Two futures for Siri in travel

Apple’s AI assistant may remain a planning layer—or evolve into a full-scale travel orchestrator controlling discovery and booking flows

Apple’s decision to embed Google’s Gemini models into Siri marks a strategic shift aimed at making the assistant more capable and competitive. For the travel industry, the move signals Google’s advance beyond traditional search into conversational, device-native discovery that could precede apps and websites. The key uncertainty is not intelligence but execution: whether Siri becomes a planning and information layer or evolves into a true booking agent. How Apple balances capability with privacy will determine whether travel brands retain customer touchpoints or are pushed further into the background.

Key takeaways

• Siri gains a professional-grade AI brain: Apple’s partnership with Google acknowledges that large-scale, advanced models like Gemini are needed to keep Siri relevant and competitive.
• Travel becomes the clearest test case: Embedding Gemini in iOS brings Google closer to the moment of intent, potentially before users ever open a browser, OTA app, or airline website.
• Scale favors disruption: Siri handles roughly 1.5 billion requests per day across more than 2 billion devices, dwarfing Gemini’s standalone usage and amplifying its potential impact on travel discovery.
• Utility matters more than intelligence: A smarter Siri only reshapes travel if it can move beyond summarization and retrieval toward multi-step, action-oriented workflows.
• Two futures for Siri in travel: Siri may remain an inspiration and reference tool that sends users elsewhere to book, or it may become a travel orchestrator that handles inventory, preferences, and booking flows.
• Privacy architecture is a limiting factor: Apple’s on-device and Private Cloud Compute approach may restrict memory, data retention, and multi-step interactions required for full agentic booking.
• Traffic erosion is the core risk for brands: Even without completing transactions, a capable Siri could answer enough questions to reduce clicks to airline, hotel, and OTA websites.
• Control of the interface equals control of value: If Siri evolves into a transaction layer, travel suppliers risk being relegated to back-end fulfillment behind another Google-powered interface.

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