Inside Expedia’s Silicon Valley Bid for AI Talent

Every big travel brand says it's in an AI race, but execution depends on who can attract top technical talent capable of turning AI into tools that travelers and partners actually use. Expedia's new San Jose outpost is one answer: Located on North First Street, less than 10 miles from Google’s headquarters, the Silicon Valley location is its epicenter for AI and machine learning. It was built with recruitment in mind, and it now puts Expedia in the same hiring pool as Google, Cisco, Adobe, PayPal, eBay, and more. Chief Technology Officer Ramana Thumu told Skift that hiring delays could push project timelines. Deadlines planned for 12 months can expand to 18 — an eternity in the fast-moving world of AI development. Julia Elliott, Expedia Group's vice president of technology and chief of staff to the CTO, left a decade-long career at Google to join Expedia in January. The reason: Travel has “interesting problems to solve,” she said. If Exp