How Expedia Is Reinventing Travel Through AI And Agentic Design

LeadershipCIO NetworkHow Expedia Is Reinventing Travel Through AI And Agentic DesignByPeter High,Contributor.Follow AuthorMay 29, 2026, 09:00am EDTExpedia headquarters in Bellevue, Washington.gettyExpedia Group is one of the world's largest online travel platforms, a 30-year-old marketplace that connects hundreds of millions of travelers with hundreds of thousands of partners across hotels, airlines, cruises and car rentals. The company operates a portfolio of brands including Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo, generating approximately $14.7 billion in revenue in 2025. It is, as Chief Technology Officer Ramana Thumu describes it, "a very exciting but very complicated business."Thumu joined Expedia Group 16 months ago, bringing more than two decades of experience scaling data-driven platforms at companies including Fanatics and eBay. His remit spans engineering, data, artificial intelligence, cloud platforms and cybersecurity. In a recent conversation, he discussed how Expedia is modernizing its technology foundation, deploying AI across both sides of its marketplace and reimagining what travel could feel like in the years ahead.Managing a Two-Sided MarketplaceThe complexity of Expedia's business stems partly from the dual nature of the platform. On the traveler side, Thumu's team applies data assets across the entire shopping funnel, from the homepage through booking and post-transaction service. "We put the right product and the right sort in front of them," he noted. On the supply side, integrating with hotel, airline, cruise and car rental partners requires solutions tailored to varying levels of technology maturity.Expedia CTO Ramana ThumuExpediaTo help partners act on marketplace signals more effectively, Expedia built an intelligence engine called Scout. It surfaces personalized merchandising and pricing recommendations through a simple interface, allowing partners to approve or pause suggestions with minimal effort. "We take...