Google drops a podcast on using AI to make ads - but are they the best ads?

Google this week dropped a podcast talking about how brands and businesses can use AI to make ads.

As they rightly point out “Creative is often the most time-consuming part of an ad campaign — and its ability to make or break your success is as relevant as ever.”

AI is definitely fast. But is it good? I think the answer to that is….. it depends on who is using the AI & how they are using it.

“AI makes it easy to generate creative assets quickly, but that speed can’t come at the cost of accuracy, brand loyalty or performance.”

As Google owns one of the two ad delivery service most people use, the podcast is definitely worth a listen.

When it comes to the other ad delivery system most people use, Meta, I’d like to offer a different solution that we have seen many Videreo customers adopt. It works simply as follows:

1. Run gifted campaigns with professional creators who target your audience. (A gifted campaign is one where you swap your product/service for the creators - so a tour for a post or room nights for a post. No cash changes hands).

2. Find winners that perform strongly organically

3. License that winning content into ads

This system tests the content on the platform the ad will run, to gather performance information upfront.

There is no guesswork here.

Just promote the winners to have your ads perform better.

Videreo is the place to find the creators to create authentic tested as creatives for your business.

Contact me to learn how we can make this happen for you.

This content is provided by the newsletter sponsor Videreo.com

Long Lake takes a $6.3B AI bet on AMEX GBT

News this week that Long Lake has offered AMEX GBT shareholders $6.3B to take the company private. This is a 60% premium on where the stock was trading and is an all-cash deal.

Why the juicy deal?

AI.

Long Lake believes that AI will transform the way business travel is booked and managed so fundamentally that this is a good bet.

“Long Lake's pitch is the idea that AI can fundamentally transform how corporate travel operates; the company has built a platform it calls Nexus to pursue that goal and has assembled a portfolio of services-sector companies along the way.”

“"The future of business travel will be defined by AI and human agents working seamlessly together on behalf of every traveler," Long Lake co-founder and CEO Alex Taubman said in a statement.”

TMC’s are such an interesting space for a number of reasons IMO. Companies who are paying for the travel can call the shots. The existing processes are laborious but do have an existing structure (policies, preferences, preferred relationships, reporting) that AI can work with. And I think generally, people are more functional in their choices on business travel than they are with leisure travel, where they are pickier or price sensitive.

Here the planning and booking really is a pain because its not your core work and also takes time away from core work.

It is here we will see AI agents working right through the process including making the booking. This will train those in companies using TMC’s to trust agent booking processes and also train agents in a safer environment to do the work well. All this is the forebearer to what will come in leisure later - so keep watching here.

Booking’s 5 point AI agent plan you can steal

Booking this week were the feature case study in an article about actual effective use cases of AI agents.

The case followed the AI agent they have built that sits between user and property communications - specifically when customers were asking a question. Obviously getting the answer fast here is the key if you want to get the booking.

The old way - the property gets the message there is a question via email, presumably needs to log in somewhere and then answer the question. Answering questions over email is generally not that person’s only job. It is probably their least loved job. And so the question hangs.

Booking used these 5 steps to know this was the area to go after:

1. Identify a real business challenge

   • Don’t deploy agentic AI for hype; target a specific pain point where automation can measurably improve speed, accuracy, or customer experience.

2. Build the right data and AI infrastructure

   • Successful agents rely on integrated data platforms, orchestration tools, AI models, and seamless UX embedded into existing workflows.

3. Start with human-in-the-loop assistance

   • Begin by using agents as copilots that suggest actions while humans retain final approval to build trust and reduce risk.

4. Increase automation as trust grows

   • Once confidence and performance improve, gradually allow agents to take autonomous actions for repetitive or low-risk tasks.

5. Continuously optimize and expand use cases

   • Production AI requires ongoing tuning for latency, accuracy, and satisfaction — while using lessons learned to unlock additional agentic opportunities.

Properties engaging the agent seemed satisfied with a rating of 73% satisfaction boost.

Numbers on consumer satisfaction were not recorded - but for sure Booking is counting growth in bookings from people asking questions as the only measure that matters here.

Humanoid robots are now loading planes

In this video you can watch a humanoid robot help load cargo onto a plane and then give a colleague a very human wave.

“Japan Airlines (JAL) will start using humanoid robots in ground handling tasks at Tokyo's Haneda airport from May, in a two-year trial it said is aimed at easing employees' workload.”

According to the article, this to help a need because “Japan's aviation industry is wrestling with a labour crunch brought on by an increase in inbound tourism and a declining working-age population, said JAL, which employs some 4,000 ground handling staff.”

In this case AI has come to take the job no-one else wanted (it seems).

New data on AI investment in travel

New data from TravelTech Show reveals 64% of travel operators plan to increase AI investment in the next 12 months in the hope it will improve customer experience, increase loyalty and booking conversions, and cut costs. 

More than a fifth (21%) of the 103 respondents surveyed intend to double their AI spend. A further 31% will increase AI budgets by up to 20%. And they want this investment to positively impact their businesses by:

• 32% - Improving customer experience and enhancing customer loyalty

• 18% - Increasing booking conversion rates

• 16% - Reducing costs

   

TravelTech Show is Europe’s only travel technology marketplace, built for business. It takes place 24-25 June 2026 at Excel.

Who’s going?

If you think someone (or everyone) you know or work with could grow from being more informed on the topic of ai + travel (or could use the training above) then please forward this email to them and they can click the button below:

Marketplace Spotlight: TravelAI

In huge news, TravelAI this week announced it had picked up two new executives - one being the second ever podcast guest on the Everything AI in Travel podcast - Shie Gabbai.

Shie was the founder of RoamAround, one the very first ever AI trip planners to emerge not long after OpenAI exposed its API’s letting people build from their imaginations on top of the companies AI capabilities.

RoamAround was then snapped up by Layla in I think the first AI company exit in travel (that I can remember.)

Now Shie joins TravelAI as Director, AI Experience where he will “help scale TravelAI’s commercial ecosystem and strengthen supplier relationships across the company’s rapidly expanding agentic network.”

Brianna MacNeil, who has already been leading AI product development within TravelAI, formally steps into the role of Director, AI Products & Personalization was the other executive announced.

If you have an AI business in Travel and looking for people to notice you, you can sign up to the marketplace for peanuts (top right corner, 5 mins, bring your logo).

I’ve priced for bootstrapped startups but also accepting larger companies too.

GuideGeek gets transactional with Ripe

GuideGeek this week announced a new partnership with Ripe that will allow customers of both companies (mainly DMO’s in certain regions of the US) to take a traveller right through from a chat started on a DMO website or social media account to a conversion.

GuideGeek was an early AI wrapper company that has managed to not only persist through the steamroller of every improving AI platforms but also grow.

Guidegeek came out of Matador so they already had decade long relationships with DMO’s who have become the core target for their chat assistant which is locked into the local information the DMO provides to power it.

Now thanks to a new partnership with Ripe, this can take the traveller all the way to the checkout. Unlike others in this space who partner with OTA’s to get to conversions, Ripe call themselves an ITA (In-Market Travel Agency) meaning the bookings come at less cost to the end suppliers but this also allows GuideGeek to show ROI attribution for their own product to the DMO, which if strong should lock in those arrangements ongoing.

Slack Group!

Podcasts and Sponsors

Podcasts now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts:

All podcasts are now showing up on Spotify and Apple Podcasts for your easy listening pleasure! Now is a great time to binge those you may have missed.

We start recording for the 2nd half of the year in June. If you have an AI story happening at your company you think the travel world should know about - let me know and lets get you on.

Partner with Us

Most clicked last week was the link to the HBX report.

That’s it - you’ve made it to the end of this edition. If you’re thankful for this newsletter - you can always buy me a coffee.

I’ll be putting the result of the most clicked post in next week’s edition so you can see where others are focusing. If I’ve missed something, you’ve got a tip or any feedback at all - you can simply reply to this email and it will come straight to me. I’m doing this for You so please don’t be shy to tell me what you think