STAYSkift · 15h ago
Skift Global Forum Preview: Revolution’s Steve Case on Which Friction to Protect From AI
Executive Brief
The 30-second read
Investor Steve Case argues that travel leaders must differentiate between tasks AI can make abundant and capital-intensive assets that remain scarce. Strategy should shift toward identifying and preserving specific types of human friction that provide unique value in the travel experience.
- 01Case focuses investments on capital-intensive scarcity rather than AI-driven abundance
- 02The industry must determine which elements of travel friction are worth preserving
- 03Future competitive advantage relies on balancing automated efficiency with intentional human touchpoints
- 04Strategic capital allocation will prioritize physical infrastructure over easily replicable digital services
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Will this become abundant, or stay scarce? That one question drives how Steve Case invests in the AI era: AI on the abundant, capital on the rest. It leads him somewhere counterintuitive: the industry's real job now is protecting the friction worth keeping. We'll get into it at Skift Global Forum.