Booking.com Chief Technology Officer Rob Francis’s early efforts for generative artificial intelligence were often focused on travelers. Now, he wants to get the online travel company’s workforce more engaged with the fast-evolving technology.
“When gen AI first popped, we spent more time up front on customer-facing experiences,” says Francis. “This year, we’ve been focused much more on the internal side of things as well.”
Francis has started to authorize the generative AI capabilities from vendors including video conferencing platform Zoom, AI-powered search software from Glean, and Google’s Gemini chatbot, highlighting his priority to lean on vendors that have the biggest reach across Booking.com’s employee base. The online travel company’s technology culture is often “build first,” especially when it comes to external product offerings, but Francis says he’s not afraid to make use of the latest software-as-a-service generative AI tools.
Booking.com looks at efficiency to measure the success of the generative AI tools deployed within the organization, whether it’s technology to help customer support representatives or engineers and developers.
Externally, success is going to look very different. Francis said he was wary of the generative AI ‘FOMO’ that emerged in late 2022 and early 2023 and avoided rushing to connect ChatGPT plugins to third-party applications. “We didn’t think that was a particularly great experience,” says Francis. “And so we took a little bit more time to think of what a richer experience might be for our customers.”
In 2023, Booking.com launched its new AI Trip Planner tool, which leveraged large language models—including OpenAI’s ChatGPT API—to answer travel questions. After an initial launch in the U.S., the tool has launched in additional international markets across Europe, Asia, and Australia. Booking.com’s research shows that 48% of travelers would trust AI to plan a trip for them and with that in mind, it launched additional generative AI tools last year like Smart Filter, which allows guests to type into the tool: “Hotel in Paris, with a rooftop bar and an indoor pool,” and the LLM would scan Booking.com’s inventory to find properties that match that criteria.
Francis says Booking.com is monitoring how many rooms are booked using these generative AI tools, but there’s not a firm target that must be hit for the AI tools to be deemed a success. Experimentation is important too. “We’re still learning the best way to have the right outcome for an experience,” he adds.
Booking.com built the company’s own orchestration layer that allows product and engineering teams to switch easily between OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and open source models. Francis says there’s so much innovation in the market, he wants the team to have the ability to choose from a variety of LLMs for the best desired output.
Prior to joining Booking.com in 2019, Francis served as CIO at audio equipment manufacturer Sonos, worked as a director for nearly six years at Amazon, and served as a VP at financial institutions JPMorgan Chase and Lehman Brothers. But he says he was lured to the opportunity at Booking.com because his family loves to travel: Francis’s children have been to 45 different countries before they turned 15.
Initially, Francis joined as CIO but rose to the CTO title two years later after his predecessor left the company. Francis says his more recent role aligns with his past engineering expertise.
Another reason he joined Booking.com was to steer a technology modernization journey, away from a tech stack that was built on the bread-and-butter hotel accommodations business to instead reflect the company’s vision of a “connected trip.”
Booking.com has sought new revenue streams by helping travelers book airline flights, automobile rentals, and reserve museum visits and other tourist attractions. But rather than build those systems atop of the legacy hotel bookings system that’s very specific to that industry, Francis needed to re-architect the tech stack and create more generalized ordering software.
This north star goal is to make travel bookings across the entire value chain—from flight to hotel to experience—as seamless as possible. “The more that we can be connected to the right place to stay, the right flight, the right date, with the right partner; that’s what we do well,” says Francis. “And we think we can do that even better the more we understand our travelers and partners.”
John Kell
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NEWS PACKETS
Nvidia commits to massive U.S. manufacturing investment. Nvidia, the world’s third-most valuable company and the dominant AI chipmaker, on Monday committed to as much as $500 billion worth of AI infrastructure in the U.S. over the next four years. The company said it has already begun production of Nvidia’s latest generation AI chip, known as Blackwell, at a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s (TSMC) plant in Phoenix. Nvidia is also building supercomputer manufacturing plants in Texas and another facility for packaging and testing operations in Arizona, both with external partners. President Donald Trump, who lauded the decision, said Nvidia made the commitment because of tariffs. On Tuesday, Advanced Micro Devices also said it would soon make processor chips at TSMC’s Arizona site, plans that preceded Trump’s election win.
PC, smartphone shipments jump ahead of tariff threats. Global PC shipments surged during the first three months of the year, growing 4.8% year over year, as vendors like HP stockpiled inventory ahead of expected U.S. tariffs. Further complicating matters is that Microsoft is preparing to sunset support for Windows 10 in October, which is projected to put more demand on the market. “Inventories can only be so big,” Stephen Minton, a VP at tech industry tracker IDC, told CIO Dive. “The cost of tariffs will have to be passed on to the buyer, probably in the next two or three months.” On a parallel front, Bloomberg reports that Apple’s iPhone shipments also surged in the first quarter ahead of expected tariffs on China, also citing IDC data.
UnitedHealth seeking loan repayment from doctors following cyberattack. In the wake of a cyberattack on a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary that impacted 190 million people, the health insurance giant offered no-interest loans to temporarily help medical practices with their short-term cash flow needs. Change Healthcare’s data breach stung many providers, who were unable to get paid for their services for a time. Now, the bill is coming due, according to documents reviewed by CNBC, which reports that some groups have been asked to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars in a matter of days. UnitedHealth didn’t comment on any specific cases, but a Change Healthcare spokesperson told CNBC that “now, more than one year post event and with services restored, we have begun the process of recouping the interest-free funding we provided to providers.”
Amazon CEO predicts AI costs will come down. “AI does not have to be as expensive as it is today, and it won’t be in the future,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote in his annual shareholder letter released last week. He went on to predict that a more competitive chip market will help lower the cost of AI, as well as more efficient inference, which is the process of training AI models to make a prediction or solve a task based on new data. Amazon, to be sure, has a vested interest in bringing down the cost of AI as quickly as it can. The tech giant vowed to spend $100 billion or more in capital expenses in 2025, up at least 20% from last year, with the vast majority going toward Amazon’s AI infrastructure as Jassy chases what he has called “the biggest technology shift and opportunity since the internet.”
ADOPTION CURVE
AI governance is increasingly coming into focus, but actual hiring lags. A new report reveals that 77% of organizations have worked on developing AI governance, a figure that leaps to 90% for those who are already using the technology. But a persistent challenge remains around talent and recruiting for AI governance skills, with one out of four saying finding qualified AI professionals in the emerging field was part of the challenge to deploy AI. Only 8% of employers are recruiting AI governance professionals, while 47% also acknowledge that staffing this team is a strategic priority.
The findings were backed by AI governance software provider Credo AI and blended two data sources: a survey of more than 670 individuals conducted by the nonprofit International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and AI case studies based on seven private companies.
JOBS RADAR
Hiring:
- WSSC Water is seeking a CIO, based in Laurel, Maryland. Posted salary range: $286.1K-$487.1K/year.
- Connecticut Innovations is seeking a CTO, based in Connecticut. Posted salary: up to $350K/year.
- The Maine Judicial Branch is seeking a CIO, based in Augusta, Maine. Posted salary range: $122.3K-$157K/year.
- The city of New York is seeking a deputy CTO, based in Manhattan. Posted salary range: $160K-$185K/year.
Hired:
- Ahold Delhaize USA announced the appointment of Ann Dozier as CIO, overseeing all aspects of IT with a focus on technology to enable the grocery store chain’s omnichannel business. Dozier joins the operator of chains including Giant and Stop & Shop after most recently serving as SVP and chief information and technology officer for beverage distributor Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits.
- Sprinklr appointed Sanjay Macwan as CIO, effective April 9, to oversee global IT, enterprise security, and data infrastructure. Macwan joins the customer experience management software provider after most recently serving as CIO and chief information security officer of telecommunications company Vonage. He also previously served as SVP and CTO of Media Labs at NBCUniversal and held various leadership roles at AT&T.
- GridStor promoted Daniel Dedrick to the role of CTO, after initially joining the developer of battery energy storage systems in 2022 and most recently serving as SVP of engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC). Prior to joining GridStor, Dedrick led the EPC services and major equipment team at Clearway Energy Group, which develops wind, solar, and battery storage assets.
- Xage Security has expanded the role of cofounder Susanto Irwan to serve as president and CTO, where he will lead product development and R&D investments, while also deepening his engagement with customers. Prior to cofounding the zero trust computer and network security company in 2016, Irwan held senior engineering and product development roles at Shape Security and Arxan Technologies.
- Unlearn appointed Krates Ng to serve as CTO, joining the AI startup as it develops software solutions intended to accelerate clinical trials and drug development. Ng joins Unlearn after serving as CTO at agtech startup ProducePay. He also previously served as SVP of engineering at software provider RapidAI.
- TBC Corporation named Chris Young as CTO, reporting directly to President and CEO Don Byrd. Young joins the marketer of automotive replacement tires after most recently serving as CIO and VP of FedEx Freight IT solutions. Young has also held leadership roles at Old Dominion Freight Line, Columbia Forest Products, and United Guaranty Corporation.
- Sirva has promoted and expanded Joe Genautis’s responsibilities, continuing as CTO while also assuming the responsibilities of CIO following the retirement of John Kirk. Genautis will oversee AI deployment, data security, cybersecurity, and the global tech strategy for the relocation and moving services company. Prior to joining Sirva in 2016, Genautis served as CTO at Canadian mass media company Torstar.
- Pinnacle Live named Richard Maranville to serve as CTO, joining the live events organizer after most recently serving as chief digital and technology officer for Texas-based restaurant chain Salad and Go. He also spent more than 12 years at events services provider The Freeman Company, serving as CIO and later chief digital officer.