to scan hundreds of saved Instagram posts, extract everything saved from Sardinia, and generate an itinerary — converting scattered saved content into a trip plan for the Sardinia leg of a month-long Italy trip.
The same delivery driver has the AI watching flight prices for a trip he is planning. It compares all in totals across two airlines including baggage fees, and only messages him if a price actually drops. The rule he set is silence unless something qualifies, which he says is the part that makes the watch usable.
Travel advisor Marissa Waiters reports the AI scanned her email inbox and located 18 free night vouchers, then organized and filed them for easy access — travel value that was effectively lost in the inbox.
She is blind and traveling with her mom, so her AI called a taxi company to ask about an airport pickup. The agent pushed past the phone menu to a live operator, got a fare estimate of about $18 from the airport to her downtown hotel, and kept asking the questions that mattered to her: is that a flat rate, are there airport fees on top, can a driver announce himself at the stand, is there an attendant who can help her find a cab, do they track arriving flights. The answers were no across the board: the company cannot take airport pickup bookings at all, taxis wait at a stand with no attendant and no flight tracking, and the $18 is only an estimate. She shared the full transcript.
This only partly worked. Worth knowing before you try it.
A third anecdote in Simmons's roundup describes a Dot that kept emailing a hotel for two days, then found the general manager's name and emailed them directly. The eventual outcome of the escalation is not stated.
In the same Rome-trip demo, Nina Dobrev's agent 'Jack' tracked flight prices from multiple cities (LAX, JFK, ORD, YYZ) totaling $7,472.74 and curated Instagram posts about Rome from people she follows.