How AllTrails Is Harnessing AI to Make Getting Outside a Lot Easier

It might be ironic but it's not surprising that one of the best resources helping people get off screens and outside is an app. Specifically, AllTrails, an award-winning app driving outdoor discovery with access to over 420,000 trails paired with GPS maps and crowd sourced (and vetted) reviews, photos, and more. Making all that trail data an even better backcountry resource is the recent rollout of an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot called AllTrails GPT—plus an updated location sharing feature called Live Share.

On paper (or, let's be real, screens) AllTrails GPT is an AI chatbot accessible via OpenAI's new GPT Store. But in practice, it's a digital dirtbag guru, an all-knowing local that, when asked for hyper-specific trail recs—"I want to see a waterfall within an hour from my home but I don't want to hike more than three miles and I'm going to bring my dog—can tell you exactly where to go.” Ask for views, ask for recent trail conditions, ask what kind of hiking shoes you should wear; AllTrails GPT can tell you.

The point, according to AllTrails CEO Ron Schneidermann, is getting more people outside: “By leveraging the newest and best technology, we’ve created a fun and innovative way to connect even more people around the world to the outdoors." We've all heard the AI-induced doomsday warnings, but this is one use of the tech that we can wholeheartedly get behind.

This chatbot trail guide is so knowledgeable because it’s trained on AllTrails' extensive database, which includes more than 420,000 trails around the world and reviews and updates from more than 60 million users.

And once you find the perfect trail for you, whether close to home or on vacation in unfamiliar territory, you can use AllTrails' newest feature Live Share to share your planned route and real-time location with friends and family, giving you (and them) peace of mind while out on the trail. You can even give them an estimated finish time, too, and they'll be able to see where you're at and send kudos after you get through the crux.

Live Share is just one of the many features and tools included in an AllTrails+ membership. In addition to important trail and navigation info, that plus sign lets you download maps for offline use, print hard copies, get alerts when you've made a wrong turn, send routes to Garmin devices, and a lot more.

AllTrails+ is available for $35.99 a year aka $2.99 a month aka a lot less than buying a bunch of individual paper maps. Separately, AllTrails GPT is available to ChatGPT Plus users ($20/month) via the GPT Store. It's also worth noting that AllTrails is a member of 1% for the Planet, through which they support orgs like Leave No Trace, and One Tree Planted.