Modern technology is changing everything about life as we know it. The way we work, the way we interact each other, and even the way we navigate through life’s challenges. One thing that hasn’t changed much however, is the way we use travel services.
During a recent discussion at Web Summit Lisbon, Jeff Kim, CEO of travel enablement platform Yanolja Cloud, says, “the way we use travel services today is almost the same as it was 30 years ago. It needs to change.” He predicts that agentic AI will transform the travel industry.
Every traveller will have a dedicated assistant that can book flights, hotels, and activities based on their user preferences and real-time data for the best deals. Meanwhile, hotel operators/owners will have an AI agent or assistant that can automate corporate operations and guest services. This AI agent will learn everything about a guest, from their personal health to their favourite movies and everything in between.
Shilpa Ranganathan, chief product officer at Expedia Group, also has similar predictions for the future of travel. She takes it further, hypothesising a future where the process of booking trips will become more proactive and predictive. She says, “the AI could see I’ve worked a lot of hours in a month, and so the next day it shows up, suggesting a trip without you having to think about it.”
A hyper-personalised service
Looking further into the future of travel, Kim anticipates the traveller and hotel agents interacting directly with each other in real-time, removing complicated communications and resulting in a hyper-personalised guest experience. These autonomous interactions would also free both the traveller and travel agents up from the mundane aspects of booking a trip.
“Everything today is already incredibly transactional,” Kim continues. “I believe we will soon have AGI (artificial general intelligence, or human-level intelligence). As AI agents become more personalised and learn about your preferences, they’ll be able to curate your own trip. It might sound far-fetched but it’s about bringing those systems together. And I believe it’ll happen in the next three to five years. Hotels need to be prepared to take advantage of this opportunity.”
Of course, for all of this to work, the agentic AI needs access to data. With many businesses eager to jump on the latest AI trends, Ranganathan reminds us that trust, not novelty, is important. She alsohighlights how travel is about accuracy, which is why Expedia uses its own verified data.
“We have deep relationships with our suppliers, and all data is verified. Using grounding from that data, we have built guardrails into our platform. Partners and customers can give feedback and flag issues, so the AI can self learn. I’m not going for zero hallucinations, I’m going for zero doubt,” Ranganathan explains. The business has also kept humans in the loop, so travellers can always reach human customer services if they face any issues.
A new method of discovery
While agentic AI might take over the boring tasks, travel inspiration and trip discovery still remains an inherently human activity – and one that many people enjoy. According to Statista, social media has become the main resource for travel inspiration. And in 2024, the most popular hashtag on Instagram was “travel”.
Social media is also impacting the way travellers book their holidays. “According to our TikTok Made Me study with IPSOS, 80 percent of viewers act within a week of watching a travel video and 35 percent go on to purchase the product or service they saw,” shares Mario El Feghali, head of business partnerships for Travel & Tourism, Global Business Solutions, MENA at TikTok. As a result, TikTok has recently launched an integration with Booking.com to allow travellers to book their trips directly in the app.
The question is, are hotels evolving their strategies fast enough to keep up with the quickly evolving industry? “While hotels historically would distribute their products on platforms like Booking.com and Expedia, they need to think about how to redistribute their product for the new generation of discovery tools,” says Sean Fitzpatrick, CEO at Lighthouse, a commercial platform for the travel and hospitality industry.
