The affect of synthetic intelligence (AI) in journey and the uncertainty surrounding it will not be up for query, however virtually all the things else is. Who will personal the shopper? Who will turn into the gatekeepers? Will supplier-direct or middleman enterprise win?
The actuality is that nobody is aware of but how the panorama will look going ahead, and the fast tempo of change is feeding into the uncertainty.
C.A. Clark, vice chairman of AI for Miles Partnership, and Marius Nigond, CEO of iWander, mentioned a number of the developments in a PhocusWire studio interview at The Phocuswright Conference in November.
“A week is a month, a month is a year when we’re talking about this sort of technology,” stated Clark. “There are things that are myths and misunderstandings that are still pervasive, even though we’ve been at this for years now. So I think my biggest observation—and it’s not just this conference, it’s all conferences—is it’s really hard to meet people where they are when we’re talking about AI. Because even though that’s what everyone’s saying that they’re doing, they’re all over the place.”
The dialogue lined business attitudes about AI and pleasure across the potential to enhance the search and reserving expertise, in addition to concern about jobs and disruption to the ecosystem.
“I think there’s a lot of psychology in how the industry is reacting. It’s not really a technology problem; it’s a change management and psychology problem,” Clark stated.
The pair additionally touched on hype versus actuality and methods to navigate the chance in relation to AI in journey.
“I think it’s more underhyped than overhyped. It will change how people book, search, discover products—everything,” said Nigond.
He also highlighted how Booking Holdings is giving its brands, including Agoda and Priceline, full autonomy on AI and described it as a “super smart” strategy in terms of spreading bets.
Additionally, Clark and Nigond shared some advice for travel companies in 2026 and thoughts on what the industry might look like in 2030.
See below for the full session with PhocusWire’s Morgan Hines.
Big journey tech takeaways from The Phocuswright Conference 2025