Key Takeaways
- Europe-born multimodal travel platform Omio used OpenAI's ChatGPT and Codex to build conversational travel, letting people search and book trains, buses, ferries, and flights through dialogue
- The starting point of discovery is shifting from the search form to conversation, and Omio connected its inventory of 3,000+ providers across 47 countries to ChatGPT's 900 million weekly users
- Internally, Omio embedded Codex across engineering and cut product development to roughly 20% of prior effort, pressing travel and commerce operators to prepare on two fronts: exposure to conversation and AI-native operations
From search to conversation: Omio's next shape for travel booking
Discover how Omio uses OpenAI to power conversational travel experiences, accelerate product development, and transform into an AI-native company.
openai.comOn June 23, 2026, OpenAI published a customer story featuring the transport and travel booking platform Omio (OpenAI case study). Founded in Berlin in 2013 as GoEuro, Omio is a multimodal travel platform where people search, compare, and book across trains, buses, ferries, and flights. It works with more than 3,000 transportation providers across 47 countries.
Planning a trip has long carried friction. People hop between sites, weigh fares and durations across modes, and stitch together itineraries from scattered pieces. Omio saw exactly this friction as the room AI could change from the ground up. Tell the system where you want to go in plain language, and a bookable journey comes back in return.
As an early OpenAI customer and partner, Omio became one of the first travel companies to step into conversational travel powered by real-time transportation data. CTO Tomas Vocetka describes the effort as a shift toward becoming AI-native across both customer experience and internal operations.
What conversational travel means
Conversational travel refers to an experience where, instead of typing conditions into a search form, people find, compare, and book transport options within a natural conversation with AI. Omio's implementation is a clear example of turning that concept into something concrete.
The starting point was 2023. Omio launched one of the earliest travel experiences available through ChatGPT, connecting OpenAI models directly to its transportation inventory and booking systems. Travelers could ask natural-language questions like "What's the fastest route from Rome to Florence?" or "Should I take a train or flight from Paris to Barcelona?" The key was not returning static information, but connecting ChatGPT to live inventory and pricing data so that genuinely bookable journeys surfaced from within the conversation.
In April 2026, the vision moved further forward. Omio released a dedicated app within ChatGPT, opening its global transportation network to ChatGPT's 900 million weekly users (Omio announcement). By grounding responses in verified travel data, AI works as the interface layer between customers and real-world transportation systems. For Omio, conversational travel is not merely a new feature but a structural move from search-based interfaces to AI-native customer experiences.
What Omio actually did with OpenAI
ChatGPT as an entry point is not the whole story. Across a roughly year-long collaboration with OpenAI, Omio combines advanced models including Codex and GPT-5.4 with its global travel inventory. The roles split along two axes: outward-facing customer experience and inward-facing development and operations.
| Area | OpenAI capability used | Concrete use |
|---|---|---|
| Customer experience | ChatGPT, API, advanced models | Conversational transport search, grounding in inventory and pricing, connection to booking flows |
| Development | Codex | Research, planning, coding, testing, code reviews, monitoring, maintenance |
| Internal operations | ChatGPT, custom integrations | Company-wide rollout, execution support tied to internal systems |
The internal rollout followed a deliberate sequence. Omio first gave ChatGPT to every employee, creating a stage where teams could experiment, learn, and spot opportunities to improve their own work. It then embedded Codex deeply into engineering workflows and extended it into non-technical functions. Vocetka puts the progression bluntly.
We rolled out ChatGPT. That was a teaser. Codex is where the real work gets done.Source: Tomas Vocetka, Omio CTO
Today every engineer uses Codex throughout the software development lifecycle. Omio is also building custom integrations and connectors that bring internal systems, data, and workflows directly into AI tools, letting employees move beyond information retrieval and into execution.
Results in numbers, and what they mean
Putting the scale of conversational travel in view makes the weight of the change visible. Through ChatGPT, Omio connected more than 3,000 transportation providers across 47 countries. The company sells over 100,000 tickets a day and reaches roughly one billion users annually. That inventory now surfaces directly within ChatGPT's vast user base.
The development numbers are more concrete still. Omio estimates that many products can now be built in roughly 20% of the time previously required. Vocetka notes that "projects that used to take several developers a quarter can now be done by one developer in around a month." Shorter development cycles mean more rounds of prototyping and validation, and more room to refine ideas before committing to larger investments.
What should not be overlooked is Omio's principle on where responsibility sits.
The responsibility and accountability stay with people. AI helps us develop faster, analyze faster, and make decisions faster, but people stay in charge.Source: Tomas Vocetka, Omio CTO
By combining broad access to OpenAI tools with strong governance and human oversight, Omio is building an operating model where AI accelerates execution while employees remain accountable for outcomes. AI-native here is not about removing people, but about redesigning work so human judgment becomes faster and sharper.
What travel and commerce operators should read into this
Omio's case is not just the story of one European transport platform. It previews a structural change common to every operator: the place where products and services get discovered is spreading beyond a company's own site.
The most important signal is that the starting point of discovery moves into conversation. Travel and commerce operators have long competed to rank in search results or listing ads. Once inventory surfaces directly inside a conversational AI, as it does with Omio, people narrow their candidates within the conversation before ever visiting the company's site. With standards for agentic commerce that close the loop through payment also spreading, the same wave will reach other industries on a lag, not just travel.
Preparation breaks into two parts. One is structuring data so AI can read it correctly. Unless attributes like fares, durations, and inventory are structured and referenceable in real time, conversational AI cannot pick them up as candidates. The other is shifting toward AI-native operations. Just as Omio redesigned how work gets done rather than bolting AI onto existing processes, operators are now at the stage of rebuilding product development, customer service, and analysis on an AI-first basis. The speed of preparation translates directly into competitive advantage.
Conclusion
Omio's use of OpenAI is a two-sided case: it implements the new experience of conversational travel while rebuilding internal development and operations to be AI-native. It connected inventory from 3,000+ providers across 47 countries to ChatGPT's 900 million users and compressed development effort to roughly 20%, all while keeping final responsibility with people. For travel and commerce operators, it is a useful preview of a future where discovery shifts into conversation. Structuring data so AI can read it, and rebuilding operations on an AI-first basis, are two forms of preparation worth advancing now.
