What's the travel industry building toward? An AI agent-powered future its own customers don't want yet – and with no accountability framework to change their minds. But AI's threat to travel intermediation still looms amid a growing wave of AI plugins and other tools.

Major OTAs are projecting AI confidence anyway. At a Morgan Stanley investor conference, Expedia's CFO talked about plowing tech layoff savings into AI, and Booking's CFO dismissed LLM disintermediation as barely a risk. As if on cue, ChatGPT decided shortly after that to step away from in-chat transactions, sending shares of Expedia and Booking soaring. Now the spotlight shifts to Gemini.

EDITOR’S PICKS

ChatGPT Bails on Transactions — Good News for Expedia and Booking

by Adriana Lee

March 5, 2026

OpenAI built the checkout tech but couldn't get users to actually buy. That's a reprieve for OTAs, and a reality check for anyone assuming AI commerce is inevitable.

Booking CFO: The AI Threat Isn’t ‘Really a Risk at All’

by Dennis Schaal

March 4, 2026

In the face of the LLM threat, Booking Holdings thinks it can repeatedly grow its top line 8% annually over the "medium term" and earnings per share 15% over the same timespan.

Expedia CFO: ‘We Radically Changed the Direction of the Company’

by Dennis Schaal

March 3, 2026

Expedia has been downsizing its workforce over the last year, and plowing some of the savings into machine learning and AI. It's a playbook that's taking place across industries.

Travel Brands Are Building AI Agents for a Consumer That Doesn’t Exist

by Adriana Lee

March 3, 2026

Travelers say they aren't ready to let AI book a trip. The industry is spending billions anyway — and no one has answered the most basic question: who pays when AI agents get it wrong?

Former Sabre Hotel Unit Lays Groundwork for AI Distribution — Exclusive

by Adriana Lee

March 2, 2026

Aven is embedding MCP into the core system for thousands of hotels. It’s an early signal of how the newly independent company plans to position its infrastructure for AI-driven discovery.

The Claude Effect Is Coming for Travel

by Rafat Ali

March 2, 2026

The moment an AI agent handles the complexity of travel, the intermediation layer will have to answer why it exists — or at least why it commands the margin it does.

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