Expedia CEO on Staying Relevant During the Age of AI

20.11.2024 - 22:53 / skift.com / Justin Dawes / Ariane Gorin

There’s a lot more around AI that Expedia needs to worry about than just developing a new trip planner. 

Since the first generative AI model was released in 2022, there’s been concern that the tech could dismantle the way online travel agencies operate — or eventually lead to their downfall. 

Ariane Gorin, president and CEO of Expedia Group, addressed some of those concerns Wednesday at the Phocuswright conference in Phoenix. 

The industry has increasingly been talking about the vision for autonomous digital travel agents that can plan and book trips on behalf of consumers. 

A big question is whether that would cut out the need for travel agencies like Expedia.

Gorin is skeptical that that would be the case. Just because there may be a tool that simplifies shopping for the consumer, the travel industry still consists of many moving parts. She believes companies like Expedia will still have a role in bringing those pieces together. 

“Travelers are going to find new ways of shopping … but somebody is going to need to give the travelers confidence that things will work,” she said. “There’s, we all know, a lot of complexity in managing travel. So even if the front end would be easier, there’s just a lot of complexity.” 

The growth and advancement of AI search engines — like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity — creates uncertainty around how travel companies will be presented in future online search results. 

Expedia spends billions of advertising dollars each year to be placed at the top of Google search results; it also does well within natural search results. It’s unclear now how advertising will work or how search results will be prioritized in AI search engines. That means traditional search engine optimization practices could be need to be replaced with new standards. 

Gorin said that Expedia is paying close attention. 

“Everybody’s testing things. It’s early days. But we’ve got relationships with all of those big search engines. We’re keeping a very close eye on how is search and discovery evolving, and then how do we need to evolve with it,” she said. 

Gorin touched on the issue of AI for trip planning in September, saying any real change in the way people plan and book travel will take time. 

While Expedia has been working on a trip planner, there are several other uses that she said AI can help with:

“There’s just a lot more we can do to make everyone more effective at what they do,” she said.