Interview: Expedia CEO on How Its AI Rollouts Would Be Impossible for Prior Regimes
Photo Caption: Expedia Group CEO Peter Kern spoke at its partner conference at headquarters in Seattle on May 9, 2023. In an interview with Skift, Kern discussed generative AI and the competitive landscape. Source: Expedia Group
Skift Take
First-mover advantage from online travel companies in generative AI might not hold up over the long-term. The chessboard may get overturned. Still, getting out there first doesn't hurt.
Expedia Group CEO Peter Kern, who's been working on revamping the company since April 2020, said "it would've been impossible for the old us, three years ago," to have been nimble enough to be among the first movers in generative AI among online travel companies.
Expedia's iOS app now has a ChatGPT chatbot, and the company rolled out a plug-in for OpenAI's ChatGPT platform. Booking Holdings' Kayak and Opentable have plug-ins, as well.
It's impossible to know if ex-Expedia CEOs Dara Khosrowshahi (2005-2017) and Mark Okerstrom (2017-2019) could have introduced ChatGPT tools as fast as the company did under Kern, and he wasn't looking to disparage his predecessors. You can make an argument that the two former CEOs could have done it, as well.
But Kern, who thinks the toughest big lifts are behind him other than a loyalty program launch coming in July and getting vacation rental brand Vrbo onto the Expedia tech stack, has been busy remaking Expedia over
