TravelAI™, An UpNext Company

International Women's Day may have passed, but supporting and celebrating women should be done year-round. https://lnkd.in/gFXpDgnz Sally Bunnell, Brianna MacNeil, Laura Di Costanzo, Verónica de Íscar Alonso, Luisa Oyarzábal Gómez-Reino, Judith Eyck, Vivien Schwarz-Elbelazi, Ayse YASAR, Consuelo Arias

At TravelAI, we're navigating these waters daily. The line between aggregator, agent, and assistant is blurring fast. The platforms that embrace this evolution (rather than resist it) will likely emerge stronger. Have you tried any AI travel planning tools yet? What's been your experience with them? And for our industry colleagues - how are you approaching this shift? https://lnkd.in/dG_fkTNV

I had posted a few days ago about the second place finishing team from our Agentic hackathon. 🤖 However, I would be remiss if I also didn't cover our first place team. This group built a suite of AI Agents to automate our domain purchase process and help identify anomalous transactions for our next brand, helping automate a time-consuming (yet essential) part of our business. Yes, maybe I was a little biased as they targeted myself as the end user, interviewed me about my pain points, then got to work hacking. For those who know me (and my partner Chris Jensen), we have a history in Domaining, thanks to Kevin Ham and several others along our journey who taught us the intrinsic value of a great asset. [Thanks Kevin!] The best domain names communicate your value proposition easily. There is a reason why we are TravelAI.com. When people who don't know our business see the name and domain, they know we do things in Travel AND Ai ... and recognize the value of the brand. Our start in travel ✈️ was when we were building and managing Villa(s).com on behalf of the owner. Selling the asset propelled us into the travel market for the next dozen years and our share gave us the funding to build our first platform in the space. Doing marketing into the best domain name lowers cost of acquisition in paid search campaigns. While no longer a ranking signal directly, the good domain names focus user intent, and that intent and engagement IS a ranking signal. I am thinking about this more today as we just acquired SkiHotels.com this afternoon, and I am really excited about this one. It was purchased in a private transaction and I am not afraid to reveal the price I paid... USD$14,000. I think I got a great deal. Why? Well, it goes back to a lesson that Kevin taught me circa 2007 about the value of a great domain name. At the time, we were at a domain auction in NYC and he had just spent ~$150k [I think] on the domain MegaYachts.com [edited]] It was my first week on the job, and I was floored! He said to me... "Think about the value of one luxury yacht? If you can influence the purchase decision on one yacht, what is the value of that?" That lesson stuck with me. So with SkiHotels.com, we get several bookings daily for people booking hotels at ski resorts around the world. In fact, we had one high-value transaction seconds ago for Belle Plagne, France, that generated $900 in commissions from a single booking. While Ski Hotels are not Luxury Yachts, I would guess that more people stay in a hotel at a ski resort than buy a luxury yacht (Quick GPT research: IBIS World says the USA ski and snowboard resorts market was valued at USD 4.2 billion in 2024...while IMARC Group says the USA Luxury Yachts market was USD$3.3 billion]. Which goes back to the hackathon: AI Agents that automate the research, availability, semantic understanding, external signals, and measure it against our performance... this will save us time and make us money. Awesome.

When we had our AI Agent hackathon last month, one of the teams built a voice agent that did call outs to potential hires (in Bangla no less), assisting the HR team in their efforts to optimize a time-consuming process of speaking with candidates. In their presentation, they argued hundreds of 10-minute calls could be automated and hours saved per candidate. It was a very well done pitch (and all done by interns!). The pitch did almost everything right: they had talked to their customer (internal recruiters), they demonstrated Agent-to-Agent interactions, they pushed the envelope, they related it back to the economic efficiency created and dollars saved. The team received a well-deserved second place once judged. However, there was one thing that I noticed that I have seen repeated in others too... Let's call it "Old World Thinking". The team was saying what could be done by the single recruiter (taking 12 hours) could be replaced by a single AI agent that works for 4 hours. I asked a relatively basic question, "Rather than a single agent, why don't we have a dozen Ai Agents , one hundred Agents, or one for every candidate?" In an Agentic world, you are no longer constrained to sequential tasks and can do, as Paul Graham famously said, "Do things that can't scale." We are just beginning to understand the benefits of Agents and Agentic Networks. This is the world of plenty, and I can hardly wait to see what happens next.

Checkout our new homepage - https://www.travelai.com/ Always nice to see we're on the right track when one of the largest players in travel is bullish on what we're focused on: https://lnkd.in/gxmME24p

💡 The way we book travel is broken—endless searches, overwhelming choices, and hidden biases. But a shift is happening. The rise of AI-powered Agents is transforming travel from a frustrating process into a seamless, intelligent experience. At TravelAI, we’re building an Agentic Network for the travel industry—an autonomous AI layer that anticipates what you need, negotiates on your behalf, and reshapes the way travel works. The future of travel isn’t search. It’s AI that works for you. This is The Third Voice. #ai #thirdvoice #aiagents

Catching up on assorted podcasts and they all seem to be talking about Jevons’ Paradox, so I started to learn more. I found it interesting, so I thought I would share as I found it was also supporting a core hypothesis that I have relating to travel: "The more efficient travel becomes, the more people will travel." **What is Jevons' Paradox?** In 1865, economist William Stanley Jevons made an interesting observation: when coal-powered steam engines became more efficient, coal consumption actually increased rather than decreased. This is now now known as Jevons’ Paradox—when something becomes more efficient and cheaper to use, demand often grows instead of shrinking. Most of the Podcasts I have been listening to are AI-centric and AI Is Proving Jevons Right AI is supposed to make things more efficient. It automates tasks, reduces costs, and improves decision-making. You’d think that means companies would use less human effort, less compute power, and less data—but the opposite is happening. 🤖 AI makes content creation easier → Companies create exponentially more content. 🤖 AI makes ad targeting more precise → Companies increase ad spend because ROI improves. 🤖 AI reduces the need for manual customer service → Businesses use chatbots to engage with even more customers. Rather than reducing our dependence on AI, efficiency fuels more use cases, more investment, and more adoption. Travel itself has many examples of Jevons Paradox, where efficiency has led to more demand, not less. ✈️ Cheaper Flights → More Trips Low-cost carriers, optimized pricing, and AI-driven fare predictions have made flights more affordable. But instead of taking one big trip a year, people now take multiple shorter trips. ✈️ Better Booking Tech → Extended Stays & Upgrades AI-powered platforms (like what we are building TravelAI™, An UpNext Company) remove friction in searching, filtering, and booking accommodations. Travelers don’t just find a place—they extend their stays, upgrade to premium experiences, and book more often. ✈️ Faster Processes → More Weekend Getaways Visa automation, airport AI, and seamless digital payments have made travel easier and faster. The result? More spontaneous trips, last-minute flights, and travel becoming part of everyday life, not just special occasions. Our big mission is to get more people traveling and travel better. When travel is more efficient, the consumer is the end beneficiary. But they don't put the savings into their pocket, they travel more. In other words, efficiency doesn’t necessarily reduce demand—it expands the market. As friction disappears and costs drop, people consume more, not less. For businesses, I guess the question isn’t “Will AI make travel more efficient?”—because it absolutely will. The real question is: How do we capture the increased demand that efficiency unlocks?

We were invited to submit to The Forbes AI 50 and are excited to see the latest list when it's ready. Interesting to note how prominent fund raising was as a metric last year. The big numbers are impressive, but we wonder how other metrics (revenue, users, profit, etc) will be valued this time 🤔

✈️ The future of travel is arriving faster than you think... and it will be powered by the convergence of 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗜 and 𝗗𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘆. 𝗜𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱, 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗔𝗜 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵, 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗹, 𝗮𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘀. What will be impacted most? 🔹 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 - Travel companies will deploy AI agents to handle everything from customer service to sales, reshaping the workforce. 🔹 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗻-𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 - AI tour guides, real-time translation, and smart glasses will change how we explore. 🔹 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 - OTAs or suppliers may gain favor as AI-driven agents begin booking travel autonomously. 🔹 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 - Between Google’s AI Overviews and the increasing popularity of GenAI search tools, traditional SEO and ads are under threat. 🔹 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗱𝗶𝗴𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘆 - Digital wallets storing traveler preferences, loyalty status and payment details will enable AI agents to personalize and book seamlessly. 💡Phocuswright'𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁, 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙡 𝙄𝙣𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙏𝙚𝙘𝙝𝙣𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙮 𝙏𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙨 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱, 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗼𝘂𝘁.. 📩 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁, 𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀? 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜’𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗱! 1️⃣ 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 “𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗔𝗴𝗲(𝗻𝘁𝘀)” 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗼𝘄 2️⃣ 𝗜𝗳 𝘄𝗲’𝗿𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱, 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝗼 𝗜 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸 I'll send you the link ASAP. P.S. don’t forget to follow Phocuswright for lots more free travel industry insights. #TravelTech #TravelTrends #AI #DigitalIdentity #Phocuswright #NewAgents #FutureOfTravel 

It is amazing how quickly time flies when you are having fun. Now that I am back and (mostly) over the jetlag, I can reflect on my around-the-world journey to meet with our teams in Dhaka and Manila. I shouldn't be surprised at the talent we have assembled. Great work by my partner and friend Rakib Islam for pulling together such a passionate team all committed to making travel better. And here is a quick note on how much we've grown in a year. #LetsGo https://lnkd.in/deWQ9XqD