Booking Holdings Uses Generative AI Assistants to Cut Costs and Boost Bookings

Booking Holdings, whose brands include Booking.com, Priceline, Agoda, Kayak and OpenTable, is expanding generative AI beyond travel search into planning, booking and customer service. If large language models can complete transactions directly, they could improve conversion rates while reducing interactions with human agents and lowering customer-service costs per booking.

During its first-quarter earnings call on April 28, 2026, Booking Holdings said early tests of Priceline’s Penny showed that users who interacted with the assistant booked at a significantly higher rate than nonusers. Agoda’s customer-service cost per booking fell by a double-digit percentage year on year, while OpenTable’s AI Concierge could answer 80% of diners’ questions when it launched in July 2025. First-quarter gross bookings rose 15% from a year earlier to $53.8 billion.