When Daryl Lee walked on stage for his first public appearance as group CEO of Dida, he was only three days into the job, yet already crystal clear about what he had signed up for.
After eight years leading global expansion at WebBeds, Lee had made headlines for joining what many considered a fast-rising competitor. But as he put it, “Dida was never really a competitor. It’s been a client, a partner and a company I’ve admired for its speed, agility and execution.”
From admirer to insider
That admiration, he recalled, began years ago at a trade show.
“I was talking to one of their revenue guys about improving business. He wasn’t a tech person, but he pulled out his laptop—on terrible Wi-Fi—made a few changes on the spot and said, ‘Done.’ The results came almost instantly,” Lee said.
“In a multinational, that would have taken weeks of approvals and testing. That moment captured what makes Dida different—speed and empowerment.”
So when founder Rikin Wu, described affectionately as a “Teochew dynamo,” began eyeing global expansion, the conversation turned mutual. “I used to tell him, China is big, but the world is bigger. Eventually, he said, ‘Why don’t you come help us do what you say?’”
“So here I am,” Lee said.
AI’s real role: Empowering, not cutting
While many see artificial intelligence (AI) as a cost-cutting tool, Lee takes a contrarian view.
“In China, there’s a relentless pursuit of cost efficiency. But for B2B, the goal shouldn’t be cost cutting. It should be empowerment,” he said. “Our role is to help suppliers and distributors become better at what they do, to match, to connect, to enable.”
He reframed the AI conversation around what won’t change: “The only thing that won’t change is the bed. The hotel bed will still exist, everything else around it will evolve.”
From contracting and pricing to demand generation and discovery, he sees AI as a bridge between hotels and the next era of travel search.
“Think of how people discover travel now, through TikTok, through AI-powered search. Independent hotels don’t have the resources to adapt. That’s where B2B comes in, helping them market themselves in a new digital and AI-driven world.”
The next B2B battleground: Contextual data
Looking ahead, Lee sees contextual data as the biggest challenge and opportunity for intermediaries.
“When everyone has an AI agent who knows their preferences, how do you make sense of that data? How do you pass meaningful context to hotels so they can serve those travelers better?” he asked.
“The ability to collect, interpret and deliver contextual insights will define the next generation of B2B players.”
Trust, he added, will depend on how responsibly companies use that data. “Trust is earned by those who create it with data, not by talking about it.”
The end of the rate parity war
Lee also offered a surprisingly optimistic take on one of travel’s thorniest issues.
“I actually think pure rate parity will happen,” he said. “It’ll be too complex to play the game of different rates. Eventually, there will only be one rate that matters.”
But he stressed that differentiation will come from value, not price.
“What B2B can do is help hotels navigate fragmentation—of data, of platforms, of audiences—and create value through insight and connectivity.”
On the future: Evolution, not revolution
When asked whether B2B will still exist in 2045, Lee was optimistic but pragmatic.
“The GDS has survived 60 years,” he noted. “B2B will too but it won’t look the same. There’ll be consolidation, evolution and a new kind of specialization. The players who add real value will endure.”
Rapid fire: Robots, Hangzhou and an ‘All In’ AI future
In a rapid fire round, Lee gave short answers to a few key questions.
- Legacy system he’d erase: “Channel managers. Sorry, I just don’t see the value anymore.”
- If he could time travel to 2045: “Hangzhou—to see what Alibaba’s $70 billion AI investment has built.”
- How much Dida will spend on AI: “We’re finalizing our 2026 budgets. Internally, the philosophy is: no expense spared. I hope that means something.”
This story originally appeared on WiT.