When ChatGPT first hit the mainstream, it seemed to many
that the multibillion-dollar world of travel search marketing was about to
change overnight.Â
It didn’t turn out that way.
“When the whole ChatGPT thing exploded, I was very bullish
that this would be a massive disruptor because users would be so excited,” said
Mario Gavira, vice president of growth at online travel agency Kiwi.
“In fact, it didn’t move the needle at all or, if it moved
at all, it was marginal.”
The first major test of AI’s influence on search was when
Microsoft started plugging OpenAI’s GPT-4 into its search results in
February 2023. Back then, Bing had a
2.8% market share, compared to Google’s 93.4%. A year…