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Booking Holdings (BKNG) Ups Generative AI Game With Google

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Booking Holdings (BKNG - Free Report) is leaving no stone unturned to deliver enhanced travel booking experiences on the back of its growing AI efforts.

This is evident from the latest collaboration between one of its brands, Priceline and Alphabet’s (GOOGL - Free Report) Google Cloud.

Notably, the former is set to implement the latter’s generative AI capabilities across both customer-facing and internal parts of the business.

Priceline is developing its generative AI-powered travel assistant chatbot by leveraging Google Cloud's Generative AI App Builder. This chatbot, which will begin rolling out this summer, is being designed to help customers in multiple aspects of their travel planning and booking journeys via a conversational mode.

The chatbot will be able to answer any question related to trip planning and provide full assistance from research to booking trips directly within the chat experience.

In addition to the benefits for end customers, the latest move will also aid Priceline employees by providing access to internal information, for which it will utilize Google Cloud's Enterprise Search in Gen App Builder.

We note that the underlined deal creates a win-win situation for Booking Holdings and Alphabet.

BKNG is likely to gain solid momentum among travelers based on this conversational trip-planning initiative.

Also, Alphabet’s Google is witnessing growing adoption of its generative AI technologies.

Growth Prospects

Generative AI has created a niche in this data-driven world on the back of the growing proliferation of large language model (LLM)-based chatbots.

Moreover, chatbots have been captivating users by providing accurate and quick answers to complex questions.

Thus, the latest move is expected to aid BKNG in further strengthening its footprint in the online travel booking space as well as gaining momentum in the booming chatbot market.

Per a report from Grand View Research, the global online travel booking market is expected to witness a CAGR of 9% between 2022 and 2030.

According to an Allied Market Research report, the market is likely to reach $1.8 trillion by 2031, seeing a CAGR of 14.8% between 2022 and 2031.

A Precedence Research report indicates that the global chatbot market is expected to reach $4.9 billion by 2032, witnessing a CAGR of 19.3% from 2023 to 2032.

Booking Holdings’ growing prospects in these promising markets are expected to aid it in winning investors’ confidence in the near term.

Notably, BKNG has gained 34.4% in the year-to-date time frame, outperforming the industry’s 29.8% growth.

Ups Ante Against Expedia

With the latest generative AI efforts, Booking Holdings ups its game against its close peer, Expedia (EXPE - Free Report) .

Given the abovementioned growth opportunities, Expedia recently introduced a ChatGPT-powered in-app travel planning experience in collaboration with OpenAI.

The new experience enables open-ended conversation for Expedia members and aids them in planning an organized and cost-efficient trip.

Users can seamlessly check the availability of hotels and flights on the back of an easy conversation through the new experience. Further, they can add a car or cab facility to the trip.

Additionally, the ChatGPT experience will provide various recommendations on which places to visit, how to get around and what to see and do.

Zacks Rank & Another Stock to Consider

Currently, Booking Holdings carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Another top-ranked stock in the retail-wholesale sector is Rush Enterprises (RUSHA - Free Report) , carrying the same rank as that of BKNG.

Rush Enterprises has gained 9.7% on a year-to-date basis. The long-term earnings growth rate for RUSHA is currently projected at 15%.

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