AI booking push continues despite OpenAI strategic shift

Despite OpenAI's shift away from Instant Checkout, AI-driven travel booking continues to advance. AI platforms are taking different approaches: OpenAI focuses on discovery, Google leverages its ecosystem, and Perplexity experiments with owning the transaction layer. Chinese OTA Fliggy enables direct bookings through Alibaba's Qwen app, processing over 200 million AI-native shopping orders during Spring Festival. Experts believe fully autonomous AI bookings remain a long-term goal, with trust and interoperability as key challenges.