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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
Today, 5:39 AM
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New Cisco Research Reveals Overwhelming Demand for Agentic AI to Transform the Way Technology Vendors Deliver Customer Experience
News Summary:
The rise of agentic AI: By 2028, 68% of all customer service and support interactions with technology vendors are expected to be handled by agentic AI.
Customer experience becomes mission-critical: With growing IT complexity, 92% of organizations say the support and services they receive are more important than ever.
Transformational benefits of AI: A striking 93% of respondents predict that agentic AI will enable more personalized, proactive, and predictive services.
The power of human connection: Despite AI’s rise, 89% of customers emphasize the need to combine human connection with AI efficiency to optimize experiences.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
Today, 4:13 AM
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"The latest World Parity Monitor by 123Compare.me reveals that the OTA landscape is evolving quickly: while Booking.com and Expedia maintain dominance in hotel visibility on Google, smaller regional OTAs are undercutting hotel-direct rates more aggressively. The May 2025 report shows how shifts in paid advertising strategies, regional market dynamics, and increased price competition are reshaping how hotels must approach digital distribution and rate parity.
Key takeaways
Booking.com still leads visibility: Booking Holdings maintains the top position in both organic and paid Google placements globally, although its share of paid visibility has dipped slightly.
Expedia is catching up: Expedia Group is increasing its paid ad presence, narrowing the gap with Booking, particularly in global markets like North America and Latin America.
Smaller OTAs undercut prices: Regional OTAs such as MakeMyTrip (India) and Despegar.com (Argentina) frequently undercut hotel-direct prices, especially in their domestic markets.
Visibility ≠ undercutting: The OTAs dominating visibility aren’t always those driving price undercutting, highlighting a strategic divergence in market tactics.
Strategic implications for hotels: Paid search placements are now the main battleground for rate parity. Hotels need to track both visibility and price undercutting to protect direct bookings and optimize their digital advertising spend.
Hotels must rethink distribution costs: The shift in strategy — Booking slightly retreating while Expedia intensifies its efforts — calls for a reevaluation of how hotels manage OTA relationships and allocate marketing budgets."
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 19, 7:49 AM
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As the educational impact of LLM use only begins to settle with the general population, in this study we demonstrate the pressing matter of a likely decrease in learning skills based on the results of our study. The use of LLM had a measurable impact on participants, and while the benefits were initially apparent, as we demonstrated over the course of 4 months, the LLM group's participants performed worse than their counterparts in the Brain-only group at all levels: neural, linguistic, scoring.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 19, 6:10 AM
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For the hospitality industry, where word-of-mouth and personal recommendations are already king, dark social is a massive blind spot — but it’s also a huge opportunity.
What is Dark Social?
Ever read a blog or see a post on social media, then screenshot to text or email? That is an example of dark social.
Dark social refers to traffic and engagement that comes from private or semi-private channels — think direct messaging apps (like WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram DMs), email shares, or even private Slack groups.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 18, 12:44 AM
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Que faut-il pour assurer non seulement la survie mais surtout la prospérité du tourisme suisse ? Cette question était en quelque sorte au centre de la troisième conférence du projet Flagship national Swiss Travel & Tourism Data-Driven Transformation - Resilient Tourism qui s'est tenue le 3 juin dernier à Coire, sous l'égide de l'ITF (Haute école spécialisée des Grisons FHGR), l'un des instituts de recherche impliqués dans le projet.
Des keynotes inspirants aux discussions engagées sur les données concernant le suivi des visiteurs et les modèles de résilience en 3D, en passant par un atelier interactif, la conférence a une fois encore démontré combien ce secteur est porteur d'innovations et combien il est important de construire ensemble une base numérique et résiliente.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 17, 4:13 AM
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A major legal battle is unfolding in Europe as hotel groups across more than 25 countries have united to file a class action lawsuit against Booking.com, alleging the company charged “excessive commissions” through restrictive pricing clauses. The action, coordinated in the Netherlands, seeks billions of euros in damages, challenging the long-standing dominance of Booking.com in online hotel distribution. The move follows a key European Court of Justice ruling in 2023 concerning “parity clauses,” which many hoteliers argue have unfairly limited their ability to compete on price.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 16, 9:37 AM
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L’IA générative peut-elle s’installer dans les usages des jeunes générations au même titre que les réseaux sociaux ? C’est l’hypothèse formulée par l’agence de communication Heaven à travers son rapport annuel Born AI, qui analyse l’utilisation des outils d’IA par les 18-25 ans. Pour son édition 2025, 495 jeunes ont été interrogés via un questionnaire en ligne, avec application de quotas d’âge, de genre et de localisation. Découvrez les grandes tendances.
Le taux d’utilisation de l’IA grimpe encore
En 2024, le rapport révélait un taux élevé d’utilisation de l’IA par les plus jeunes, estimé à 85 %. Un an plus tard, ce chiffre a continué d’augmenter : 93 % des répondants indiquent avoir utilisé au moins un service s’appuyant sur de l’intelligence artificielle au cours des 6 derniers mois. Ce chiffre est sensiblement identique chez les garçons (93 %) et chez les filles (94 %).
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 10, 3:59 AM
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In Q1 2025, the world’s largest online travel agencies—Booking Holdings, Expedia Group, Airbnb, and Trip.com Group—collectively poured another $4.5 billion into marketing, continuing a trend that saw them spend $17.8 billion in 2024. This investment reflects an intensifying battle for customer acquisition, brand loyalty, and distribution control, as these companies diversify away from heavy reliance on Google by leveraging social media and AI. With Booking leading in direct channel growth, Expedia testing AI tools on Instagram, Airbnb scaling localized expansion, and Trip.com targeting aging travelers with storytelling, the marketing arms race shows no signs of slowing.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 10, 1:23 AM
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Vous gérez plusieurs comptes sociaux, jonglez avec les plannings éditoriaux, les reportings clients, les veilles et les modérations et au milieu de tout ça, un doute vous taraude : « Est-ce que l’outil social media que j’utilise est vraiment le bon ? » Vous avez raison de vous poser la question. Parce qu’un mauvais outil, […]
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 10, 1:06 AM
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Among the general public, generative AI’s most enthusiastic early adopters have been students. Surveys conducted a year ago revealed that nearly 90 percent of college students and more than 50 percent of high-schoolers were regularly using chatbots for schoolwork. Those numbers are certainly higher now. AI may be the most rapidly adopted educational tool since the pencil.
Because text-generating bots like ChatGPT offer an easy way to cheat on papers and other assignments, students’ embrace of the technology has stirred uneasiness, and sometimes despair, among educators. Teachers and pupils now find themselves playing an algorithmic cat-and-mouse game, with no winners. But cheating is a symptom of a deeper, more insidious problem. The real threat AI poses to education isn’t that it encourages cheating. It’s that it discourages learning.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 8, 2:25 AM
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Dario Amodei — CEO of Anthropic, one of the world's most powerful creators of artificial intelligence — has a blunt, scary warning for the U.S. government and all of us:
AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs — and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the next one to five years, Amodei told us in an interview from his San Francisco office.
Amodei said AI companies and government need to stop "sugar-coating" what's coming: the possible mass elimination of jobs across technology, finance, law, consulting and other white-collar professions, especially entry-level gigs.
Why it matters: Amodei, 42, who's building the very technology he predicts could reorder society overnight, said he's speaking out in hopes of jarring government and fellow AI companies into preparing — and protecting — the nation.
Few are paying attention. Lawmakers don't get it or don't believe it. CEOs are afraid to talk about it. Many workers won't realize the risks posed by the possible job apocalypse — until after it hits.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 6, 5:29 AM
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Selon une étude réalisée par Diplomeo, « 78 % des 16-25 ans utilisent l’IA pour leurs études et leur orientation, dont 25 % toutes les semaines. » Une tendance qui inquiète notamment les enseignants avec la peur de voir des travaux rendus qui ne sont pas rédigés par l’étudiant lui-même, mais par l’IA. Sur les 78 % des jeunes qui utilisent l’IA, « 35 % affirment rédiger tout ou en partie leurs devoirs grâce à des sites comme ChatGPT« . Les détecteurs d’intelligence artificielle jouent donc un rôle essentiel dans cette traque à la triche. Mais sont-ils fiables, et peut-on vraiment s’appuyer dessus ?
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 5, 6:10 AM
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Airbnb, once the poster child of disruptive travel innovation, is entering a new phase of growth by expanding beyond home rentals. Inspired by platforms like WeChat and Amazon, CEO Brian Chesky envisions Airbnb as a lifestyle platform - an “Airbnb of Anything” - where users not only book homes, but also access services and experiences in their hometown or travel destinations. This transformation is Airbnb’s response to slowing revenue growth, aiming to increase user engagement, unlock new revenue streams, and evolve from an occasional-use app into a daily digital companion.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
Today, 4:18 AM
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"123Compare.me’s World Parity Monitor has just released its May report. It looks at which online intermediaries dominate visibility, both in paid placements and organic results, and breaks down whether OTAs are competing more on presence or price.
SUMMARY
The major OTAs, Booking and Expedia groups, concentrate nearly all visibility in both organic and paid spaces, with Booking leading the charge, always bidding for your hotel.
Secondary OTAs barely use sponsored links (paid spaces), except for some local champions that gain strength at the local level.
The lose rate of a hotel’s direct rate versus the OTAs is higher in paid spaces than in organic ones.
Looking at recent months, there are no significant changes in organic visibility between 2024 and 2025 for either Booking.com or Expedia. However, in paid spaces, Booking.com has slightly reduced its presence while Expedia has increased it."
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 19, 9:43 AM
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The software-based attribution mirage rewards online resources and digital activity that software can detect.
Software-based attribution:
Dramatically over-reports organic search and direct links to your website
Significantly under-reports social media sources
Doesn’t track or measure interactions between people that happen in:
Social networks: LinkedIn, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram…
Content platforms: YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts…
Communities and Groups: Facebook or LinkedIn Groups, Slack Communities
Internal company communications: Slack or Teams Channels, Zoom communities…
Direct “word of mouth”: Phone calls, Text messages, DMs…
Meet-ups and events: physical and virtual meetings and mixers…
Today, these untracked interactions between people are called “dark social” because they happen out of sight of our attribution software.
This unbalanced attribution model can skew budgets, teams, and marketing activity toward what “seems to be working.” As the saying goes, if you can measure it, you can improve it.
But what if you’re not measuring something at all?
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 19, 7:23 AM
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"A Refine Labs data study concluded there was a 90% measurement gap in what software-based attribution is claiming versus what first-party customer-led data is showing. Specifically, “dark social” channels and programs.
The study, conducted over twelve months, involved 620 declared-intent conversions, software-based and self-reported attribution data, and $21.5MM in closed won annual recurring revenue.
The results demonstrated the measurement gap the agency calls The Attribution Mirage – the term used to define the current state of revenue attribution that is over-reliant on software-based tracking methods and fails to properly measure demand creation programs.
Dark social channels and programs, including social media, podcasts, word of mouth, and communities, are drastically under-reported or entirely missed by software-based attribution."
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 19, 2:30 AM
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70 million U.S. workers are about to face their biggest workplace transition due to AI agents, but their voices are too often missing. We address this gap by conducting a nationwide audit to understand what workers want AI agents to automate or augment, and how those desires align with the current technological capabilities. Data from 1,500 workers across 104 occupations leads to three main findings:
1. Desire-capability landscape of AI agents at work reveals critical mismatches of current AI agent research and investment. 41.0% of Y Combinator company-task mappings are concentrated in the Low Priority Zone and Automation “Red Light” Zone.
2. Many occupational tasks see a need of human-agent collaboration with equal partnership. However, workers generally prefer higher levels of human agency, potentially foreshadowing friction as AI capabilities advance.
3. Suppose AI agents start to enter the workforce, key human competencies may be shifting from information-processing skills to interpersonal and organizational skills.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 17, 10:12 AM
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If you work in digital marketing for hotels and haven’t yet heard about AI Max for search campaigns in Google Ads, now is the time to open your eyes. What we’re about to witness marks a before-and-after moment in how travelers search, choose, and book their next destination. In this post, we’ll break down this paradigm shift and what you can do to leverage it in your primary advertising channel.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 16, 9:46 AM
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C’est une question qui revient souvent quand je donne des conférences, des formations ou du coaching au fil du temps. Il y a bien sûr plusieurs études qui ont été effectuées depuis les dernières années, mais aucune ne m’apparait aussi rigoureuse que celle par Scott Graffius. Sa première étude sur le sujet a été publiée en 2018, et il vient tout juste d’en faire une mise à jour basée sur 37 différents sources de données. Il arrive ainsi à illustrer le temps moyen d’une publication sur les plateformes sociales suivantes:
Snapchat
X (anciennement Twitter)
Pinterest
Linkedin
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Blogue
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 13, 5:29 AM
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"At Skift Research, we think travel leaders need to be a little Google-obsessed. It’s one of the most important drivers of bookings, and our data shows Google is undergoing a real-time AI transformation with massive implications for the industry.
Google has been a critical part of the tourism marketing funnel for decades. Now, as the search giant reinvents itself for the AI era, the downstream impact on the entire travel industry could be dramatic.
Skift Research’s latest research report – AI, Google, and the Shift from Keywords to Context in Travel – tracks how Google is embedding AI tools into its search platform and what it means for travel marketers. "
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 10, 3:26 AM
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Google’s rapid shift toward AI-powered search is upending the travel marketing landscape faster than expected. Once a stable pillar of the tourism booking funnel, Google is now rolling out generative AI features—like Gemini’s AI Overviews—that fundamentally alter how travelers discover and engage with travel brands. Skift Research’s latest report reveals that the move from keyword-based to context-rich, conversational search is no longer a future scenario—it’s already here. With AI-generated content now appearing in a growing share of flight and hotel searches, travel marketers face an urgent need to rethink SEO, content strategy, and advertising models.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 10, 1:15 AM
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Depuis que la firme OpenAI a lancé sa plateforme ChatGPT en novembre 2022, il s’en trouve plusieurs pour annoncer la mort imminente de Google. Il est vrai que l’IA générative devient de plus en plus populaire et utilisée par un nombre croissant d’utilisateurs à l’échelle mondiale. C’est encore plus vrai chez les plus jeunes générations, qui ont délaissé les moteurs de recherche traditionnels pour favoriser les médias sociaux (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube) et les modèles de langage élargis, tels que ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilote, Claude, Mistral ou Perplexity.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 9, 5:18 AM
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The 155-page report, “The Gig Trap: Algorithmic, Wage and Labor Exploitation in Platform Work in the US” focuses on seven major companies operating in the US: Amazon Flex, DoorDash, Favor, Instacart, Lyft, Shipt, and Uber. These companies claim to offer gig workers “flexibility” but often end up paying them less than state or local minimum wages. Six of the seven companies use algorithms with opaque rules to assign jobs and determine wages, meaning that workers do not know how much they will be paid until after completing the job.
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 6, 7:44 AM
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Manus est une intelligence artificielle censée être capable de travailler en autonomie et d'effectuer des tâches complexes. Mais qu'en est-il vraiment ? Nous avons testé cet agent IA !
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Scooped by
Roland Schegg
June 5, 6:14 AM
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Airbnb’s new Services feature - offering extras like massages and private chefs - may appeal to guests but is sparking backlash from hosts. Critics say Airbnb profits from services carried out in host homes without offering compensation, control, or proper consent. The move raises concerns about fairness, liability, and the erosion of trust between Airbnb and its host community.
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