Ariane Gorin

Gorin says AI agents are useful for travel inspiration and planning but have not yet changed how customers actually book.

"It's a great way for people to do inspiration, to do trip planning," Gorin said in an interview with CNBC. "We haven't seen it change the way they're actually doing booking."

Gorin argues AI agents will ease shopping around but cannot replace the trust, content accuracy and customer service that Expedia provides at booking.

"People were already shopping across a number of places, so the agent can do that in a much easier way," Gorin said. "But when it comes to actually booking — being confident that the content that you're getting is right, the amenities are right, the price is right, if something goes wrong, someone's going to actually either solve it for you, answer the phone, be there for you — I don't think those agents are going to do it for you, and that's why people trust Expedia and come to us."

Gorin says Expedia is working with all AI agents to ensure visibility and integrations in AI-driven results.

Gorin said Expedia is "working with all of the agents" to make sure it surfaces in AI results, to understand how the agents get information and to make sure that the company has the necessary integrations.

Gorin attributes the softer Q4 guidance to geopolitics, midterm elections and a shifted fall sale rather than weaker consumers.

Gorin attributed the "moderation" in Expedia's fourth-quarter guidance to "geopolitical events in the Middle East and Europe," the midterm elections and the company moving its fall sale from the fourth quarter to the third quarter.

Gorin argues that even as AI platforms take over discovery, the complexity of supply, payments and service keeps trust, scale and reliability as Expedia's differentiators.

What we are seeing is that while discovery is spreading across AI assistance, search, and social platforms, the hard parts of travel are not getting any easier. Connecting to global supply across multiple lines of business with accurate prices. Handling bookings and payments, standing behind bookings, and fixing problems when plans change. That complexity is where trust is earned.

Gorin says agentic AI is strong at discovery but travelers still prefer to complete bookings with trusted brands.

So far, what we are seeing is that Agentic AI's real strength is in discovery, but that when it comes to bookings, people still want to book with a trusted brand where they know that they will be taken care of if something goes wrong, they know they can trust the content and the prices and the like.

Gorin says agentic traffic is tiny but high quality, and does not appear to cannibalize direct traffic.

As you say, it is agentic traffic is very small so far. We think it is high we see it as high quality traffic. We do not see it as impacting the direct traffic. I think it is, you know, it is either incremental or it is taken from other paid channels.

Gorin says Expedia will test new AI ad products, accepting lower initial returns, and expects many to become major channels.

I think it is important as there are new products that come out on the market to be to take the posture of testing, being willing to maybe accept some returns that are not as high as more established products that are more optimized. And that is our approach across the board as some of these new AI services come out with new products. We will be you know, testing and learning. And then over time, I believe many of these will become big channels for us.

Gorin says AI is cutting service costs and speeding development, citing Vrbo's agent resolving over 15% of contacts and a hotel onboarding agent built in under a quarter.

In servicing, we released our new agentic experience on Vrbo, And already in the first 2 months, it is effectively resolving over 15% of inbound contacts. Driving higher satisfaction scores at a lower cost. AI is also enabling us to accelerate product development. Our new autonomous hotel onboarding agent was built in less than a quarter by a small focused team.

Gorin frames the B2B addressable market as the over-$3 trillion travel market excluding supplier-direct and the largest OTAs.

At the highest level, the way I think about the size of the DVD travel market is you take the overall travel market, which is over $3 trillion you remove from that sort of all of supplier direct. You remove from that couple of the biggest OTAs in the world, and you say, all of the rest is the addressable market for b 2 b.

Gorin says Expedia's B2B infrastructure positions it to supply agents that want to offer travel booking themselves.

If there are agents who say, you know what? We wanna be the provider ourselves, of travel booking rather than being a demand channel for existing travel brands, we clearly are well positioned to be able to do that.

Gorin views fragmentation of top-of-funnel traffic as beneficial for Expedia.

And, you know, to the extent that there is more fragmentation at the top of the funnel, that is a good thing for us.

Gorin said US consumers remained strong in both domestic travel and outbound trips to Europe and Asia.

"The US consumer was strong both in domestic travel and in outbound to Europe and Asia," CEO Ariane Gorin told Reuters.

Gorin attributed the softer fourth-quarter outlook to the US midterm elections and unrest in the Middle East and Europe.

Gorin pinned moderation in the fourth-quarter forecast on the US midterm elections and unrest in the Middle East and Europe.

Gorin noted that Europeans traveled more domestically than on long-haul outbound trips.

In Europe people traveled more domestically than long-haul outbound, Gorin noted.

Gorin said agentic AI is strongest at trip discovery, while travelers still prefer to book with trusted brands that will take care of them if something goes wrong.

agentic AI’s real strength is in discovery.

Gorin argued travelers want to book with a trusted brand that will support them when problems arise.

where they know that they’ll be taken care of if something goes wrong.

Gorin said Expedia has strengthened its marketplace while using AI as a force multiplier to innovate faster and operate more efficiently.

as a force multiplier

Gorin says travelers in 2027 will be more intentional, seeking personal and purposeful travel experiences.

In 2027, travelers are being more intentional in choosing their next adventure, seeking experiences that are more personal and purposeful to them,

Ariane Gorin says travellers are choosing trips more deliberately and seeking more personal, meaningful experiences.

Travellers are more deliberate when choosing their next adventure, seeking experiences that feel more personal and meaningful

Gorin says travellers in 2027 will choose trips more intentionally, seeking more personal and purposeful experiences.

In 2027, travellers are being more intentional in choosing their next adventure, seeking experiences that are more personal and purposeful to them.