CHICAGO — Metasearch engine Kayak is taking a deeper dive into AI as it works to remain relevant in online travel.
Kayak launched Kayak.ai, which it describes as “our test lab for AI-first features that’ll make our product even more personalized and conversational.”
“We’re in its early days, testing and trying things out like only we know how. But for those obsessed with this tech — we’re happy to give you an opportunity to play around, too,” the company said.
Kayak is primarily recommending the new site for AI-obsessed users and travel hackers who are interested in the company’s most experimental products and features. It has a conversational query engine, similar to interfaces found on sites such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, and sharply different from the standard Kayak interface.
The company said that Kayak.ai is unique among AI tools because it is backed by Kayak data and because it alone offers real-time pricing in conversational search, rather than relying on cached data.
Kayak is already at least something of an AI veteran. Kayak.com uses AI for its comparative Price Check feature and for its Ask Kayak conversational feature. But it plans to use Kayak.ai to up its long-term AI game as the major AI engines evolve to become popular AI travel agents.
The site will help Kayak gain a fuller picture of its customers’ intentions and therefore provide more relevant results. The features that work best will be adopted by Kayak.com.
On stage on April 8 at the ATPCO Elevate conference in Chicago, Kayak CEO Steve Hafner said he can envision a time when many third-party travel sites disappear as shoppers take advantage of evolving transaction capabilities within the large AI engines.
ChatGPT Operator, a forerunner in what is known as agentic AI, can fill out fields and click buttons on other websites, giving it the ability to book travel.
Kayak is gearing toward developing agentic AI capabilities. And Kayak.ai will help fill in the knowledge gap. Hafner said the company could also thrive through partnerships supporting the primary AI engines. Kayak already has partnerships with Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT, but those could become much more encompassing.
“If you go to an AI site, ChatGPT, etc., and ask them a trial travel search query request, the AI could decide to go to 100 different suppliers individually and get answers or they could go to Kayak, which already has those connections,” Hafner said.
Such an approach, he added, would be more efficient and monetizable for AI companies.
For now, at least, Kayak’s primary focus remains servicing consumers directly, including with the knowledge Kayak.ai will provide.
“I think everybody wants to have user loyalty to their own sites and services. So, we’ll continue to invest most of our resources in that,” Hafner said. “But do we want to facilitate AI? Absolutely. Right now, it’s a side hustle. But could it be bigger than Kayak.com? Perhaps. It’s way too early to tell.”
Kayak is owned by Booking Holdings, No. 1 on Travel Weekly’s Power List.