Expedia CEO Says AI Agents Help Trip Planning but Have Not Changed How People 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."

The question is central to online travel agencies. Consumer agents such as Meta's Muse and OpenAI's Dots are moving into everyday use with promises to handle tasks from scheduling to shopping, and an agent that can plan and book a trip could cut into the role sites like Expedia play between travellers and hotels or airlines.

Gorin said Expedia is "working with all of the agents" to make sure it appears in their results, to understand how they gather information and to build the integrations they need. She allowed that agents could develop their own travel offerings and eventually win market share, but argued that parts of the business, including customer service, would be hard to hand over to AI.

"People were already shopping across a number of places, so the agent can do that in a much easier way," she 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."

The comments came as Expedia shares fell about 12% on Thursday after the company issued weaker-than-expected guidance on Wednesday. It forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $3.69 billion to $3.75 billion, a midpoint below the $3.74 billion analysts expected, according to FactSet.

Gorin blamed the more cautious outlook on geopolitical events in the Middle East and Europe, the US midterm elections and the decision to move the company's fall sale from the fourth quarter into the third. She pointed to a strong third quarter, in which total gross bookings rose 11% and revenue climbed 12%.