Rapid fire with Paul Jacobs of Kayak

As we look forward to The Phocuswright Conference, taking place November 18 through November 20 in San Diego, PhocusWire is highlighting a number of conference speakers in a series of Q&As.

Paul Jacobs, general manager and senior vice president for North America and Asia Pacific for Kayak, is set to participate in a session on Thursday, November 20 titled “The Bridge Series: Leveling Up - Tech and Product for the Next 20.”

Below, Jacobs shares views on artificial intelligence (AI), what he’s working on at Kayak that excites him and how he personally uses AI on a day-to-day basis.

When we look back in five years time, what will be the biggest impact of AI?

Many brands, including Kayak, will deliver cool, new user-facing features powered by AI that will make travel planning, booking and servicing easier. Those gains will be incremental. Meanwhile, productivity gains from AI will be transformative.

Analytics, pricing and revenue management are great examples of where AI can analyze data quickly and deliver insights and recommendations. Some of the smartest people I know spend a lot of time analyzing data to answer simple questions as to what is going on under topline numbers and why. AI will deliver answers faster so more time and attention can be put toward what to do next. This should drive significant innovation.

What are you working on currently that excites you?

Earlier this year we launched Kayak.ai (think: Kayak data + ChatGPT in one platform) as a radical UX experiment  - we’re learning more by the day on how users engage with large language models (LLM). Next up we’ll be adding free-form search boxes to our front door. Instead of navigating our search forms for flights, hotels, cars and packages and then from there, choosing between our famously endless filter options, users can tell us in their own words what they’re looking for and our AI tools will deliver an answer. It sounds simple and that’s the beauty - it should be.

If you think about classic user experience principles, one I obsess about is comprehension time. When a user lands on an unfamiliar website or page, how long does it take them to figure out how to use it? Every site, brand or form you have to fill out differs from the last. But when AI is overlaid on every platform, I can navigate it my own way.

What do you think are the greatest challenges the industry faces?

An obvious one is how to drive a return in a reasonable timeframe from massive AI investments. But, another is price transparency. The travel industry has built its P&L off of low-leading price offers that come with additional fees and up-sells. As regulators continue to step in and put more guardrails around transparency - which is a win for travelers - many brands will need to take a hard look at how they continue to compete and differentiate when upfront pricing becomes less obscure. 

How are you personally using AI in your day-to-day work?

Much of my job is communication - internally at Kayak and externally with partners. I think I’m pretty well spoken, but I have reluctantly started having AI rewrite things for me. Turns out, I can be shorter and punchier.

Who are you most looking forward to hearing speak at the conference and why?

I’m looking forward to hearing from our many friends in the industry who will be speaking, but I enjoy the startup presentations the most. We can learn as much or more from the new disruptors as the titans. I love hearing what they think is broken or untapped and the new ideas they bring to the table. Thanks to PCW for providing such a great platform to do so.