Expedia AI Chief Xavier Amatriain on Trust, Agents, and the Future of Travel — Exclusive

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Travel AI has a problem that general-purpose chatbots don’t: A recommendation is only useful if the price is real, the room exists, and the traveler can act on it. That is where Xavier Amatriain sees Expedia Group’s opening.

Amatriain joined the company as its chief AI and data officer in December 2025, and brings experience from Google, Netflix, and healthcare AI. But in his view, travel combines those worlds in a way that makes the problem harder: personalization, live inventory, and transactions all have to work together.

He sat down with Skift at Expedia Explore in Las Vegas for his first media interview since joining the company. The conversation covered how Expedia evaluates AI accuracy, why it’s building specialized agents instead of one large model, and how the company is trying to turn travel-specific data, trusted inventory, and partner relationships into an AI adv