The Skift Podcast

Throughout the summer, Skift CEO Rafat Ali has been sitting down with travel leaders around the world for wide-ranging conversations about real estate, artificial intelligence, emerging destinations, independent hotels, and more.  For the last episode in this series, Ali sits down with Agoda CEO Omri Morgenshtern to talk about the evolution of Agoda over the last 20 years, with a particular focus on technology, artificial intelligence, and talent strategy. Morgenshtern discusses Agoda’s role within Booking Holdings, the company’s growth in Asia, and how it’s turning Bangkok into a tech hub by importing global talent and cultivating local engineers. The discussion dives deep into the real-world applications and limitations of generative AI – especially in enterprise settings – and how Agoda is integrating it across engineering, customer service, and product development. Takeaways 1. Agoda Is Betting Big on AI—But Real Impact Takes Time: While generative AI has changed how engineers work, Morgenshtern sa