Source: Skift
Meta is using Muse, its AI assistant, to capture travel planning conversations—a high-intent moment where users are actively making purchase decisions—and embedding booking capabilities directly into the platform. This is a direct threat to travel intermediaries like Expedia and Booking.com, which have historically extracted value by sitting between consumers and suppliers. Meta now wants to collapse that gap and take commission on transactions happening inside its walled garden. The pattern is clear: whoever controls the conversational layer controls the transaction layer, making distribution and trust (Meta's existing advantages) more valuable than specialized expertise.