Expedia Group (No. 2 on Travel Weekly's Power List) is pressing ahead amid the evolving artificial intelligence (AI) landscape, CEO Ariane Gorin told analysts during an earnings call Wednesday evening.
"As gen AI changes how travelers do trip discovery, it opens up new growth opportunities for us. We're working with all the major platforms to capture traveler demand, ensuring our brands show up prominently in AI searches and function effectively with agentic browsers," Gorin said during her prepared remarks. "And while volume is still small, every additional integration gives us data and learnings about how to better service our brands and how consumer behaviors are evolving."
Gorin said that these are learning opportunities, informing decisions on how to best integrate the technology into Expedia Group products. However, the "biggest long-term opportunity" is direct engagement, she said, with two thirds of bookings coming from travelers who start the planning process with Expedia Group brands.
"Those direct bookings are growing faster than bookings from indirect channels," Gorin said.
When asked about any traffic shifts from Google amid its ongoing AI rollouts, Gorin said the company is "not seeing material changes right now."
"We're working closely with Google and others as they're adapting their interfaces," she said, noting that Expedia Group is experimenting with answer engine optimization, native integrations and agentic browsers.
"AI search opens up even more possibilities to reach more travelers, and as there's more context in those searches, there's an opportunity for us to better target, and then as we bring those travelers into our ecosystem, to better convert."
The company is also working hard on this front for its B2B suppliers, Gorin said.
"We're doing the complicated work to help them drive demand to them through our business."
And while these partners can still generate business from Google or large language models, Gorin said Expedia Group provides the trust and brand recognition that builds value for B2B partners.
Gorin also briefly addressed a question about Expedia Group's acquisition of Tiqets, clarifying that it will be integral to both its B2B and B2C lines of business.
"We think it's a great value proposition to be able to extend what we're offering in B2B, but obviously ... their expertise is going to have an impact in B2C," she said.
Financial results
Both revenue and total gross bookings were up for the full year and in Q4 2025.
Last quarter, revenue was up 11% year over year to $3.5 billion, while total gross bookings were up 11% to $27 billion.
Expedia Group attributed growth in both areas to "strong execution and sustained market momentum." Both gross bookings and revenue were up 8% for the full year.
Booked room nights were up 9% year over year to 94 million in the fourth quarter. According to Scott Schenkel, Expedia Group CFO, this was due to "continued strength in the U.S. and sequential acceleration in EMEA, where B2C once again saw its fastest growth in nearly three years."
Growth in the rest of the world, however, slowed due to geopolitical issues in Asia that affected multiple quarters, Schenkel said.
B2B, in particular, continued to thrive, with Gorin telling analysts that both B2B and advertising "had stellar quarters."
B2B gross bookings grew 24% to $8.7 billion in Q4, recording double-digit growth in all regions.
B2C gross bookings totaled $18.3 billion, up 5% year over year in Q4 thanks to domestic and international momentum.
Adjusted net income grew 52%, while GAAP net income decreased 31% in Q4. Adjusted EBITDA was up 32% year over year to $848 million in the fourth quarter.
Direct sales and marketing expenses totaled $1.7 billion, up 10% year over year in Q4.
When asked about marketing strategies, Gorin told analysts that Expedia Group is using AI to make ads more effective "taking a more disciplined and data-driven approach to our marketing," grounding it in consumer insights.
Source: Phocuswire