Skift Take
The boon of artificial intelligence isn't a level playing field, and startups looking to stand out from the rush crowd have their work cut out for them.
The shift from desktop to mobile created new winners in various industries. Will the current innovations around artificial intelligence do the same? That's unlikely, according to Spencer Rascoff, co-founder of Zillow and CEO of 75 & Sunny Ventures.
Rascoff discussed the impact of AI on the travel industry in a conversation with Skift Editor-in-Chief Sarah Kopit at the Skift Global Forum.
Rascoff noted that legacy travel companies are quickly incorporating AI into their businesses. They already have large teams working on it and extensive data sets. That could limit opportunities for startups.
Rascoff also discussed the potential of AI in travel search, the challenges of regulation and local opposition faced by disruptive startups, and the changing expectations of consumers in the travel industry.
Watch the full interview with Rascoff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr7JouFHJXU Interview Transcript:Sarah Kopit: So, Spencer Rascoff, thank you for joining me.
Spencer Rascoff: Thank you for having me.
Kopit: This is my first onstage chat for Skift, so be nice.
Rascoff: Welcome to Online Travel.
Kopit: Thank you very much. So, I want to get your 30,000-foot view. That is my first, but surely not my only, travel pun of the day. I want to go and get big picture. So, our theme this year is Connection in the Age of AI. So, what do you think the big opportunity is for the travel industry with artificial intelligence?
Rascoff: Well, I thought the last conversation was a really good primer on how AI is going to impact travel. A couple of observations though, from my standpoint. Firstly, I've been impressed by how quickly the legacy incumbent leaders are moving and incorporating AI into their business. And it should really come as no surprise, in retrospect, because these companies already had huge teams of people working on AI; Booking and Expedia Group and Amex. These companies have hundreds, maybe thousands of people, that have been using AI for a decade, long before any of us heard of ChatGPT.
So, when AI became a thing six or 12 months ago, of course they had this enormous running start and they have larger data sets to train things on. So, I'm a little worried about the boom of startup funding in travel, or online real estate, or any of these verticals, because incumbents are moving very quickly. I'll contrast it with the shift from d