Expedia is winning the AI + social commerce battle (but are they jeopardizing winning the war)?

Expedia this week rolled out a new feature in their ongoing march into social commerce. The new feature allows anyone to simply DM the @Expedia account on Instagram any publicly available video reel and then their AI machine will send the person back a way of booking whatever was in the video.

It is the first time we’ve seen anyone try to match the programmatic AI video product matching that we have pioneered at Videreo.

“It’s no secret people are getting their news, inspiration and travel ideas from influencers and content creators, with a recent study showing that 80% of millennials rely on social media for travel decisions,” said Jochen Koedijk, chief marketing officer at Expedia Group, in a statement. “We want to be where consumers get their inspiration, which is through social media.”

The big question I have for Expedia, is where do they actually stand on creators?

Conde Nast took the new tool for a spin and asked Expedia directly about compensation for creators who triggered the booking flow.

“Expedia “won't be offering compensation” to creators if a user books a trip based on their Reel using the new tool, a spokesperson tells Condé Nast Traveler. “Through Expedia Trip Matching, Expedia will use AI to provide travel recommendations based on public reels submitted by travelers on Instagram,” they said.”

Wow. OK. Emphatic, short-sighted and confusing based on all the previous rhetoric when announcing Creator Travel Shops just weeks ago.

The other question I have in all this is: where are the Expedia competitors in the social commerce race? What are booking.com family doing? What about Trip.com?

Videreo offers brand agnostic storefronts for creators meaning they get to choose who it is they want to work with and it is the supplier brand that gets to shine through directly with the consumer.

Videreo is the place for brands and creators to meet & create a new sales pipeline together.

Videreo compensates the creators for the sales they generate.

Check out more here to join brands already in the vector database like global hotel meta-search business Vio.com or see Videreo in action from creator Mely in Paris.

Open your business to social commerce today. Performance based and no upfront costs.

Literally nothing to lose.

Contact Adrian for more details on how to get your travel product loaded.

This content is provided by the (interim) newsletter sponsor Videreo.com

More Expedia!

Expedia are not just cozying up to the peeps at Instagram but they are also firmly in bed with OpenAI.

This week OpenAI released an interview with Jochen Koedijk, chief marketing officer at Expedia Group.

I thought this bit was interesting: “AI has already transformed how we operate things like lifetime value modeling and bidding systems with more scientific precision. Now generative AI is providing scale in descriptive analytics.”

The bit around productivity within the marketing team also resonated: “Generative AI helps us produce content at scale—text, image, video, even for our brand ads. That’s a huge leap in productivity across our in-house marketing team.”

It may also have some more forewarning around UGC requirements at Expedia.

In even more Expedia news (they picked a good week to be fair) they are also doubling down on their B2B services.

New API’s available for cars, insurance and experiences are coming for their B2B customers. “Our newly announced APIs take that even further, making it easier for partners to access more supply and leverage our intelligence.”

As new innovators come into the market it is the easiest path to build on top of these API’s with different GTM strategies. The winner however is ultimately Expedia if it all then flows back to them.

Pope Leo chooses his Papal name because of AI

Not travel, but historically significant, the new Pope says he chose the name Leo XIV “to continue down the path of Pope Leo XIII, who addressed “the social question in the context of the first great industrial revolution.”

“In our own day, the church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence that pose new challenges for the defense of human dignity, justice and labor,” the new American pontiff said Saturday, speaking in fluent Italian.”

Its looking less and less like AI is just a hype machine?

Chinese building with DeepSeek

Whilst DeepSeek swept in and out of the news here in the West, in China they’ve got cracking on building with it.

Somehow I think AI guides and AI powered information will be more readily acceptable and voracious in their pickup than over in our sphere.

Chinese travel service and social networking platform Mafengwo's AI local guide initiative is also broadening its reach. “For example, the "ginger duck" AI in Fujian can effortlessly recommend hidden alleyway eateries, while its counterpart in Guizhou is well-versed in the best-kept secrets for enjoying spicy cuisine.”

Actually sounds pretty good and is making me a bit hungry.

Major newspaper in Australia uses AI generated image on its cover story without realising

I nearly spat my verbena when watching my favourite show Media Watch on the national broadcaster this week only for it to coincide with us here at AI + travel.

The story is that the papers (The Age and Sydney Morning Herald) went and got a really beautiful and colourful image from their 3rd party stock provider and planted it on the homepage without realising it was AI generated.

“Loathe it, or loathe it, it’s clear that photoshopped fakes and dystopian AI images are now rooting themselves into the industry of journalism and the impact may be as profound as it is disturbing.”

The paper made a public correction in their print versions and switched out the image in the online version.

Slop buyer beware.

BizAway acquires Aervio

A bit of acquisition action this week with “BizAway, the Italian scale-up leading the digitalization of business travel, announces the strategic acquisition of Aervio, one of the top TMCs in Spain.”

Seems BizAway wanted Aervio as its “specialized in artificial intelligence solutions for the business travel sector.”

Luca Carlucci, CEO and co-founder of BizAway said “In a sector undergoing constant transformation like business travel, artificial intelligence represents a key opportunity. However, we firmly believe that technology must go hand in hand with the centrality of the human factor, especially in assistance: we will continue to invest to offer the best service with empathetic, competent support tailored to the real needs of companies and travelers.”

Build or buy. There is always a choice!

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Marketplace Spotlight: MyTrip.ai

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I’ve priced for bootstrapped startups but also accepting larger companies too.

UN organises an AI Tourism conference for the Americas

UN Tourism, along with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism of Peru, has the pleasure to invite UN Tourism Members to the celebration of the 70th UN Tourism Regional Commission for the Americas and the Seminar: Artificial Intelligence and Tourism in the Americas. The Seminar will be held on 31 July, followed by the meeting of the Regional Commission on 1 August 2025, in Lima, Peru.

No news yet on who might be presenting.

Christian Watts would be up for a trip to Peru I’m sure!

Slack Group!

Podcasts and Sponsors

Podcasts now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts:

New podcasts are now showing up on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for your easy listening pleasure!

This week we caught up with Ed Morris from Equator AI and had a great chat about AI + big data and sustainability.

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Most clicked last week was the link to Microsoft’s demo of their conversational booking helper.

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