Skift Take
It is fun to speculate about what generative AI could mean for travel, but the online travel agencies are collectively telling us to chill with the hype for the time being.
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Despite all the hype around what generative AI could mean for the travel industry, the online travel agencies seem to be in agreement — there is potential, but there’s a lot of work to be done first.
Rathi Murthy, chief technology officer for Expedia Group, shared that sentiment in a call with journalists this week.
“It's a model that is yet to unfold,” Murthy said. She has had executive and other leadership roles in technology for companies in several sectors, including Verizon Media, Gap Inc., American Express, Ebay, Yahoo, and WebMD.
“Honestly, the travel industry as a whole has a lot of legacy technology, and it's not super easy to move in and adopt some of this. But I do see players like us — players that have core technology in the background, large OTAs — start jumping in to experiment and try things out. And we are right in there.”
Expedia Group owns multiple online travel agency and booking brands, including Expedia.com, Hotels