- Former Microsoft CTO Scott Lengel launched AdventureGenie, an AI-powered RV road trip planner.
- He said he couldn’t find good planning tools when he started RVing during the pandemic.
- AdventureGenie recommends custom routes, campsites, and activities based on your preferences.
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Scott Lengyel and his wife Lisa were Marriott employees.
Mr. Lengel retired in 2017 after 23 years as CTO at Microsoft. At that point he and his wife wanted to travel the world. They visited places like Cambodia, Vietnam, and India, usually traveling by plane and staying in hotels (often Marriotts).
Then the pandemic hit.
Suddenly, they are trapped in a house in South Carolina. At that time, the couple realized that they “didn’t really see Mr. A’s good old America.”
They had never even camped before.
“We figured if there was ever a time to go RVing or go camping, this would be it,” Lengyel told Business Insider.
So they rented an RV and set off for Nashville with a few close friends. “It was a lot of fun,” Lengyel said. “We hung out at the campsite and around the campfire, eating, drinking, and just feeling the camaraderie. We fell in love with the camping lifestyle within a week.”
Within six months, they bought their own RV and started using it. But when the couple tried to plan her six-week, multi-destination road trip through the national parks of the Southwest, they realized it was actually quite difficult and existing resources weren’t that great. I did.
“There has to be a better way,” they thought.
A few years later, in May 2023, Lengel was launched. adventure genie — AI-powered RV trip planner. In less than a year, AdventureGenie has attracted more than 10,000 users, not just RVers but people who travel by car on all types of road trips, said Lengel, who serves as chairman and CEO. He said he was also fascinated.
AI can customize your travel plans
AdventureGenie is one of the AI-powered travel planning tools that has emerged in the last few years.Featured on the list of best RV- and road trip We are planning an AI tool.
AdventureGenie is set up to help people plan trips in three stages, and Lengel said this is based on talking to thousands of people about how they plan their trips.
First, you can shape your trip. You can tell AdventureGenie where you want to start and end, how many miles you want to drive per day, and where you want to stop along the way. AdventureGenie creates custom routes based on your preferences and what the program knows about you from what you tell it and from past trips you’ve planned.
adventure genie
Then you can choose your campsite. AdventureGenie uses AI to collect information about campgrounds and make recommendations based on your preferences. AdventureGenie not only generates an overall score for a campsite, but also a score specific to you that indicates the likelihood that a particular campsite will meet your personal needs.
The third thing is to find something to do. For example, if we know you like eating at local restaurants, hiking, and biking, like Mr. Lengel and his wife, you can point out those attractions.
The biggest thing AI brings to AdventureGenie’s trip planning is customization, Lengyel said. Instead of searching for the first generic road trip planner that everyone sees on Google, AdventureGenie lets you create your own itinerary.
“It’s like having a co-pilot or trip planner by your side, understanding what you’re looking for and customizing it for you,” Lengyel said.
adventure genie
He said when RVers use AdventureGenie for the first time, the “wow” moment for them is when it stops along the way and fills in gaps in their journey.
Previously, if you wanted to road trip from South Carolina to Yellowstone, you had to look at a map and plan your stops based on how many miles you would drive in a day. However, you also have to manually determine whether these stops have campgrounds that suit your needs, whether there are other attractions worth passing through, and how far they are from the highway.
Lengyel says new AdventureGenie users often tell him that just filling out a route saves them a lot of time when planning their trip.
“It’s very rewarding for us,” he said.
From Microsoft to technology startup
Lengyel, who came out of retirement to launch AdventureGenie, said working on the startup was a big change of pace from his time at Microsoft, which he also loved.
“We are essentially a startup, which is very different from when I worked for an organization with 150,000 employees and an incredible budget,” he said. “We all wear many hats, and it’s exciting and thrilling and sometimes even challenging.”
These days, he and his wife are on the road three out of four weeks a month, now usually for work, visiting trade shows or meeting with RV user groups.
But they still focus on having fun.
When Lengyel spoke to BI, he was sitting in his RV in the Florida Keys. There is a view of the sea outside his window..