You can buy AI software, but not years of AI development experience
Over the past two years, AI has moved from a specialist technology to a boardroom priority at remarkable speed. Today, almost every company can access powerful AI tools, whether through large language models, workflow automation or AI assistants integrated across different parts of the business.
What is becoming increasingly clear, however, is that access to the technology itself is only one part of the equation.
Businesses can buy software, but they cannot buy years of accumulated experience in understanding how AI actually works inside a complex organisation. That experience, including understanding where AI genuinely creates value, where it creates risk and how it can be integrated responsibly into everyday operations, is becoming a major competitive advantage.
At eDreams ODIGEO, AI is not something we have discovered recently. We have spent more than a decade developing AI and embedding it into how the company operates, from personalisation and customer experience to engineering and product development. Over time, we have learned that the real value of AI does not come from isolated tools or short-term experimentation. It comes from integrating AI deeply into how a business makes decisions, operates at scale and serves customers consistently over many years.
Why long-term integration matters
Recently, we shared updates on how agentic AI is accelerating engineering efficiency across our business. Engineering innovation speed has increased fivefold, while productivity has risen by 47 per cent.
Those results are not simply the outcome of deploying the latest AI tool. They reflect years of organisational learning, infrastructure development, engineering discipline and cultural adaptation across the company.
There is still a growing assumption that AI advantage will quickly become commoditised because the underlying tools are now widely available. The technology itself may be accessible, but integrating it effectively into a large organisation is considerably more difficult than many people realise.
Most established businesses operate with years of legacy systems, fragmented processes and operational complexity. Introducing AI into that environment requires organisational change, strong governance and a clear understanding of where AI can genuinely improve outcomes.
Companies that have spent years integrating AI into their operations develop organisational instincts that are difficult to replicate quickly. They understand where AI delivers measurable value, where human expertise remains essential and how teams should be structured around these technologies responsibly.
The complexity of AI in travel
This challenge is especially visible in the travel sector, where operational complexity sits at the centre of the business model.
Behind every booking sits an ecosystem of airlines, hotels, payment systems, regulatory frameworks, customer service operations and constantly changing inventory, all operating across borders, currencies and legal environments.
AI systems in travel need to operate within real-world operational constraints while maintaining trust, reliability and responsiveness for millions of travellers.
At eDreams ODIGEO, our focus has been on integrating agentic AI directly into engineering workflows to help teams work faster and more effectively. In advanced teams, AI-generated code now accounts for 100% of new code production, with engineers continuing to provide oversight, judgement and architectural direction.
The objective is not automation for its own sake. It is about enabling highly skilled teams to spend less time on repetitive work and more time on high-value projects, improving products and delivering better customer experiences.
Experience cannot be replicated overnight
For many years, competitive advantage in technology businesses was largely about access to software, infrastructure or engineering talent. Increasingly, what matters now is accumulated operational experience and organisational understanding developed over time.
Consumers are not simply purchasing a product when they book travel. They are placing trust in companies to manage complex, high-value and often emotionally significant journeys on their behalf.
When disruption happens, whether delays, cancellations or operational issues, customers expect fast, accurate and reliable support. AI can significantly improve those experiences, but only when it is built on top of deep operational understanding, strong governance and years of sector expertise.
That is why businesses approaching AI purely as a short-term implementation project risk missing the bigger opportunity.
The companies that will benefit most from AI over the next decade are likely to be those treating it as a long-term organisational capability rather than a standalone technology initiative.
AI’s next phase will be about innovation
The next phase of AI integration will fundamentally change how quickly organisations can innovate.
When engineering teams can build, test and deploy products faster, the pace of innovation accelerates. Companies become more adaptive and resilient.
That capability becomes especially valuable in travel, where customer expectations evolve constantly and operational complexity continues to increase.
The businesses that lead over the next decade are unlikely to be those with access to the largest number of AI tools or models. More likely, they will be the organisations that have spent years learning how to integrate AI deeply, responsibly and strategically across every part of the business. Software can be purchased relatively quickly, but the institutional understanding required to integrate AI effectively into a complex global business takes years to build.
By Dana Dunne, CEO of eDreams ODIGEO