Cut Your Workload in Half With AI

Episode Overview:

In this episode of Flight Path, David Shull, Molly Johnson, and Brad Turner take listeners behind the curtain of Tern's biggest webinar to date, which drew over 4,000 registrants and broke their Zoom license live. The team unpacks the chaos, the last-minute engineering pushes, and the community energy that made it all worth it. From practical tips on how to get the most out of the new AI chat feature to a candid breakdown of Tern's thinking on AI pricing and beta access, this episode goes deeper than the webinar ever could. With property discovery and packaged insurance improvements on the horizon, the team closes with a look at what is coming next for travel advisors on Tern.

Episode Topics:

(00:00) Webinar Hangover and Record-Breaking Numbers The team reflects on hosting Tern's biggest webinar yet, with over 3,000 live attendees breaking their Zoom license and 600 questions submitted in real time.

(03:48) Behind the Scenes: Last-Minute Engineering Chaos Molly and David pull back the curtain on overnight flight data migrations timing out and demo environments being fixed just minutes before going live.

(06:10) Brad's Slide Wins and Project Expedition Migration Brad shares how he got slides done a full hour early and explains the engineering work required to clear cached pricing across tens of thousands of tours.

(14:28) Webinar Reflection: Hype vs. Overwhelm The team acknowledges that while the webinar created massive excitement, advisors also left wondering where to start, and commits to building clearer post-webinar enablement resources.

(20:36) AI Chat Deep Dive: How It Actually Works David walks through exactly how the AI chat feature uses tool calling to search notes, contacts, and trips, and shares pro tips for prompting it effectively right now.

(31:48) Prompt Engineering Today vs. Tomorrow Brad explains why advisors need to be specific with prompts for now, and why that will matter less as Tern learns how advisors naturally ask questions.

(34:51) AI Brand Voice Settings David demos a new setting that lets advisors give the AI context on how they want it to write, particularly useful for follow-up emails.

(36:57) AI Pricing and Upgrade Tiers: The Honest Breakdown David and Brad explain why AI features may eventually have an upgrade cost, how token usage varies wildly by advisor, and what the goal is for Q2 pricing plans.

(40:48) Beta Roundup: What Is and Is Not Available Yet Molly breaks down the three features still in closed beta, including itemized package pricing, AI commission reconciliation, and advanced custom reporting, and explains when and how each will roll out.

(43:37) Week Ahead: Insurance in Packages and Property Discovery Brad teases upcoming work to embed insurance within packages and improve how advisors discover and browse properties inside Tern.

Show Highlights:

Over 4,000 registrants and 3,000 live attendees broke Tern's Zoom license during the webinar

Overnight flights, the number one requested Canny feature, shipped and was marked complete the day of the webinar

AI chat tips revealed: include contact name and specific keywords to help the AI follow the right tool calling path

AI brand voice settings now let advisors train the AI on how they want to sound in emails

Three features remain in closed beta: itemized package pricing, AI commission reconciliation, and advanced custom reporting

Thumbs up and thumbs down feedback inside AI chat is the highest signal way to help Tern improve the feature

Property discovery improvements and in-package insurance are both in early planning for Q2