AI isn’t a single front door for travel, but a bevy of access points with different approaches, seams and stages of evolution. Booking Holdings’ new AI-based travel brand, Lola, acts like a chatbot, books like an OTA, but with a membership model. Airbnb is hatching new tools. Meanwhile, a giant looms: Global digital banking platform Revolut is on the verge of bringing full banking and travel services to the U.S. The company, which is already deeply invested in AI for finance, is also weighing an AI concierge.
General purpose AI agents Muse and Instinct are already capable of booking travel, though in different ways. In Skift’s tests, the Meta agent relies more on OTAs, struggling with hotel sites like Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt. Instinct seems to tap into them just fine. The interfaces are getting simpler. The distribution fight is anything but.
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AI booking is moving beyond the demo and into the harder test of real customers, live inventory, and transactions at scale.
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There is a growing cohort of Silicon Valley and AI insiders who believe 2027 is the last great leap. Where you are positioned by then cements your place. After this war is won there are no more. In this clip from the Skift Travel Podcast, Sarah Kopit and Seth Borko get honest about what that actually means, why Seth is not worried about himself but is genuinely worried about his kids, and why nobody sitting here today can tell you what society looks like 30 years from now.
