Expedia’s AI-driven marketing shift

How rapid AI adoption is reshaping marketing strategy, team culture, and experimentation at scale

Expedia Group is significantly expanding its use of AI to improve marketing effectiveness, traveler engagement, and internal productivity. The company is embracing generative AI platforms as new distribution channels while transforming its SEO approach toward answer engine optimization and organic traffic strategy.

Internally, AI accelerates creative production, improves experimentation velocity, and supports decision-making—while requiring a strong focus on accuracy and reliability. Leadership emphasizes curiosity, adaptability, and a growth mindset to navigate rapid change and maintain competitive advantage.

Key takeaways

• Generative AI as a distribution channel: Travelers increasingly use AI-powered answer engines for inspiration and booking, prompting Expedia to meet customers directly where search is evolving.
• Scaled AI-driven creative production: Expedia uses AI across text, images, video, and audio to increase production speed and improve advertising effectiveness while maintaining authentic travel storytelling standards.
• Organic traffic beyond traditional SEO: Search behavior is evolving toward LLM-based retrieval, requiring an expanded answer engine optimization strategy and ongoing experimentation in both SEO and LLM environments.
• AI systems must be reliable: Accuracy remains a core challenge, as hallucinated explanations undermine trust and require manual verification, slowing adoption.
• Mindset over skillset: Curiosity, adaptability, and a growth mindset are more valuable than subject matter expertise in a rapidly changing marketing environment.
• Empowering teams through experimentation: Cross-functional squads, transparent learning from failures, and velocity-focused testing help accelerate innovation without compromising risk management.
• AI unlocks higher-value work: Automating creative visualization and analysis allows teams to make faster decisions, reduce meetings, and focus on strategic priorities.

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