Travelers plan trips with AI helpers but still book on Expedia

People are using AI assistants to plan trips, but they are not finishing the booking there. Expedia Group CEO Ariane Gorin said this on the company's third-quarter earnings call. In her words, "agentic AI's real strength is in discovery." An AI agent is an assistant that can search and act for you, not just chat.

What Expedia is seeing

Gorin said travelers still want to book with a trusted brand, "where they know that they'll be taken care of if something goes wrong." Traffic that comes from AI agents is high intent, she said, meaning those visitors tend to be serious about buying. Third-party data shows Expedia leading in citation share in the U.S., which roughly means how often AI answers point to a company.

The money side is unsettled. Expedia said the economics of its AI partnerships are still being worked out. Gorin said agent traffic does not appear to cut into direct visits. It is either extra business or taken from other paid channels. She added that the volume is too small to draw conclusions.

Who Expedia is working with

• Google, through AI Mode
• Meta, through a Muse integration expected to go live in the U.S. during the call
• OpenAI, whose new ad products Expedia is testing
• Qantas, the first partner on its agentic template

Muse gets access to Expedia prices and content. It can complete a booking or send the traveler to Expedia.

AI inside Expedia's own tools

Expedia's agentic voice experience on Vrbo resolved over 15% of inbound contacts in its first two months. Gorin said it raised satisfaction scores at a lower cost. A small team also built a hotel onboarding agent in less than a quarter. She said that work once took multiple quarters and many more people.

Chat-style helpers now sit inside the booking flow. A compare agent and a property expert agent help travelers weigh hotels without leaving the page. Gorin said this pushes people deeper into the buying process and leads to larger purchases. Travelers who used the new activity agent were twice as likely to book an activity within seven days.

The business results

Expedia grew gross bookings 11% and revenue 12% in the quarter. B2B bookings, which come through business partners, rose 19%.

What it means for travelers

Using AI to brainstorm a trip is fine. Expect to finish the booking on a known site or app. That is where you can reach someone if flights change or a hotel falls through.