notitur.com September 14, 2026
Artificial Intelligence1 min read

Booking tests five AI bets and Agoda is next in line

JSBy Joan SanzCurated by Joan Sanz. · September 14, 2026 · Follow on LinkedIn
Voice reading · ~2 min

Booking is not betting on a single piece of AI, it is testing five at once. Skift reports it: the company is covering several fronts, from chatbots to specialised agents, plus startup investments. That is the comfortable position of someone with enough scale to afford failing on four of the five attempts.

Expedia plays the same game, and that is the interesting part. Both giants overlap on the surface, yet differ in how they build and what they buy. The race is not about who has the prettier assistant, it is about who gets that assistant to close bookings without wrecking margin or distribution control.

According to Skift, Agoda is next to make its move. It makes sense. The Asian market is a perfect lab for conversational AI, with mobile users used to sorting everything through chat and local competitors that do not wait around.

My take: in 2026, AI inside OTAs will no longer be a shop-window experiment, it will be one more layer of the business. Hoteliers who know how to plug those agents into their own direct channel will play with an edge. Those who just watch from the stands will see intermediation get more convenient for the traveller and more opaque for them.

Quick questions

How many AI experiments is Booking running?
According to Skift, five at once. They cover chatbots, specialised agents and startup investments.
How does Expedia's strategy differ from Booking's?
Both overlap on the fronts, but differ in how they approach them. The real gap is in what they build in-house and what they buy externally.
What is Agoda doing in the AI race?
Skift points to it being the next to move. Its natural market is Asia, where conversational mobile usage works in its favour.
Why should an independent hotel care about this?
Because AI assistants change how travellers search and book. If your direct channel does not integrate well, you lose control over conversion.
Is this AI push just a passing trend?
No. It has stopped being a shop window and is becoming a structural layer of the travel distribution business.

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