Xavier Amatriain, Expedia Group's recently appointed chief artificial intelligence (AI) and data officer, announced on LinkedIn that he is hiring two “Distinguished Scientists” to help lead agentic AI strategy at the global online travel agency.
“We aren't just shipping wrappers; we are reimagining how travel works using the next generation of AI orchestration and reasoning,” Amatriain wrote.
As travel businesses rethink distribution and prioritize agentic capabilities, AI literacy is rapidly becoming a job requirement. This shift is prompting changes in the C-suite and beyond, with travel giants posting AI-related roles and expanding their engineering teams.
As of publication, several of the 300+ job listings on Expedia Group’s careers page have AI in the title, including Principal Designer, AI Experiences, Senior Manager, Productivity – Enterprise AI, Senior Product Manager, AI Builder Experiences. As part of this evolution, Expedia Group also announced a restructuring that included layoffs last month.
Other major players have similar listings for AI-focused roles. Booking.com is hiring for a Senior Machine Learning Scientist I – GenAI, Data & AI Governance Configuration Senior Specialist and an AI Engineer – Category Strategy Optimization Platform, FinTech.
Sabre, which recently restructured its leadership team to prioritize AI, is advertising Senior Software Engineer and Senior Data Science Engineer roles on LinkedIn. Meanwhile, Skyscanner is filling Principal Product Manager, AI Platform and Principal AI Conversation Designer positions.
“Every role and every company is going to have to change their hiring mindset in some way, shape or form,” said John Morhous, chief experience officer for Flight Centre Travel Group.
Failure to adapt to AI, particularly agentic forms, could have consequences, according to Expedia Group.
While discussing risk factors in its latest 10-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the online travel agency said that AI could escalate competition from established technology companies and new entrants.
“Any failure to effectively navigate this ‘agentic’ revolution could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations,” Expedia Group said.
AI and hiring
Flight Centre is prioritizing AI competency, seeking professionals who use AI for productivity, Morhous said. In some roles, such as software engineering, the company is looking for in-depth usage.
“We're absolutely hiring for it, and it's changing our process,” Morhous said.
At Skyscanner, CTO Andrew Phillips said the company is focused on a business-wide AI rollout that includes hiring.
All employees should be AI-literate and using AI tools, Phillips said, noting the AI initiative is focused on driving productivity and creativity. That needs to be balanced with critical thinking, human judgment and other skills.
We are updating our job roles specs to show the need for these skills to sit alongside what AI can do.
Andrew Phillips, Skyscanner
“We are updating our job roles specs to show the need for these skills to sit alongside what AI can do,” Phillips said.
Similarly, Travelport is prioritizing professionals who can apply AI and machine learning to enhance travel retail, improve customer service and boost efficiency, according to a spokesperson.
“Critical thinking remains essential, and we need people who can evaluate when and how to apply AI tools effectively, rather than simply using technology for its own sake,” the Travelport spokesperson said.
Because of the innate complexities of the travel industry, Travelport said it needs talent to connect traditional experience with emerging technology.
Proof in ROI, research
But regardless of whether strategies are shifting internally, AI needs to be considered during hiring, according to Filip Filipov, CEO of OAG.
He said his company is confident in its current strategy that prioritizes its product engineering and commercial functions. Specifically, the ROI on hiring AI-native product engineers has become clear.
“It would be a mistake not to hire someone who can do [10 times] the job they used to do before,” Filipov said. “Similarly, in commercial/sales, we see that as a B2B company, our enterprise-sales motion will require more, rather than fewer, people as software and data is still bought/sold by humans on both ends.”
More than 60% of travel businesses see their company culture as well suited for generative AI innovation, and six in 10 are scaling or experimenting with agentic AI, according to Phocuswright’s Budgets, Barriers and the Race to Agentic AI.
“2024 was the year everyone talked about the coming impact of generative AI,” the report reads. “2025 was when companies started wiring gen AI and agentic AI into real products and workflows. 2026 is when these technologies will hit escape velocity and create real competitive differentiation.”
AI-focused rewiring isn’t unique to travel. A March 2025 McKinsey Global Survey on AI revealed that half of survey participants working at organizations that use AI said their employers would need additional data scientists in the coming year.
According to Morhous, every new hire will be expected to be AI competent eventually. He compared the current situation to several decades ago when personal computers first became popular.
“When personal computers came out, you were probably hiring somebody who didn't know how to use a PC versus someone who was using a PC,” he said.
“That skill became slowly more and more necessary to the point now where you would never hire somebody who doesn't want to use a computer.”
Adaptability matters most
New technology doesn’t necessarily leave “old dogs” out of the game, according to Kurt Ekert, CEO of Sabre.
“I don't think it's age dependent,” Ekert said. “I think it's really an intellectual curiosity and an understanding of the output is what matters, not the input.”
Travelport also emphasizes the importance of an adaptive mindset. While it's keeping AI in mind while hiring, the company is looking for candidates with foundational skills who are willing to embrace new technologies.
I don't think it's age dependent. I think it's really an intellectual curiosity and an understanding of the output is what matters, not the input.
Kurt Ekert, Sabre
Internally, Travelport is investing in upskilling among current employees. The company is focused on giving their teams the tools necessary to stay “relevant, confident and prepared for future work,” its spokesperson said.
OAG and Skyscanner are doing the same.
Teams outside of the OAG’s product engineering and commercial verticals are receiving training and tools, according to Filipov.
Meanwhile, Phillips said all Skyscanner employees have the opportunity to use multiple AI platforms, regardless of job function. However, there’s a larger focus for engineers, who are expected to use AI in their daily work.
“This is about building shared capability, learning together, experimentation and increasing the impact we have for travelers,” Phillips said.
Engineering teams have reported a 23% bump in productivity while using gen AI and are shipping products more quickly as a result, Phillips said.
Rethinking recruitment
While Travelport is looking for AI-literate talent, it’s also using AI in its recruiting efforts.
“Our approach is to use AI to support efficiency and insight while ensuring decisions are owned or validated by a person, reflecting our broader commitment to deploying AI across the business thoughtfully, transparently and in ways that uphold our values and reinforce trust,” the spokesperson said.
And AI’s rapid evolution compounds the need to rethink hiring, even as the pace of change adds a layer of uncertainty.
“The speed of this is probably the most difficult thing to deal with,” Morhous said. That rate will compound the need to reassess how teams are hiring, he said.
“As AI changes the tasks and even some jobs, the focus on hiring for depth of expertise has shifted to hiring builders—people, who are intellectually curious to learn new skills and experiment with new tooling,” Filipov said.