Booking Holdings Slashes Customer Service Costs by 10% with AI Despite 10% More Bookings

How AI is Revolutionizing Customer Service at Booking Holdings

Generative artificial intelligence has enabled Booking Holdings to achieve a significant milestone: reducing customer service costs year over year while handling 10% more bookings. This breakthrough was announced by Booking Holdings Chief Financial Officer Ewout Steenbergen during the company's quarterly earnings call.

The Numbers Tell the Story

Steenbergen revealed that the customer service cost per booking dropped by 10% year over year, a tangible result that counters the common criticism that AI benefits aren't showing up in financial statements.

"I think a colleague CFO said during a call last quarter, 'Gen AI is everywhere except for in the P&L [profit and loss statement],'" Steenbergen noted. "I'm very proud that we can point to a line item in the P&L where we actually do have meaningful results on the efficiency basis."

Booking Holdings' AI-Powered Platforms

The company's travel and related platforms benefiting from these AI implementations include:

• Booking.com
• Priceline
• Agoda
• Kayak
• OpenTable

Beyond Cost Savings: Improved Customer Experience

The company has also seen encouraging metrics around its first implementation of agentic AI. While the numbers are still small, the results are promising.

"More engagement from our traveler customers, faster search, better conversion, lower cancellation rates and positive customer satisfaction are a couple of things we're seeing," Steenbergen reported.

AI Tools Deployed in 2025 and Beyond

Booking Holdings rolled out several generative AI and agentic AI tools in 2025 and continues this expansion in 2026, according to CEO and President Glenn Fogel. The latest additions include tools to serve both customers and partners.

The AI-powered capabilities implemented in 2025 include:

• Natural language search to help customers discover and plan trips
• Smart filters and summaries to help customers make more informed booking decisions
• AI agents that provide better, faster support

Strategic Positioning for the AI Future

"Based on our learnings, in 2026 we will focus on further connecting these agentic capabilities to offer a more unified and personalized experience, deploying the technology in the places where it can have meaningful impact for customers and partners," Fogel explained.

Booking Holdings has also positioned itself strategically by partnering with several leading AI companies to accommodate changes in how customers discover travel options.

"As general-purpose LLMs [large language models] increasingly create new top-of-funnel entry points for travel, and generative AI drives increased global online participation and spend, our proactive engagement with major technology and AI players is positioning us to meet whatever level of demand ultimately migrates from traditional search firms to horizontal LLMs," Fogel stated.

This forward-thinking approach ensures Booking Holdings remains competitive as AI continues to transform the travel industry and customer service landscape.