Kayak and Expedia, two of the largest companies in travel booking, said that personalization and changing search patterns mean travel companies can rely on agents to make travel inspiration a reality. Matthias Keller, chief product officer at Kayak, said the company has been experimenting with this idea for a couple of years, even taking advantage of a partnership with Amazon’s Alexa. While the idea of an agent proactively guiding potential travelers makes for efficient trip planning, Expedia CTO Ramana Thumu noted that there is a delicate balance to strike. One reason this balance becomes essential is that, increasingly, consumers find travel inspiration everywhere. For one of its AI projects, Expedia decided to capitalize on the growing influence of travel influencers who post their trips on Instagram. Thumu said Expedia’s Trip Matching feature, which launched in June for U.S. customers, allows people to send any travel-related public Instagram Reel to Expedia, and the platform can build an itinerary based on them. Thumu said Expedia can build this type of AI product because of its extensive database amassed over 30 years. Both Thumu and Keller underscored the importance of data in building out these personalizations, a task that can be challenging. Personalization can go beyond planning a trip based on inspiration or previous preferences, as Keller said; eventually, their platforms and AI agents can also start recommending things to do based on the weather in your planned location during your stay.