Booking Holdings Inc (BKNG)

[US Market News]

KAYAK Launches Ask AI to Simplify Travel Planning Just in Time for the World Cup

April 23, 2026 3:51 PM
PR Newswire (US)

Conversational AI meets real-time travel search as travel interest surges across World Cup host cities

NORWALK, Conn., April 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- KAYAK today introduced Ask AI, a new conversational travel planning experience designed to help travelers search, compare, and book trips more easily, as interest surges ahead of this summer's World Cup.

Building on KAYAK's mission to make travel search more personalized and conversational, Ask AI is an industry first that lets travelers start planning their trip in a chat—while flight, hotel, and rental car results update live alongside the conversation, combining the ease of AI with the power of a traditional results page.

Launching just as travel interest ramps up around the World Cup, Ask AI arrives at a time when travelers are planning more complex, multi-city trips. KAYAK data already shows a 23% increase in flight searches to U.S. host cities compared to last summer, with prices and availability expected to shift quickly in the months ahead.

"After launching our first natural language search experience in October, we saw that travelers increasingly turn to AI to begin planning, but still depend on traditional search and filters to evaluate options and book with confidence," said Matthias Keller, Chief Product Officer at KAYAK. "Ask AI is the next evolution, combining both in a single, seamless user experience."

Plan Your Trip with Ask AI
Whether you're traveling to one match or several, Ask AI helps you move from inspiration to booking in one continuous experience. Search for hotels near a stadium, compare flights between host cities, or build your full itinerary—all without switching tabs.

With Ask AI, travelers can:

• Ask questions using natural language and refine their trip in real time
• Chat while results update live alongside the conversation
• See up-to-date prices and bookable options from hundreds of travel partners

No restarting searches or juggling tabs—just a faster, more intuitive way to plan and book travel.

Tracking World Cup Travel Trends in Real Time

KAYAK is also launching a new dashboard to track how fans are planning trips around the World Cup. Powered by KAYAK's search and pricing data, it highlights rising travel interest, shifting prices, and the destinations seeing the biggest spikes in interest.

Early trends show:

• Kansas City is emerging as a breakout destination, with flight searches up 168% year-over-year
• Hotel prices are climbing across all host markets: up 36% in the U.S., 55% in Canada, and 119% in Mexico
• Germany, the United Kingdom and Colombia are the top 3 countries searching for flights to the U.S. during the tournament

Together, Ask AI and the World Cup Trends Dashboard help travelers plan and compare trips with real-time data, making it easier to make informed decisions as prices and interest change.

About KAYAK
KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), is a leading travel search engine. With billions of queries across our platforms, we help people find their perfect flight, stay, rental car and vacation package. Trusted by millions of travelers, the KAYAK app makes travel planning seamless on iOS and Android and we also support business travelers with our corporate travel solution.

Methodology
Based on flight and hotel searches made on KAYAK in the period between 12.5.2025 and 4.12.2026 for travel between 6.10.2026 and 7.20.2026. They were compared to searches made in the period between 12.5.2024 and 4.12.2025 with the travel period between 6.10.2025 and 7.20.2025. Percentages for changes in searches and pricing are approximate.

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SOURCE KAYAK

Original: KAYAK Launches Ask AI to Simplify Travel Planning Just in Time for the World Cup