“B to AI” Marketing Emerges as Gen AI Reshapes the Travel Booking Landscape, Phocuswright Reveals

NEW YORK, United States – August 26, 2025 – The rise of generative AI and autonomous agents is fundamentally altering how travelers discover and book trips, pushing the industry toward a new “agentic era” where even marketing efforts will target AI systems directly. This key finding emerged from the third instalment of Phocuswright’s “New Agents Trend Series” webinar, which explored the profound impact of generative AI on travel distribution.

 

The session, moderated by Mike Coletta, Senior Manager of Research and Innovation at Phocuswright, and co-hosted by Norm Rose, Phocuswright’s Senior Technology and Corporate Market Analyst, brought together leading voices from across the travel sector.

 

Marketing shifts to “B to AI”

The experts discussed a new emerging trend – B to AI marketing – which was first used by Visa’s CMO.  This new term pointed to a future where marketing moves beyond business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) to business-to-AI (B2AI). This means travel companies will increasingly need to market to travelers’ AI agents, which will act as primary conduits for browse and purchasing.

 

AI agents directly influence booking channels

Platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini are already advising travelers on where to book, with examples showing recommendations to use local rental agencies over major platforms to save on service fees.  The growing integration of shopping and payment capabilities directly within these AI platforms will further empower them to guide booking decisions. Julie White, CCO of Europe and North Africa, Premium Midscale and Economy Brands at Accor, acknowledged the early stages of this disruption but underlined AI’s exciting potential to connect brands with customers where they want to shop. She stressed the importance of these new tools establishing trust, ensuring unbiased information, and delivering genuine value for money.

 

Massive infrastructure overhaul will be needed

Tom Underwood, Co-founder and COO at Bonafide, foresees “dramatic disruption” driven by AI’s ability to enable granular searches for specific attributes within hotel rooms and properties, moving beyond traditional date-driven searches. His startup is actively working with hotel brands to ensure their product information is accurate and readily consumable by AI systems.  But In a clip shared from The Phocuswright Conference 2024, Erik Blachford, former CEO of Expedia Group, had previously emphasized that the advent of personal AI agents will be the catalyst for a complete re-architecture of the existing travel tech stack, from Property Management Systems (PMS) right down to Global Distribution Systems (GDS).   This necessitates significant investment and adaptation across the industry. 

 

For suppliers, preparing content and systems to interact seamlessly with a multitude of diverse AI agents presents a significant challenge.  The need for common standards or “interpreter layers” for communication between different agents, akin to NDC in the airline industry, was identified as crucial.

 

Hyper-personalization… beyond price

The consensus among panelists was that AI agents, leveraging deep knowledge of user preferences, will drive a new level of “personalization on steroids.”  This shift promises to move beyond simple price comparisons to finding the “best value for the customer,” incorporating attributes and desired experiences over just the lowest cost.   Matthias Keller, Chief Product Officer at Kayak, highlighted the emergence of new digital “front doors” and the shift from displaying thousands of results to highly personalized recommendations.  Kayak’s launch of Kayak.ai reflects their commitment to playing a leading role in this evolving landscape.  He noted Kayak’s advantage in direct API and NDC connections, which could facilitate a more transactional approach within AI interfaces.

 

Building trust in AI

Finally, critical questions remain regarding how much trust travelers will place in AI-generated recommendations, ensuring unbiased advice, and how these AI agents will ultimately monetize their services.  The ideal scenario, where an agent acts truly in the traveler’s best interest without being swayed by ads or commissions, is a key concern.

 

Part 5 of The New Age(nts) Trend Series is about to be launched on September 17.  This episode – the ‘Convergence of GenAI with Digital Identity’ – will seek to understand GenAI’s impact on travelers’ personal information and ID, and what an AI-driven future could look like for both the traveler and the industry.