Expedia is repositioning itself for what it sees as a structural shift in how travelers discover and book trips, placing generative and agentic AI at the core of its long-term strategy. In its latest annual filing, the Seattle-based travel group explicitly identified AI-driven platforms as an emerging competitive threat, noting that intelligent assistants could redirect users toward new booking environments where Expedia may lack a dominant presence.
The updated disclosure reflects a broader transformation underway in digital travel. Increasingly, travelers are experimenting with AI tools that can research destinations, compare options and potentially complete bookings autonomously. Rather than relying solely on traditional search engines or navigating online travel agencies manually, consumers may delegate parts of trip planning to conversational agents.
CEO Ariane Gorin has said the company is “experimenting aggressively” across major AI ecosystems to ensure Expedia brands remain visible in generative search and compatible with agentic browsers. While AI-driven booking volumes remain relatively small today, each integration provides behavioral data that could shape future distribution strategies.
Building AI Into the Customer Experience
Beyond defensive positioning, Expedia is embedding AI directly into its own platforms. The company has introduced conversational trip-planning tools, natural-language search features and an AI agent within Hotels.com designed to simplify property discovery and comparison. It also launched an app integration with ChatGPT, allowing users to interact with Expedia’s inventory through conversational prompts.
A key step in this strategy is Expedia’s partnership with Perplexity to launch “Comet,” a new AI-powered travel assistant built to help travelers plan trips faster and more intuitively. The initiative signals that Expedia aims not just to adapt to AI-driven discovery, but to actively shape it by integrating its supply and pricing data into emerging AI-native environments.
At the same time, the company is betting that direct relationships remain a durable advantage. Approximately two-thirds of bookings begin on Expedia-owned brands, and direct traffic is growing faster than indirect channels. Maintaining this demand base could be critical if third-party AI platforms begin to capture more search and discovery traffic.
AI Inside Operations and Financial Momentum
Internally, AI is reshaping how Expedia operates. Product and engineering teams are using generative tools to accelerate feature development. Supply teams are deploying automation to streamline inventory onboarding. Customer service functions are increasingly AI-enabled, helping deliver record levels of self-service resolution and operational efficiency.
The financial backdrop remains solid. In the fourth quarter, Expedia reported 11% year-over-year growth in both revenue and gross bookings. Booked room nights rose 9%, supported by resilience in the U.S. market and accelerating growth across EMEA, even as geopolitical pressures weighed on parts of Asia. B2B gross bookings expanded significantly faster than consumer channels, highlighting diversification across distribution streams.
Still, Expedia has acknowledged new risks emerging alongside AI opportunities. Agentic booking capabilities, particularly those lacking robust consent controls, could heighten fraud exposure and complicate authorization processes. As automated systems gain greater transactional autonomy, governance and security may become a new competitive battleground.
For Expedia, AI is no longer peripheral experimentation. It is becoming embedded across product development, distribution strategy and internal operations – a recalibration designed to ensure relevance as travel discovery enters the agentic era.
