Kayak's CEO: First AI-Online Travel Deal Will Be Like 'A Dam Breaking'
Skift Take
There are huge stakes in how AI in travel will develop. And the truth is no one can say for certain at this point how it will play out.
Kayak CEO Steve Hafner said he "fears" 2025 will see the first successful commercial agreement between an AI engine and a major travel player, and then "it's going to be a little bit like a dam breaking."
"Once one of the AIs makes it work with one big travel player, everyone else is going to run to cash out," Hafner said, citing Airbnb and Kayak's sister company Booking.com as being in that major travel company category.
Hafner was speaking at Skift's Megatrends 2025 event in Manhattan Tuesday on "What's
