Inside Agoda’s AI Bet: Building Silicon Valley in Bangkok

Throughout the summer, Skift CEO Rafat Ali has been sitting down with travel leaders around the world for wide-ranging conversations about real estate, artificial intelligence, emerging destinations, independent hotels, and more.

For the last episode in this series, Ali sits down with Agoda CEO Omri Morgenshtern to talk about the evolution of Agoda over the last 20 years, with a particular focus on technology, artificial intelligence, and talent strategy. Morgenshtern discusses Agoda’s role within Booking Holdings, the company’s growth in Asia, and how it’s turning Bangkok into a tech hub by importing global talent and cultivating local engineers. The discussion delves deep into the real-world applications and limitations of generative AI – especially in enterprise settings – and how Agoda is integrating it across engineering, customer service, and product development.

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Takeaways

1. Agoda Is Betting Big on AI—But Real Impact Takes Time: While generative AI has changed how engineers work, Morgenshtern says it’s not yet delivering the 5X or 10X productivity promised. Its true power lies in accelerating velocity and enabling new product features.

2. Bangkok as a Tech Hub Is No Accident: Agoda’s 50/50 model—pairing experienced global engineers with top local graduates—has transformed the Thai capital into what Morgenshtern calls “Silicon Valley in Bangkok.”

3. Customer Support Is the First Real AI Win: From translation to tone-matching to faster case resolution, generative AI is already improving customer experience and agent efficiency at scale.

4. Fintech Is the Next Loyalty Layer: Morgenshtern sees Agoda’s future in providing financial services to both consumers and partners, turning travel companies into banks and loyalty programs into financial ecosystems.

5. Vietnam’s Strategy Is a Tourism Case Study: While many markets are growing, Vietnam stands out for its deliberate, long-term approach to tourism development—including air routes, visa policy, and infrastructure investment.