Hilton chief Chris Nassetta said the company plans to open its app to more of the large language models including Gemini and OpenAI in the coming weeks.
That said he doesn't see the distribution landscape changing in a significant way any time soon despite the rapid artificial intelligence (AI) developments.
During an analyst call to discuss the company's first quarter 2026 earnings, the president and CEO said Hilton is paying attention to AI initiatives from online travel agencies (OTAs) but said: "it will look a lot like it does over the next five years from now."
"I think on the margin though, if we do our job, AI allows us to be more efficient and more effective. That is code for continuing to build more direct lines to our customers. That’s where we have a terrific relationship with the OTAs, and we do a certain segment of our business with them, and I suspect we will for a very, very long time."
Nassetta added that Hilton's control of its inventory and ability to customize stays are assets in an environment where there are a number of winners across the search landscape.
"I think that puts us in a position where it gives us an advantage relative to what we’ve had to continuing to build more direct business. 80% plus of our business is already direct, so we’ve had a fair amount of success in doing that. I think on the margin, it helps in that regard. I don’t see that the whole system changes in a material way anytime soon."
He also spoke about leveraging the company's partnerships with Google, ChatGPT and Anthropic while boosting its direct loyalty-driven business and ensuring discipline across distribution.
Hilton unveiled an Anthropic-powered AI planner last month helping potential guests to find its hotels. At the time the company's SVP and CIO Michael Leidinger described the launch as just the beginning and “a preview of where we’re going."
On the earnings call Nassetta said the AI Planner should drive incremental demand "as customers book with us more often and more quickly."
Commenting on the potential for AI to impact operational expense and distribution, Nassetta said Hilton is "learning and iterating and doing different things and working with different partners in different ways."
"I think the opportunity gets more, not less interesting. I know that’s what you’d expect me to say, but I believe it to be true."
He went on to reiterate the three buckets that Hilton puts AI into from creating efficiency to its partnerships with the AI platforms and boosting the guest experience. Nassetta said company wants to show up across all the platforms and will soon open up its inventory beyond the Anthropic service.
He also described Hilton's tech stack as advanced, enabling it to take advantage of AI developments. He said the company had decided pre-COVID to "blow up all of our legacy architecture and make sure core systems were cloud-based, open source, microservices-driven, which means a totally modern tech stack that has incredible agility and the ability to have control."
The work means Hilton can do "unique" things for guests that others who are with "monolithic providers" can't do, he said.
"If you don’t have the flexibility and agility on a tech stack, the machine stops."
Hilton reported net income of $383 million in Q1 for the three months ended March 31, up from $300 million year over year. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $901 million, up from $795 million year over year.