I trained an AI GPT model (Request for feedback) Opportunity cost Flight analyst

[humthesongg]

Hey everyone,

Not too long ago, I had an idea for a flight analysis widget aimed at changing the way people compare their travel through Google Flights. Instead of merely considering the price, this widget would delve deeper into the concept of "opportunity cost" by factoring in the value of your time.

Imagine this: You're presented with two flight options. One saves you two hours of travel time but costs $300 more, while the other is cheaper but adds two hours to your overall commute. Which do you choose? Is it worth saving 2 hours for $300, considering your specific current income?

The calculator would aim to assist consumers in making decisions like these by quantifying the value of their time. By considering factors such as income and personal time valuation, it would offer a personalized analysis.

The core idea is to streamline decision-making for individuals, saving them both time and money. The target audience for this product would primarily consist of people who highly value their time and seek efficient ways to manage their travel decisions. This would include Busy Professionals,Frequent Travelers,Entrepreneurs and Business Owners.

At first I thought about coding the calculator from scratch, but my limited coding skills posed a significant obstacle. Fortunately, I stumbled upon a solution: leveraging ChatGPT to create a MVP of the concept of the idea. This would allow me to get the feedback loop started quicker.

Before diving deeper into development, I wanted to get feedback from all of you. Would you find this useful? Is this something you would consider using? Do you see its potential? What holes do you see in this idea? From the market analysis I did there are a lot of flight comparison tools but none take into account a persons specific income. A flights convenience would vary from person to person based on their income or the value they place on their time. A more wealthy person would easily spend $300 to save 2 hours but what about a struggling entrepreneur?

I envision two potential avenues for this project: creating a Chrome extension that integrates seamlessly with Google Flights or developing a standalone website centered around this flight analyst concept. I plan to introduce a premium version of the analysis tool, offering users an even more comprehensive analysis of their flight choices.

This upgraded version will delve into additional factors, such as:

• Cost of airport parking versus taking an Uber
• Travel expenses to different airports
• Wait time at the airport
• Time-value consideration from the moment the customer wakes up until they board the plane

These enhancements would aim to provide users with an even more good understanding of their travel options with time as the main driver. Empowering them to make informed decisions that align with their priorities.

For those interested in testing the prototype, I've provided a link to the ChatGPT version, along with accompanying screenshots. Lmk what you think!

[Link to ChatGPT Prototype](https://chat.openai.com/g/g-PIye6hrwc-runnin-on-time)

 

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[Jobless]

1. Most people are either in the camp of prioritizing their time/comfort, or their wallet. Only a minority of people think about opportunity costs. It's too abstract. The people you mention, who do think about this way, are usually also capable of calculating the cost themselves. It's not an advanced equation / algorithm.
2. "Premium version" -- I don't like this.
3. Streamlining the whole travel experience to include parking, transport, hotel etc. makes it more useful, so it's interesting from this perspective.
4. Since you've noticed the many flight comparison services available, what is your analysis of the market? How do they acquire users? How much is a user/customer worth? Having one additional non-proprietary feature than another service, is not enough.

 

[humthesongg]

Thank you, you gave me a lot to think about. The analysis tool would also aim to help educate people on the importance of figuring out your opportunity cost so it can become less of an "abstract" concept. Yes people can calculate this themselves its nothing complicated but it might require some time and people are inherently lazy. The more you can streamline a process for someone the more likely they are to consume the product. Its for the same reason people go out to eat, sure they can cook at home but there is a convenience aspect to consume fast food.

Having one additional non-proprietary feature than another service, is not enough.

What about Value Skews?

 

[Jobless]

Yes, you probably need more 'value skews' to make people switch to using your comparison tool, provided you are able to reach them. I'd say, focus on a niche that you can reach out to more easily and who you can adapt the tool to solve their needs specifically. "Busy Professionals,Frequent Travelers,Entrepreneurs and Business Owners" is a huge demographic. Go specific, like sport teams that travel (fly) weekly (who is booking their tickets?), people attending a specific yearly event such as a festival/concert/conference, a specific profession that travel a lot, example: medical staff, military, salesmen. etc. Each group will have slightly different needs in the tool. It's hard to make everyone happy.

 

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[Bounce Back]

Didn't you already have a thread on this?

Not to be pedantic by the way but this is not "training a model" - this is typically called fine-tuning. Could also be considered basic prompt engineering/templating. Some people would also call it "priming". Just to help when sharing what you've done. Training a model is a very expensive, long, and laborious task compared to this.

 

[humthesongg]

Yes, you probably need more 'value skews' to make people switch to using your comparison tool, provided you are able to reach them. I'd say, focus on a niche that you can reach out to more easily and who you can adapt the tool to solve their needs specifically. "Busy Professionals,Frequent Travelers,Entrepreneurs and Business Owners" is a huge demographic. Go specific, like sport teams that travel (fly) weekly (who is booking their tickets?), people attending a specific yearly event such as a festival/concert/conference, a specific profession that travel a lot, example: medical staff, military, salesmen. etc. Each group will have slightly different needs in the tool. It's hard to make everyone happy.

Yes I didn't consider to think that that is a too big of a demographic and I must niche down. Thank you

 

[humthesongg]

Didn't you already have a thread on this?

Not to be pedantic by the way but this is not "training a model" - this is typically called fine-tuning. Could also be considered basic prompt engineering/templating. Some people would also call it "priming". Just to help when sharing what you've done. Training a model is a very expensive, long, and laborious task compared to this.

I did and I remember your advice as incorporating it as a corporate tool. I spoke to people in the corporate environment to see if they would find a tool like this useful. For the most part the majority did not see it useful in that environment since they would be spending the companies money instead of their own and did not care about opportunity cost in this case. Back when I made that first post I initially only had the idea, afterwards I took action and decided to make an MVP with whatever tools I had available in order to get a feedback loop going and to see if there is a need. I am new to this Forum so if you think I should've continued my progress on that thread my apologies, I will post on this one moving forward.

 

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[Bounce Back]

I did and I remember your advice as incorporating it as a corporate tool. I spoke to people in the corporate environment to see if they would find a tool like this tool useful. For the most part the majority did not see it useful in that environment since they would be spending the companies money instead of their own and did not care about opportunity cost in this case. Back when I made that first post I initially only had the idea, afterwards I took action and decided to make an MVP with whatever tools I have available in order to get a feedback loop going and to see if there is a need. I am new to this Forum so if you think I should've continued my progress on that thread my apologies

No worries I was starting to think maybe someone else had the same idea as you haha!

On the corporate side by the way I wasn't thinking so much for individuals who work at corporation choosing to use it for themselves but rather corporations who have their works travel during work days requiring their personnel to use the platform (thereby saving their labor time). Or using it behind the scenes when it is arranged for the employee without them even knowing with the goal of getting more working hours out of them/minimal business impact.

If you just want to target consumers I can say basically no one would purchase this in my opinion because they could easily use existing tools on most travel sites that show the total travel time of various options.

 

[humthesongg]

No worries I was starting to think maybe someone else had the same idea as you haha!

On the corporate side by the way I wasn't thinking so much for individuals who work at corporation choosing to use it for themselves but rather corporations who have their works travel during work days requiring their personnel to use the platform (thereby saving their labor time). Or using it behind the scenes when it is arranged for the employee without them even knowing with the goal of getting more working hours out of them/minimal business impact.

If you just want to target consumers I can say basically no one would purchase this in my opinion because they could easily use existing tools on most travel sites that show the total travel time of various options.

Yes I see. I am thinking about going back to the drawing board to think about other problems I can help solve.

I was inspired by this thread: HOT! - MINDSET - Stop Building Stuff
To first validate my idea before spending loads of hours and money on building something that has no need. I read on another thread how someone had spent 7k to get a website built only to find out there was no need for their product. Does anyone have any advice on how to quickly validate if there is a need for a SAAS without spending loads of time coding? Best thing that came to mind was building the concept of my idea as a GPT and getting feedback from the forum. lmk! For the mean time I might just pivot over to e commerce to find problems to solve there. It seems like the quickest online business model to get a feedback loop started. And I want to get started as soon as I can to learn the basics of an online business.

 

[Bounce Back]

Yes I see. I am thinking about going back to the drawing board to think about other problems I can help solve.

I was inspired by this thread: HOT! - MINDSET - Stop Building Stuff
To first validate my idea before spending loads of hours and money on building something that has no need. I read on another thread how someone had spent 7k to get a website built only to find out there was no need for their product. Does anyone have any advice on how to quickly validate if there is a need for a SAAS without spending loads of time coding? Best thing that came to mind was building the concept of my idea as a GPT and getting feedback from the forum. lmk! For the mean time I might just pivot over to e commerce to find problems to solve there. It seems like the quickest online business model to get a feedback loop started. And I want to get started as soon as I can to learn the basics of an online business.

I want to be clear I think your validation method is great. Trying stuff like this over building a SAAS is smart if you don't know. I am just personally (one data point) not a fan of this particular problem it is solving (business travel/time saved).

 

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