{"id":7168,"date":"2025-01-10T09:02:16","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T09:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?p=7168"},"modified":"2025-01-10T09:02:16","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T09:02:16","slug":"kayaks-ceo-first-ai-online-travel-deal-will-dam-breaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?p=7168","title":{"rendered":"Kayak’s CEO: The First AI-Online Travel Deal Will Be ‘A Dam Breaking’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Skift Take<\/h2>\n
There are huge stakes in how AI in travel will develop. And the truth is no one can say for certain at this point how it will play out.<\/div>\n
\n

Kayak CEO Steve Hafner said he \u201cfears\u201d 2025 will see the first successful commercial agreement between an AI engine and a major travel player, and then \u201cit\u2019s going to be a little bit like a dam breaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce one of the AIs makes it work with one big travel player, everyone else is going to run to cash out,\u201d Hafner said, citing Airbnb and Kayak\u2019s sister company Booking.com as being in that major travel company category.<\/p>\n

Hafner was speaking at\u00a0Skift\u2019s Megatrends 2025 event\u00a0in Manhattan Tuesday on \u201cWhat\u2019s Ahead for 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hafner said it needs to get sorted out how AI will get commercialized in travel in terms of \u201cwho takes credit for the actual booking.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example: Does the booking go through Google\u2019s Gemini directly to the hotel or airline, or does it go through an intermediary like Kayak?<\/p>\n

Changing consumer behavior and upcoming regulation will also help determine the future of AI and travel, he said.<\/p>\n

Will Travelers Abandon Travel Sites and Apps?<\/h2>\n

Hafner said he\u2019s concerned about whether traditional travel sites will be a casualty of changing consumer behavior.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy fear is that they\u2019ll stop going to traditional travel sites by visiting them or downloading an app, and they\u2019ll rely more and more on social media,\u201d Hafner said. \u201cThat\u2019s where they\u2019re already spending their time, and then ChatGPT and these AI models where you get answers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kayak\u2019s Building Its Own Large Language Model, But \u2026<\/h2>\n

Hafner said Kayak\u2019s building its own Large Language Model \u2014 \u201ca lot of other companies are doing the same\u201d \u2014 because the costs are dropping. But it\u2019s also providing data to Google Gemini.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut just because Kayak AI is better than the Kayak flavor on Gemini doesn\u2019t mean people won\u2019t use Gemini instead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kayak Plans to Leverage the Mass Market on Social Media<\/h2>\n

As one Skift Megatrend pointed out,\u00a0\u201cInfluencers Are the New Power Brokers in Travel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hafner agreed, saying influencers \u201creally move the needle,\u201d and have replaced reading reviews like his generation did on Tripadvisor.<\/p>\n

He said Expedia is probably the most advanced company in travel in the use of influencers as it\u2019s \u201cgone with a curated list of creators.\u201d They make recommendations that can be booked on the platform.<\/p>\n

The Kayak CEO said his company will take a different route. \u201cWe\u2019re going to try to go the mass market with it,\u201d Hafner said. \u201cYou can share your favorite destinations, and if someone actually buys through that, you get paid. Pretty cool. So we\u2019ll take social media, try to turn that into performance
\nmarketing channel.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Skift Take There are huge stakes in how AI in travel will develop. And the truth is no one can say for certain at this point how it will play out. Kayak CEO Steve Hafner said he \u201cfears\u201d 2025 will see the first successful commercial agreement between an AI engine and a major travel player, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1.jpg",2048,1365,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1.jpg",2048,1365,false],"jnews-360x180":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-360x180.jpg",360,180,true],"jnews-750x375":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-750x375.jpg",750,375,true],"jnews-1140x570":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-1140x570.jpg",1140,570,true],"jnews-120x86":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-120x86.jpg",120,86,true],"jnews-350x250":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-350x250.jpg",350,250,true],"jnews-750x536":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-750x536.jpg",750,536,true],"jnews-1140x815":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-1140x815.jpg",1140,815,true],"jnews-360x504":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-360x504.jpg",360,504,true],"jnews-75x75":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-75x75.jpg",75,75,true],"jnews-350x350":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-350x350.jpg",350,350,true],"jnews-featured-750":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-750x500.jpg",750,500,true],"jnews-featured-1140":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1-1140x760.jpg",1140,760,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"Newssoccer","author_link":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Blog<\/a>","tag_info":"Blog","comment_count":"0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Steve-Hafner-Megatrends-25-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7170,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7168\/revisions\/7170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":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