Travel
The Travel Distribution Funnel Is Coming Apart
AI is fragmenting travel distribution across many starting points instead of simply replacing Google with a new gatekeeper.
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Travel Technology
Travel
Hilton Tech Exec Says AI Agents Put OTAs ‘Under Real Threat’
Hilton CIO Michael Leidinger believes the OTAs' decline will benefit hotels, even while conceding that AI agents will likely charge commissions, too. The difference is that Hilton will get more bookings on its site and app.
Travel
Skift Webinar: When AI Becomes the Travel Agent — How Hotels Get Chosen
Join Skift and industry leaders for a webinar exploring how AI is changing hotel discovery and booking. Learn how travelers are using and trusting AI, why accurate property information matters more than ever, and what hotels can do now to ensure they’re accurately understood, confidently recommended, and easily booked.
Travel
Skift Data + AI Summit Europe: Five Decisions in the Room
AI is changing European travel. The question is who can actually run it at scale when compliance, language, and data sovereignty are built into the operating model.
Travel
Kayak Co-Founders Launch Lola — Booking Holdings’ New AI Assistant: Exclusive
Booking Holdings has spent years trying to stitch a trip together across separate apps. Lola wagers one assistant built from scratch, with a membership model and human concierge service, can finally hold it together.
Travel
Instinct’s App Is Fueled by Travel — Founder Says It’s Half of Volume
Instinct got travel's attention by handling bookings via text message. Now the real question is whether it can turn that volume into revenue — and travel may be the test case.
Travel
How Hotel CEOs Are Really Using AI, From Voice Agents to a Digital Hyatt CEO
Hilton, Hyatt, Accor, Wyndham, and Banyan Group all agree AI should make staff better at their jobs. But they split on how to adopt it.
Travel
Expedia Cuts 58 Roles in Latest Layoff Round
Expedia filed a WARN notice in Washington eliminating 58 jobs, including executive positions and data science roles. The reorganization reached Illinois and Florida too.
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Travel
How to Build for Travel’s Agentic Future
Almost every travel brand CEO at Skift Global Forum touched on what they want AI agents to do. Fewer talked about how they expect it to work.
Business
How Travel Search, Discovery, and Booking Are Being Rewritten
The distribution and marketing funnel is changing shape. Companies still organizing their spend around a linear path to purchase are investing against a model that no longer describes how travelers actually behave.
Travel
Revolution’s Steve Case and Certares’ Greg O’Hara Are Betting on Scarce Travel Assets
The man who taught America to log on to the internet is going long on the offline world. And the man who is selling Amex GBT in a $6.3 billion deal talks about where he sees his next opportunities.
Travel
Brian Chesky Commits to Launching an AI Agent in 2027
Airbnb has talked for years about becoming an AI concierge. Now Brian Chesky has put a 2027 date on it — and he says the interface won’t look like a typical chatbot.
Travel
Agentic AI Is Raising Travel’s Tech Bill
Amadeus and Spotnana agree the plumbing for AI-powered travel costs more now. The industry still hasn’t settled who pays — or who captures the value.
Travel
Understanding AI’s Broad Impact
Travel brands have to evaluate if they're structured to let an agent handle the full relationship, and whether internal divisions may hold them back.
Travel
Uber: Owning More of the Travel Journey
Every travel company that controls its own inventory is facing the same decision: let AI agents book it, or keep customers in the direct channel.
Travel
Expedia Bets Against the All-Powerful AI Travel Agent
Expedia wants a seat inside the new wave of AI agents, including Meta's Muse. But CEO Ariane Gorin is betting on a messier future for travel: multiple entry points and specialized agents, not one bot that owns the whole trip.
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Travel
Booking CEO: Building the AI Travel Agent Isn’t the Hard Part
Booking Holdings has to navigate pressure from AI upstarts, competition from Airbnb, and antitrust-minded courts, all while running five AI bets at once.
Travel
‘The Traveler Comes to Us’: Uber CEO Explains Break-Even Bet on Hotels
Uber has already shown it can do more than rideshare. Hotels and short-term rentals are the next step in moving beyond the core.
Travel
Sponsored Listings Are Spreading Across Online Travel — Just as AI Agents Threaten to Ignore Them
Sponsored listings could be significantly disrupted — or they will evolve to account for AI agents.
Travel
Ex-Remington CEO Is Building an ‘AI-Native’ Hotel Operator: Exclusive
AI Hospitality Group (AIHG) wants to run full-service hotels with more tech and fewer managers, plus a fee tied to profit growth instead of the usual top-line revenue.