In Brief: At the Travel Tech Start-Up Summit, buyers and investors advised hospitality technology founders that the widespread use of AI has increased expectations for product differentiation, making it more challenging for new entrants to secure investment and commercial partnerships.
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Travel Tech Start-Up Summit: Buyers and Investors Tell Founders AI Has Raised the Bar on Standing out – Image Credit Travel Technology Association
Speakers from Amazon, Hilton, Serko and Brook Bay Capital say start-ups need sharper differentiation, a clear customer problem and the patience to see out long enterprise deals
Travel tech start-ups need to show a clear point of difference, solve a specific customer problem and plan for enterprise deals that can take a year or more to sign, according to speakers at Travel Tech Association’s (Travel Tech) second annual Start-Up Summit. The event took place on Oct. 14 in Arlington, Va., and brought together founders, investors and industry leaders from companies including Amazon, Hilton, Skift, Serko and Oppenheimer & Co.
Eight start-ups pitched to a panel of six judges during the day. Announced last week, CleverFi, which lets travelers connect to Wi-Fi automatically and securely by extending their home network to wherever they stay, won both the judges’ vote and the audience vote and took home $10,000.
AI is making it harder for start-ups to stand out
The opening panel, moderated by Li Reilly, Fractional General Counsel to Travel Tech, looked at what buyers and investors are watching now. Panelists said AI is reducing the number of lasting advantages a start-up can hold, because every company now has access to the same leading AI tools. Gilad Berenstein, Founder of Brook Bay Capital, said many of the pitches he receives are hard to tell apart.
He also urged travel companies to write content for AI assistants as well as for people. He gave the example of hotels that offer adjoining rooms and family suites but never describe them online, which means AI search tools will not recommend them to a parent planning a family trip.
Leslie Adler, Vice President of Business Development and Innovation at Hilton, told founders to keep their message simple: Be clear about the problem they solve and tailor it to the specific version of that problem each customer has. Johnny Thorsen, Vice President of Strategic Business Development at Serko, advised start-ups to define one to three unique selling points that a customer cannot easily find elsewhere or build itself, and to prove their value in a single meeting.
Thorsen said airlines that have spent 13 years moving toward the New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard are now reassessing that path as AI agents and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) change how travel is sold. He said suppliers are ready to invest but lack the in-house know-how, which creates an opening for start-ups that can help them move faster. Panelists also pointed to a window for small and mid-sized acquisitions, as larger travel companies look to buy AI capability rather than build it.
Amazon: Enterprise partnerships take time, but they work
In a fireside chat on turning pilots into partnerships, Hillary Dallas, Head of Global Travel and Events at Amazon, spoke with Steve Reynolds, CEO of CorpTravelTech, about how start-ups can win business with the world’s largest corporate travel program.
Dallas said she looks for technology that improves the traveler experience, reduces cost or reduces risk. She described Amazon’s partnership with booking platform Spotnana, which began with a first meeting in December 2021. Security and legal reviews took about 12 months, and the platform launched across 45 countries in February 2026. Amazon now has 97% online booking adoption. Reynolds noted that many start-ups cannot survive a year without revenue while a contract is finalized.
Dallas said the risk of a large company simply copying a start-up’s idea is often overstated, because internal engineering time must be budgeted and planned years ahead. She expects AI agents to take over routine work such as answering travel policy questions, leaving skilled human agents to handle complex changes and crisis support.
She also predicted personal AI travel assistants, travel policies that adapt to each traveler and closer links between business and leisure travel profiles.
Agentic AI and trust will shape 2027
The afternoon panel, moderated by Roman Townsend, Managing Director of Belvera Partners, looked ahead to 2027 with Jared Alster, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-Founder of Dune7, Seth Borko, Head of Research at Skift, and Roopak Pati, Managing Director and Head of Global Travel Technology Investment Banking at Oppenheimer & Co. Panelists said the industry is underestimating agentic AI and predicted it will become universal across travel, with trust as the deciding factor in adoption.
“We’re incredibly grateful to the industry leaders, investors, and experts who gave their time and shared their insights with the founders who joined us,” said Laura Chadwick, President and CEO of Travel Tech. “It was especially valuable to hear directly from companies like Amazon, Hilton, and Serko about how they evaluate new technologies and partnerships, and from investors about where they see opportunities emerging. Bringing these different perspectives together is exactly what we hoped to accomplish with the Start-Up Summit, and we’re excited to keep building these connections across the travel technology ecosystem.”
Highlights and photos from the Summit are available on the Travel Tech website.