After 26 years with the company and 10 as CEO, Priceline recently announced that
Brett Keller would hand over the reins to Brigit Zimmerman in January.
In an interview in the PhocusWire studio at The Phocuswright Conference, Keller reflected on his time at the online travel agency (OTA), where he
has held several roles including CMO and COO.
His best advice for his successor was to surround herself with the best possible team and be sure to retain them, pointing to the longevity of Booking Holdings leadership team.
Keller went on to discuss how Priceline came close to failing after 9/11 but managed to reword its business model and come back stronger.
He also spoke about artificial intelligence (AI) as the next major platform shift after the internet, mobile and cloud. Priceline has built the infrastructure to deploy AI, he said, and Keller sees himself staying on the rapid pace of change.
Fully capable AI agents, meanwhile, are still a few years away but will reshape the distribution landscape, he added.
Keller also had some advice for new founders in the rapidly changing travel environment.
“Build something that solves a real world problem. If you're looking to just recreate the same thing that everyone else has with a different skin or a different rapper, especially higher up the funnel, when it comes to trip planning, trip research, those
are a dime a dozen. The majority of those never go anywhere,” he said.
“But the people who look deeper into the infrastructure and the systems and build products that either solve a problem that a supplier has, an OTA has or that the consumer is really struggling with, it could be just a micro segment of the industry, there's
a lot of opportunity there to help the overall infrastructure of travel to get better."
Watch or listen to the full interview below with PhocusWire’s Linda Fox:
The Phocuswright Conference 2025: Looking in the rearview mirror at Priceline