“AI could tilt discovery against suppliers”, he warns at WiT Singapore
Mike McGearty, CEO and co-founder of Meili, believes the next decade of travel will be defined by direct relationships between suppliers and travellers – but not at the expense of balance across channels.
“There will always be multiple channels,” he said during his interview at WiT Singapore with Pete Comeau, managing director, Phocuswright. “The key is the customer being able to find what they want, book it easily, and have a great experience.”
But he voiced concern about how AI-driven discovery might again tilt the playing field.
“When Google dominated search, direct suppliers lost visibility. Now with AI, discovery could again be controlled by a few major players. If bias creeps into how products are surfaced, that’s not good for the traveller,” he warned.
“It’s vital that AI doesn’t recreate the same imbalance we’ve seen in the last 20 years.”
From broker to builder: A new model for travel tech
It’s natural that McGearty should feel such strong concern over any potential imbalance. Meili was co-founded not because he wanted to build another intermediary in travel, which was the previous business he ran for eight years.
It was because he wanted to build “something simpler, more scalable and more traveller-centric” and to help suppliers have direct relationships with the traveller.
“When we reflected on what we could have done better (in the previous business), we realized the friction points were all about not putting the traveller first. So we asked, what if we could remove all that? That became the origin of Meili.”
The idea was straightforward: be a pure technology enabler. “We don’t own inventory, we don’t price product, we just provide the technology that connects suppliers and partners to agree their own commercials,” McGearty explained. “And we do what we do best – the tech.”
The pros and cons of AI
Ironically, it is AI, the very thing he’s concerned that could impact supplier discoverability, that is powering Meili. “With 50 people, we’re leveraging AI across the business, in engineering, legal, marketing, everything,” said McGearty.
“But AI only works when you combine it with domain expertise. In travel, if you don’t understand the complexity of the product, AI won’t save you. It’s ‘garbage in, garbage out.’”
When asked about scaling Meili, McGearty emphasized a disciplined approach: “We’re in the cloud, leveraging AWS globally. But we’re relentless about not building features no one will use. Every product we build must satisfy 80% of our customers – otherwise it doesn’t get built.”
That same discipline applies to hiring. “With 50 people, every hire matters,” he said. “Hire for fit, not just a CV. One wrong person can destroy your culture. Values alignment is everything. Don’t compromise.”
He sees AI as a traveller’s win, finally allowing them to express intent more naturally – through free text or voice — and receive results that truly reflect what they want. “Customers can now tell us exactly what they want and don’t want,” he said. “It’s our job to listen, curate, and deliver without distortion.”
Yet he’s cautious of AI colliding with old revenue management logic. “If pricing bias is still dictating what’s shown, AI won’t make travel fairer – it’ll just make it faster.”
Personalisation vs punishment
Indeed, few founders in travel speak as frankly about pricing bias as McGearty. “I disagree with dynamic pricing at a consumer level,” he said. “I shouldn’t pay more just because I’ve searched five times for a flight. That’s not personalization, that’s punishment.”
In Meili’s system, there is no revenue management bias. “We don’t price product anymore,” he said. “We just display it transparently and highlight the right information to help the customer make the best decision.”
The result: conversion rates are now double what they were under the previous model.
“Because we’re showing the right product, the right way, conversion goes up. Customers feel they can trust what they’re seeing.”
Curating for clarity, not control
What Meili offers is less about aggregation and more about curation. “It’s about highlighting the right information at the right time,” said McGearty. “We overlay loyalty, sell the supplier’s own insurance instead of third-party products, and make the experience more seamless. That’s why NPS, CSAT, repeat business – all are significantly higher. Cancellations and no-shows are down. Everything performs better when it’s transparent.”
He sees this as the antidote to years of over-engineered interfaces driven by price manipulation rather than traveller benefit. “We’ve moved from commoditized displays to personalized, trusted engagement,” he said. “That’s the difference.”
How to lose trust and customers
McGearty insists that technology’s role is to remove friction, not replace people. “The human touch belongs in service, at the front desk, at the car rental counter, at the point where hospitality happens,” he said. “Tech’s job is to make sure what’s booked is accurate, transparent, and fairly represented. It’s the misrepresentation that destroys trust.”
Trust, he emphasized, is travel’s most fragile currency. “Once you lose it, it’s very hard to get back.”
Lessons for the Next 20
Asked what he’d tell his 20-year-younger self, McGearty smiled: “When you think you need to be running really fast — slow down.”
And what travel tech will we laugh about in 20 years? “Personalization,” he said without hesitation. “Because our idea of it today will look primitive compared to what’s coming.”
And the travel leader he most admires? “Michael O’Leary (RyanAir), all day long.”
For McGearty, the next 20 years won’t be about more tech but about better alignment:
- Between suppliers and customers.
- Between transparency and trust.
- Between human empathy and machine efficiency.
“If we can get those right,” he said, “travel will finally be what it should have been all along — direct, simple, and built around the traveller.”
