By Puja Saikia
The travel industry in 2025 is riding a new wave of innovation: Artificial Intelligence. Nearly half of travel companies now prioritize generative AI solutions, while consumers increasingly expect AI-powered service.
Forrester finds 36% of U.S. adults are willing to delegate trip booking to an AI agent. From chat-based booking assistants to itinerary builders and pricing engines, travel agencies are deploying AI tools to boost efficiency, personalize service and grow revenue. Platforms like Expedia and Booking.com have even launched ChatGPT apps for trip planning, and agencies are racing to integrate similar capabilities into their workflows.
As one industry report notes, “travel agencies have a defining role” to balance choice and AI-powered curation in the face of overwhelming options. For 2026, agencies should brace for even more AI-driven automation, from voice support to real-time analytics, while ensuring data quality and trust remain paramount.
AI is making itinerary-building much smarter. Tools like Trip.com’s “Trip.Planner” use machine learning to assemble multi-destination trips with one click, integrating flights, hotels, trains and attractions in real time.
Meanwhile Expedia has embedded itself into ChatGPT: its new ChatGPT “app” lets users ask for hotels, flights or activities in conversational language, returning dynamic results (maps, prices, availability) directly in the chat. These AI planners handle the research, freeing agency staff to focus on custom tweaks and upsells. In short, agencies now have AI co-pilots for travel planning: they can offer clients instant, data-driven suggestions for accommodations, sights and transportation tailored to each traveler’s preferences and budget.
By automating itinerary creation, these tools let travel advisors offer hyper-personalized service at scale, with each trip based on real-time availability and client taste. Early adopters report drastic time savings: in pilot programs 70 – 90% of queries needed no human follow-up at all. In practice, this means agencies can launch a proposed trip while speaking with a client, instead of researching across multiple GDS terminals.
Another booming category is AI chatbots and voice agents that handle customer interactions around the clock. Unlike old rule-based bots, these new agents use large language models to understand intent across many steps. Sabre’s “Concierge IQ” is a prime example, a GenAI chat assistant built on Sabre Mosaic that lets travelers search, book and manage entire journeys in one chat.
Booking.com is also expanding “agentic AI” on its platform. Its new Smart Messenger and Auto-Reply features help accommodation partners respond instantly to guest inquiries by generating context-aware replies. Early tests found partner satisfaction up by 73% with the new chat tools, and 89% of consumers say they want AI help in future travel planning. These AI interfaces let agencies scale their customer service and engagement. Instead of hiring more agents, a travel firm can train AI models on its own policies and data, then let the bot handle routine questions or disruption rebooking.
AI is powerful, but it must enhance and not replace human touch. “Travelers will follow a specific AI system,” warns one analysis, meaning agencies that develop trusted AI assistants can build new loyalty.
AI tools are reshaping travel retailing. Early adopters are already seeing faster bookings, happier customers and new revenue channels. Travel agencies that invest in smart chatbots, itinerary builders and predictive engines today will be ahead of the curve as these technologies mature in 2026.