Expedia says AI agents bring ready-to-book travelers, but little change in booking habits

Expedia is getting travelers with a strong intent to buy from AI agents, but not enough traffic to judge their impact, CEO Ariane Gorin said in its quarterly earnings update. In a November 5 CNBC interview, she added that agents have not yet changed booking habits—a distinction as Expedia connects its inventory to outside assistants.

Discovery is moving faster than checkout

Gorin’s assessment draws a line between finding a trip and committing money to it. She described AI agents as useful for inspiration and planning, including making it easier to shop across several places. But she argued that booking requires confidence in the property details, amenities and price, plus someone who can resolve problems afterward.

On the earnings call, she said agent referrals did not appear to be taking traffic away from Expedia’s direct channels. Instead, they seemed to represent additional visits or replace traffic from other paid channels. That is an early assessment, not a settled result: she cautioned that volumes were too small to draw conclusions.

Expedia is nevertheless working with agents to understand where they get information, improve its visibility in their results and build the necessary integrations. Gorin acknowledged that agents might eventually develop their own travel offerings and take market share. Her argument is that customer service and the complexity of fixing travel problems make the existing services harder to replace.

Agentic AI's real strength is in discovery, but when it comes to bookings, people still want to book with a trusted brand where they know that they'll be taken care of

Ariane Gorin, Expedia Group CEO, on the third-quarter earnings call, as quoted by CoStar

Outside assistants get access to Expedia’s supply

The company outlined several ways it is participating in that shift. The economics of its AI partnerships are still being worked out, Gorin said. Its disclosed activity spans access to travel prices and content, advertising tests and technology that lets a partner offer its own traveler experience.

• Meta Muse: Gorin described a U.S. rollout giving the assistant access to Expedia’s prices and content. Travelers could complete a booking in Muse or be sent directly to Expedia.
• Google and OpenAI: Expedia said it had partnered with Google in AI Mode and was testing OpenAI’s new advertising products. The latter remains a test, rather than a disclosed operating result.
• Qantas: The airline is the first partner using Expedia’s agentic template. It combines Expedia’s business-to-business technology, travel supply and servicing with a customizable layer for the partner’s traveler experience.

Expedia is also exploring more conversational search on its own platform. Instead of entering only a destination, dates and traveler count, customers could describe what they want in everyday language. Gorin said those descriptions give Expedia more information about intent, allowing more personalized recommendations and a chance to reach customers earlier in their planning.

Internal tools supply the early operating results

Inside Expedia’s services, the company offered more concrete measures. It said Vrbo’s AI voice experience resolved more than 15% of inbound contacts in its first two months. Gorin said the tool also increased satisfaction scores while lowering costs. Those figures concern support handled within the business, rather than bookings arriving through outside AI agents.

Other assistants sit within the booking process. Expedia’s comparison and property-expert agents help travelers weigh hotels without leaving the page. Gorin said these tools move customers further toward booking and lead to larger purchases. The company also said users of its activity agent were twice as likely to book an activity within seven days. That comparison alone does not show that the agent caused the difference.

The development process is another claimed gain. Gorin said a small team built an autonomous hotel-onboarding agent in less than a quarter. Historically, she said, that work would have required multiple quarters and many more people.

The AI disclosures accompanied an 11% increase in third-quarter gross bookings and 12% revenue growth. Near-term guidance was less buoyant: Expedia forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $3.69 billion to $3.75 billion. The midpoint was below the $3.74 billion analyst estimate cited by CNBC from FactSet, and shares were down about 12% on November 5.