Expedia's long-term plan is to shift the balance of power on the web and reduce reliance on external search engines like Google. The company has previously increased its payments to Google for ad space, but traffic did not increase after Google started showing flights and hotels. The company has also launched a Virtual Assistant tool and a ChatGPT-powered customer service chatbot plug-in. Other travel companies, such as Airbnb, have also invested in AI.
Key takeaways:
- Expedia is planning to use AI to recommend travel destinations to customers based on their previous trips and to bring more direct traffic to its site. This is part of a long-term plan to shift the balance of power on the web.
- Rajesh Naidu, chief architect and head of data management at Expedia, says the goal is to get users started on their trips in one place. The company hopes to produce recommendations using its library of flight and hotel information and users’ travel preferences.
- Expedia has long used machine learning algorithms to track flight prices and find hotels. It launched a Virtual Assistant tool in March 2020 to help customers with post-booking questions and a ChatGPT-powered customer service chatbot plug-in in April.
- Other travel companies, like Airbnb, have also invested in AI. Airbnb bought AI-powered trip-planning startup Gameplanner.AI in November.