Expedia Group is ringing in its 30th birthday as one of Seattle’s homegrown tech heavyweights, and it is celebrating by doubling down on artificial intelligence in almost every corner of the travel experience. The company started 2026 on a high note, reporting roughly $3.43 billion in first-quarter revenue and operating income near $251 million, and executives are banking on AI to turn more casual browsing into firm bookings while smoothing out customer service along the way. That strategy leans on product pilots, partner integrations, and a fresh focus on data and trust as Expedia tries to stay in front of a new wave of AI-first travel rivals.
CEO Ariane Gorin told The Seattle Times that Expedia is still “in the early innings” of AI and has convened an internal advisory board to set guardrails around privacy and accuracy. She framed the AI push as part of a broader move to make the company more traveler-centric, while openly acknowledging risks such as hallucinations and unreliable suggestions that could quickly erode the trust it depends on.
Those ambitions are sitting on top of solid numbers. In its Q1 2026 earnings release, Expedia Group reported $3.426 billion in revenue and $251 million in operating income, along with double-digit bookings growth. B2B revenue climbed about 25% year over year, while consumer revenue rose roughly 8%, giving the company more room to invest in the next phase of its tech.
How Expedia Is Using AI
Expedia has been threading generative models into search tools, customer support and partner platforms. According to GeekWire, more than 30% of the company’s self-serve customer interactions are now handled by AI instead of human agents. The company has piloted natural-language search on Vrbo so travelers can type in conversational requests, and it is auto-generating conversation summaries in multiple languages to speed up agent handoffs and cut down training time.
Distribution: The Uber Tie-In
On the distribution side, Expedia is buying itself a bigger storefront. Uber announced at its GO–GET event that it will plug Expedia hotel inventory into the Uber app for U.S. users, opening access to more than 700,000 properties and teasing Vrbo listings later this year. Uber’s press materials also say the companies plan to bring Uber rides into the Expedia app starting in June, creating a two-way funnel between rides and stays that could change where and when travelers first stumble across a hotel or vacation rental.
Gorin, who joined Expedia in 2013 and moved to Seattle after being named CEO, has described AI as a long-term “third chapter” for the company and has stressed disciplined execution instead of flashy one-off demos, according to Fortune. Expedia has also leaned into its own research on consumer behavior. The company’s AI Trust Gap report finds that many travelers are comfortable using chatbots to plan a trip but still prefer established brands when it is time to actually book, a tension Expedia says it wants to address with its privacy and accuracy guardrails.
Big Market, Big Stakes
The backdrop is a massive global market. International visitor spending hit about $2.02 trillion in 2025, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, which helps explain why travel platforms are racing to control more of the booking funnel. Expedia’s approach, pairing AI-heavy product work with distribution deals and partner tools, is aimed at capturing a larger share of that demand without ceding traveler loyalty to third-party AI agents.
What happens next will hinge on a few key tests: whether Expedia’s AI pilots actually lift booking conversion rates and margins, how the Uber integration performs once it rolls out at scale, and whether the company can shrink the trust gap it has already identified. For Seattle, the outcome will help define not just the next chapter of a global travel brand, but also the trajectory of the local tech ecosystem that powers much of Expedia’s product and engineering work.
