Barry Diller, speaking at the 2025 industry conference, described how the travel sector has long been subservient to search engines like Google, but the rise of AI is now breaking that model and changing who controls bookings and connections. He argued that traditional intermediaries—online travel agencies and meta-search platforms—could lose influence as AI tools become capable of handling bookings directly between travelers and suppliers. He also emphasized that trust will be the new currency: travelers will gravitate toward services that clearly act in their best interest and keep humans in the loop. Finally, he predicted that travel functionality will increasingly be embedded into everyday tools and workflows rather than isolated travel-specific portals.
