Trip.com Group Limited's stock experienced a sharp pre-market decline of 5.31% on Friday, as investors reacted to persistent challenges in the hotel industry following the company's removal of its controversial "AI Pricing Assistant" tool.

The plunge comes amid a detailed industry analysis revealing that more than 70 days after Trip.com discontinued the automated pricing tool, fundamental issues remain unresolved. While the AI tool was removed under regulatory pressure, price competition has simply shifted from algorithms to manual labor, causing exhaustion for hotel operators and increased pricing chaos. The platform's underlying traffic distribution rules, which prioritize lower prices, continue to drive intense competition, suggesting that Trip.com's core business environment has not improved as hoped, weighing on investor sentiment.