As the FIFA World Cup begins in June, host cities are rolling out AI assistants to help fans find hotels, restaurants, activities, and transport options—aiming to deliver curated, up-to-date guidance while limiting the drift and errors associated with general-
For many fans, the World Cup starts long before kickoff—when the real question becomes where to stay, what to eat, and how to get around after a day spent in crowds. This year, some host cities are betting that artificial intelligence can take the stress out of planning.
Across the United States, multiple locations are deploying specially built AI assistants and virtual concierges they say are tailored to visitors’ needs and tied to official information.
Frisco. Texas—home to Toyota Stadium. which is serving as a World Cup base camp for Sweden’s national team—has worked with AI travel planning service GuideGeek on an AI assistant called Frankie. The bot can answer questions about hotels, restaurants, shopping, and activities in the Dallas-area city. It launched last year after a couple of months of work. and it was built to provide correct and comprehensive answers based on data sources including the official Visit Frisco tourism website. says Cori Powers. director of marketing and communications for Visit Frisco.
“We really wanted to ensure that it was conversational and fun and would make trip planning to Frisco convenient,” Powers said.
Powers added that Frankie has seen a rise in questions about World Cup planning. along with other questions related to summer vacations. She said the kinds of questions users ask Frankie have helped the organization add relevant copy to its website—copy that then feeds back into Frankie and also into its social media channels.
“One of the biggest values for the tourism boards is identifying where those content gaps are. ” said Greg Oates. director of AI advocacy at GuideGeek and its parent organization. Matador Network. “If a tourism board has seen that a lot of people are asking about something specific and it’s not being answered in the website. then they can update that content or expand on that.”.
The pitch for these city-specific bots comes as general-purpose AI tools gain popularity in travel planning. even as studies have found they can present outdated or false information. GuideGeek’s approach is different: its bots are designed to steer off-topic questions back to their sponsoring cities. meaning Frankie can reflect even some questions about the greater Dallas area back into Frisco-focused answers.
GuideGeek says the city assistants offer features ordinary tourism websites don’t. including a conversational interface. map integrations to highlight relevant sites. and the ability to serve relevant images. GuideGeek bots. which it says serve more than 30 locations and brands around the world from Aruba to Manitoba. can also answer questions in dozens of languages. Oates said that if a visitor is coming from somewhere and English isn’t their native language. they can speak to GuideGeek in their own language and get a response in kind.
Visit Frisco has already seen a burst of queries in languages like Spanish, German, and Mandarin.
In New York City, the World Cup has also helped drive broader use of AI tools from the tourism sector. NYC Tourism + Conventions has deployed two GuideGeek-powered bots: Ellis. targeting business event planners. and Libby. aimed at tourists and travelers visiting the city. NYC Tourism + Conventions deployed Libby last year. motivated in part by the World Cup. and because while its website is only available in five languages. GuideGeek’s AI can support more than 60.
Libby is available through the Tourism + Conventions website and through WhatsApp, and it quickly proved popular, according to Nancy Mammana, chief marketing officer at NYC Tourism + Conventions.
“When we launched it in June, it really started to catch fire quickly, and it’s become a very important channel for us,” Mammana said. “We’ve seen over 45,000 conversations happen with the tool in 68 languages from 178 countries, and over 122,000 queries, which is great.”
Mammana said Libby also won’t be the only AI bot aimed at navigating the New York area during the tournament. The city expects heavy crowds and changes to normal transit patterns. along with special deals at restaurants and exhibits at area museums. An “Official NYNJ World Cup Concierge” will also be available with the backing of the official FIFA World Cup New York New Jersey host committee.
That concierge is built with a company called Neurun. which got its start building AI guides for running events like marathons. It is designed to act as a single “official source of truth” for the World Cup events. Bruce Revman. cohost city manager of the FIFA World Cup 26 New York New Jersey host committee. said the concierge will be accessible through the host committee website and other websites that embed its web page widget with host committee approval.
Revman said the tool will have access to up-to-date transit information. highlighted through an integration with Google Maps. along with other verified information about what’s going on in the area during World Cup events. Users will also be able to ask for general New York City information, like opening hours at area attractions. Revman said they can also use the tool to locate places to watch World Cup games and find special deals available during the tournament.
Neurun doesn’t just test these bots by hand. Cade Netscher, Neurun’s cofounder and CEO, said Neurun deploys additional AI agents that pose questions to the bots, grading and recording their answers.
“It’ll record the activity that it does, so we can watch it, ask different questions, see what happens, make sure it looks appropriate,” Netscher said. “And then we can fill in the gaps.”
Revman said the concierge, like Libby, is expected to have uses beyond the World Cup. He said it’s expected to be promoted around events like Sail 4th 250, a celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary this July focusing on tall ships.
Even as AI becomes a bigger part of trip planning. some critics worry it will take the human element out of vacationing—replacing personal research and expert advice with computer-generated itineraries and fact sheets. Revman pushed back on that concern. saying questions for the concierges will be based on official information derived from human expertise. whether users are asking about security protocols. sightseeing options. or travel logistics.
“It’s been a fun time, working with the host committee and their partners in this,” Netscher said. “You see AI headlines—everyone’s terrified of AI replacing human connection and everything—and we think with this technology we can leverage AI to enhance human connection.”
FIFA World Cup AI concierge GuideGeek Frankie Libby Ellis Neurun travel planning tourism WhatsApp Google Maps host cities
AI concierge?? So basically Siri but for soccer crowds.
I don’t trust those bots. Like where do they get the hotel info, because half the time those sites are wrong anyway. Also wouldn’t it just push whatever sponsored places they want?
Wait so Frisco is hosting Sweden and the bot’s called Frankie? Kinda sounds like a marketing thing. Is it actually connected to official FIFA stuff or is it just some app people download for vibes? I heard “AI” and figured it’ll glitch when it gets busy.
Honestly this is probably gonna be the same as Google Maps just talking back. Like you’ll ask for parking and it’ll say “here are restaurants” lol. But hey, if it helps tourists not get stuck in traffic around Toyota Stadium then cool. I still think they’ll mess up at least once with events and transit times though.