Booking Holdings Inc.BKNG

Google and AI-native competitors develop Gen AI-powered assistants and agents that may reduce traffic to Booking.

“We operate in highly competitive and rapidly evolving global markets for travel and restaurant reservation services. Barriers to entry are low, and we compete with online travel companies ("OTCs"), travel service providers offering direct booking (such as airlines, hotels, and rental car companies), traditional travel agencies and operators, companies offering travel-related software, payments, or technology solutions, financial services and credit card companies, and global technology companies with significantly greater scale, data, and financial resources. For example, Google links travel search to its dominant search engine and has integrated travel products into Google Maps and its Gemini generative AI ("Gen AI") offering. Other large technology platforms and AI-native competitors are developing Gen AI-powered assistants and agents that can search, compare, recommend, and facilitate travel and dining reservations directly within their search engines, operating systems, messaging platforms, or "super-apps." These offerings may reduce consumers choosing to visit dedicated online travel platforms, reducing direct traffic, bookings, and customer relationships. Gen AI also lowers barriers to entry and enables competitors to potentially replicate or improve core functionality, personalize recommendations and pricing, and acquire customers more efficiently through non-travel consumer interactions. AI agents may further evolve into full-service booking platforms, increasing comp”

Advanced Gen AI and agentic AI tools increase difficulty of managing cybersecurity attacks.

“We have experienced targeted and organized malware, phishing, and account takeover attacks, and may in the future experience these and other forms of attack such as ransomware, SQL injection (where a third party attempts to insert malicious input in order to gain control of the system), and attempts to use our websites as a platform to launch a denial-of-service attack on another party. Our existing security measures have not always been, and in the future may not be, successful in preventing attacks. For instance, we have incurred costs related to customer reimbursement and customer service, reputational harm, and lost revenue from fictitious listings and account takeovers. Our existing IT business continuity and disaster recovery practices are less effective against certain types of attacks, which could result in interruption of our services, data exposure, and extortion attempts. Reductions in the availability and response time of our services could cause loss of substantial business volumes and measures we may take to divert suspect traffic could result in the diversion of bona fide customers. These issues are more difficult to manage during any expansion of the number of places where we operate and the variety of services we offer, and as the tools and techniques used in such attacks, such as Gen AI or agentic AI become more advanced. We use advanced technology to identify cybersecurity threats; however, cyberattacks may go undetected for a period of time resulting in ha”

Announcements of Gen AI developments or agentic product launches.

“• announcements of Gen AI developments or related product launches, particularly relating to agentic capabilities;”

Booking Holdings lists companies offering Gen AI-powered AI agents as competitors.

“• companies offering AI agents powered by Gen AI via leveraging e.g., virtual assistants.”

Booking Holdings lists companies offering Gen AI-powered AI agents for travel services as competitors.

“• companies offering AI agents powered by Gen AI that can perform or facilitate travel-related services, such as virtual assistants.”