AI in Travel

Kayak’s AI Mode goes from soft launch to debut, so customers can search for travel using natural language. Plus: The company dishes up data on holiday travel trends.

What happens when the fundamental assumptions underlying the travel industry's business models stop being true? Who has agency: who makes decisions, who controls discovery, who influences choice, and critically, who gets left behind when those power dynamics shift in an AI age.

Booking Holdings and the other online travel agencies have survived through several platform shifts in the past. However, the gen AI revolution finds them in slower growth mode than in past era, upping the pressure.

At Skift Global Forum 2025, travel leaders explored how AI is reshaping traveler behavior, forecasting, and marketing strategy, and why human insight remains travel’s greatest advantage.

India's ancient wellness remedies have evolved from being traditions to becoming major revenue generators, and hotel chains are leaning into this demand.

For OpenAI, the move is the culmination of a broader attempt to appeal to developers. For travel companies, it means no extra download necessary.

In this video from Skift Global Forum, McKinsey, Marriott, and Kayak discuss how understanding and acting on agentic AI’s potential could mark the winners and losers in the coming decade of travel innovation.

Evermore shifts Orlando beyond theme parks, positioning itself as a destination in its own right. In this talk, Chris Kelsey, president of Dart Interests, highlights group-focused residences, a Conrad hotel, and a focus on “relational wellness” as the next wave of travel demand.

Today’s travelers expect fast, responsive support when disruptions arise. In this talk, Anna Kofoed, chief officer for travel at Allianz Partners, explained why proactive, seamless travel protection is central to loyalty in today’s industry.

Nobody will say how much money any of this is making or saving. "Experiments," they call it. "Early days." But many of the AI examples remain quite promising.