044 - Blending AI and Human Touch in Travel Experiences with Robert Coverdale, Founder of Khonsu
Pitch, Build, Scale - Startup Founder Stories in the Age of AI · 2025-09-29 · 27 min
Episode notes
What happens when you take enterprise-level AI innovation and apply it to one of life’s most human experiences - travel? In this episode of Pitch, Build, Scale, we speak with Robert Coverdale, Founder of Khonsu, about how his platform blends artificial intelligence and local expertise to transform the way people experience cities like New York. Robert shares his journey from flipping a coin between photography and computer science to building innovation labs at LivePerson, and eventually launching Khonsu, a travel company that prioritizes authentic, human-driven experiences powered by AI behind the scenes. We explore the challenges of scaling human interaction with AI tools, why simplicity often wins over complexity, and how trust in real experiences is becoming more valuable in an AI-saturated world. Whether you’re a SaaS founder, software agency leader, or tech executive, Robert’s story is a blueprint for combining human value with AI scale.