TravelAI announces two strategic executive appointments to accelerate AI-powered personalization | News
TravelAI, the UpNext company pioneering the next generation of agentic AI for travel, today announced the appointment of Shie Gabbai and Brianna MacNeil to senior leadership roles. These hires mark an important step in TravelAI’s mission to reshape the way travelers plan, book and experience travel through intelligent, autonomous AI agents.
Shie Gabbai joins TravelAI as Director of AI Experience. Gabbai previously spent more than six years in product leadership roles at Google and was most recently Chief Operating Officer at Layla, the world’s most widely used AI travel agent. He is known for translating emerging technology into intuitive, high-impact user experiences. He will help scale TravelAI’s commercial ecosystem and strengthen supplier relationships across the company’s rapidly growing network of agents.
“TravelAI doesn’t think incrementally; there is a clear vision for what AI-native travel looks like at scale, and a rare willingness to pursue it even if the path isn’t fully mapped yet,” said Gabbai. “What excites me most about this company is the freedom to experiment – to move quickly, test boldly, and learn in real time. And with an agent network already operating at meaningful scale, every experiment has the potential to deliver real value to travelers and partners. It’s an incredible place to build.”
Brianna MacNeil, who has already led AI product development within TravelAI, formally steps into the role of Director, AI Products &. With more than 10 years of experience in tech startups – including founding her own Techstars-backed company – MacNeil specializes in product development, AI system design and personalization at scale.
In her expanded role, she will oversee TravelAI’s personalization infrastructure for more than 470 brands, guiding the evolution of the company’s core AI agents and the internal content generation platform that powers TravelAI’s broader agentic ecosystem.
“TravelAI is building the future of travel – a future where AI doesn’t just answer questions, it actively works on your behalf,” said MacNeil. “My goal is to improve our personalization engine so that every traveler receives recommendations, itineraries and bookings that feel intuitive, timely and deeply human. We create technology that anticipates needs, reduces friction and ultimately transforms the way people move through the world.”
John Lyotier, CEO and co-founder of TravelAI, highlighted how these appointments support the company’s long-term vision of an intelligent, interconnected travel ecosystem powered by autonomous AI agents.
“There is meaningful room to add more efficiency, intelligence and personalization to the travel experience,” he said. “TravelAI is building an agentic future where AI works with travelers and suppliers to streamline planning, reduce friction and deliver better outcomes for everyone. Shie and Brianna bring the product vision, technical depth and entrepreneurial energy needed to accelerate this transformation. Their leadership strengthens our agent network and brings us closer to a world where travel is led by intelligence, not effort.”
