How AI Agents Will Bolster Online Travel Agencies

• Despite common belief, AI agents are predicted to strengthen online travel agencies (OTAs) rather than bypass them, as OTAs have established market structures, financial models, and tech foundations that new AI platforms need to thrive.
• Technological giants and AI pioneers are leveraging AI agents, leading to a potential new advertisement gold rush, with OTAs positioned to become power brokers in this emerging landscape due to their marketing expertise, brand trust, and robust API infrastructure.

Contrary to popular belief that AI agents will bypass online travel agencies (OTAs), Mario Gavira, Vice President of Growth and Brand at Kiwi.com, argues that these agents will instead supercharge OTAs.

Tech giants, including Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, and Apple, as well as new AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity, are investing heavily in AI agent technology. However, the reality is that these entities will all rely on traditional advertising revenue. Companies like Google and Meta, the world’s largest ad platforms, will use AI agents to expand their marketing channels. AI pioneers also recognize that training AI models requires the kind of cash flow that can be reliably provided by advertising, leading to a potential new advertisement gold rush.

The author then explains why AI agents will make OTAs more influential. Firstly, OTAs have an advantage in bid mastery due to their decades of performance marketing and sophisticated algorithms. Secondly, OTAs can leverage their massive transaction history and global brand recognition to gain the trust of AI agents, essentially becoming the “blue checkmarks” of the AI agentic world. Finally, OTAs’ robust API infrastructure, which enables them to process billions of API calls daily, positions them as the primary source for AI agents needing to shop across the entire travel ecosystem.

In conclusion, the author asserts that while suppliers are figuring out their future AI strategy, OTAs are ready to profit from the transition from human attention to AI agents. This article provides a contrarian but insightful perspective on the future of AI agents in the travel industry, highlighting the potential for OTAs to strengthen their position rather than be bypassed.

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