Taking Advantage of AI As a Travel Agent
Let’s address the elephant in the room that nobody dares talk about. It's not about AI replacing your travel agent; it's all about replacing bad travel agents. And guess what? This may well be one of the greatest blessings for great travel agents!
What we’re experiencing right now is called by travel technology guru Max Starkov "the biggest revolution the travel sector has seen since the birth of the internet." Unfortunately, most travelers and even travel advisors continue to perceive AI as an advanced search engine. They’re both very wrong, and the distance between the two categories increases every day!
My guide aims to cover the main aspects of AI usage by travelers and travel advisors that are currently unknown to the majority of people and how to use them to your advantage!
Numbers Don’t Lie
Before diving into the main topic, it's important to acknowledge the current state of the industry to avoid any misconceptions, especially those presented in many news sources that often ignore the facts.
As of 2023, the gross bookings of U.S. travel agencies increased 28%, reaching $109.7 billion in revenue! Travel agency sales in the USA are expected to grow by another 9%; leisure travel agencies will lead the growth. By 2027, travel agencies are projected to account for 25% of all travel sales in the United States.
The value of the global market for travel agency services, assessed to be $464.91 billion in 2025, is forecasted to reach $668.86 billion by 2030, with the compound annual growth rate being estimated to be 7.5%.
As you can see, the booming travel agency sector has little to nothing to do with the death sentence often rumored by other sources. The proliferation of AI tools did not seem to negatively affect the market, which is another fact ignored by most news outlets!
Interestingly enough, 38% of Millennials and Generation Z use the services of traditional travel agencies rather than booking their trips online. The chief executive of TUI even said that his children booked their trip via a travel agency; he was surprised: "I thought, you are digital natives, what have you done?"
Having studied several dozen sources in the process of preparing for this guide, one trend is very noticeable, the proliferation of AI makes travelers overwhelmed with information, thus causing them to rely on human assistance.
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What Agentic AI Actually Is
It’s worth clarifying that the type of AI which has been used in travel sites over the past few years, whether recommendations engines, chatbots or dynamic pricing, is not the agentic AI discussed below.
Agentic AI refers to the kind of autonomous system capable of planning, deciding, and acting. While we have been used to the notion of AI making recommendations, agentic AI is about AI conducting the entire research and booking process by itself, without any help from the client.
The following developments and rollouts are expected to appear in late 2025 and throughout 2026:
Google's AI Mode will feature "agentic checkout," meaning that AI will be able to book your flights and hotels on your behalf using Google Pay.
Expedia has rolled out integration with OpenAI's Operator and Microsoft's Copilot Actions to enable autonomous bookings and reservations.
Google's new Canvas function in AI Mode creates full travel plans using Search data, Google Maps' review function, flight price comparison, and hotel booking all within one single space.
Google Flight Deals expanded into 200+ countries and 60+ languages using AI for natural language understanding of travel requests.
The concept of "Third Voice" developed by TravelAI includes an AI layer that acts as a mediator between clients and providers, negotiating autonomously.
Analysts in the travel industry even call the change "like a dam breaking." Indeed, when the day arrives that AI completes its first autonomous commercial transactions, this will mean a fundamental reshaping of the booking flow in the travel industry!
Personally, I think it should not be overlooked that agentic AI brings in a fundamentally new player into every booking transaction, and completely changes the economics of the industry!
The "80/20 Rule" of Travel — And Why Humans Win the Last 20%
Here's a framework making waves in business circles right now that perfectly explains what's happening in travel. Aaron Levie, CEO of Box, puts it this way, “AI might efficiently handle the first 80% of any job (the repetitive, data-heavy, time-consuming tasks) but the final 20% is where human expertise, judgment, and interpersonal skills come in.”
For travel agents, that 80% looks like:
Searching and comparing hundreds of flight options
Generating first-draft itineraries
Researching destination entry requirements
Pulling hotel options within a price range
Writing marketing copy and social posts
Summarizing client preferences from old emails
And the 20% that AI simply cannot do:
Knowing your client hates red-eye flights without being told
Understanding the family dynamics that make a resort-style vacation better than a city hotel
Sensing when something feels off about a deal and digging deeper
Being the advocate in your corner when a hurricane cancels your cruise and you need someone making calls on your behalf
That vibe check — AI cannot tell if a hotel "feels like an airport Marriott" even when it technically has modern furniture
One travel agent put it beautifully: "When you book online, you're usually just a confirmation number in a very long queue. But when you book with a travel agent, you have a real human who knows your trip and can step in to help."
The AI Hallucination Problem Nobody Warns You About
AI Hallucinations (presenting incorrect info as true) are well-recorded issues in trip preparation that can lead to serious problems! I think we’ve all ran into these “hallucinations” while using AI unfortunately. Here’s some real world examples that caused real problems:
🏔️ Peru: Two tourists attempted a trek to the nonexistent "Sacred Canyon of Humantay," a term invented by AI from the combination of the names of two completely different destinations. As the guide pointed out: "The altitude, the climatic changes and accessibility of the paths have to be planned. When you use a program like ChatGPT, which takes pictures and names and creates a fantasy, you can find yourself at 4,000m without oxygen and signal."
🗻 Japan: A couple got stuck at a mountain top due to incorrect opening times for the trail given by ChatGPT.
✈️ Puerto Rico: A couple was not able to board their plane since ChatGPT provided incorrect visa details.
🗺️ Paris: A business traveler missed a meeting due to a wrong route proposed by the AI that did not account for ongoing roadworks.
These were only some of the incidents. In the internal research conducted by Expedia, it appeared that 1/3 of all itineraries created via AI had to be adjusted by humans to include extra accuracy and nuances!
In the case of Disney vacations, the AI planner has an additional set of challenges due to changing policies, availability of Lightning Lanes, park operation times, restaurant reservations, etc., that can't be included in real-time AI training data. I’ve personally seen it give inaccurate information regarding rides, Lightning Lane process, operating times, dining spots, events, etc.
You’ve really got to be careful when planning a big expensive trip that has a lot of moving parts. If you’re not sure you can always call the company (Disney, Universal, etc) and make sure the information AI provided is correct.
Gen Z Is Doing Something Surprising
This is one of the most mind-boggling phenomena in the whole industry – but almost nobody is getting it.
Generation Z (the generation that practically grew up with smartphones in its hands) is simultaneously the most inclined towards trying AI-powered tools and the most skeptical about them when it comes to booking.
Only 7% of Gen Z travelers would put their full trust in AI when it comes to booking their entire trip
77% have never tried using AI in the process of planning a trip
But 65% of Gen Z find traveling booking overwhelming
Moreover, 38% are increasingly resorting to traditional travel agents
Another reason why Gen Zers prefer travel agencies? Well, it's simple, they need someone to be responsible for the bookings made! They need a person whom they can call if something goes wrong. They need a person that actually knows the place where they booked a resort vacation.
As for luxury travelers of different generations, things look a little different. 92% claim they've used or will use a travel agency when planning their next trip, while 81% believe that travel experts are the only way to truly enjoy luxury travels.
Disney Planning in the Age of AI
It can be argued that planning an excursion to Disney World and Disneyland requires more thought than other vacation planning. You have to coordinate such factors as:
Park reservations
Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Individual Lightning Lane purchases
Dining reservations (sometimes as far ahead as 60 days)
Different resorts with different benefits
Specific events and crowd trends
Character dining, park hopping, Genie+ services
Artificial intelligence apps specifically designed for Disney travel have been made, they’re out there right now. The software can give you an hour-by-hour itinerary, suggestions on park crowds, and budget calculations in minutes. This can be useful information!
The catch is, Disney likes to change things all the time. New attractions, discontinued services, price increases, changes in reservation dates. Artificial intelligence doesn't take into account that your kid might get overwhelmed at around 2 p.m. and you'll need to head back to the resort. It doesn't account for the fact that your top priority is Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, and the standby wait time is consistently 90 minutes. It can't tell you that the place it just suggested requires making a reservation 3 months ahead of schedule.
In fact, even Disney is looking into incorporating AI technology into its parks' services. Executives claim it will simplify travel planning, optimize your park visit, and help with smooth ticket bookings. However, Disney executives still see AI as a tool that facilitates and helps the visitor, rather than replaces the human side of the trip.
What can be done about this by Disney travel agents? Those who will leverage AI tools and combine them with first-hand knowledge of Disney Parks will stand a much better chance in the long run!
There's no way that a Disney travel agent with lots of hands-on experience can be replaced in planning important vacations! While AI is great for giving you a starting point, a good agent will give you the best vacation possible!
How Smart Travel Agents Are Actually Using AI Right Now
This may be some good news because the most successful travel advisors are not battling against AI but embracing it in order to transform themselves.
The travel industry experienced a 43% increase in AI adoption among agents in 2024, while there were considerable productivity improvements as well. So what do the agents do with AI technology?
What agents use AI for:
Create initial drafts of itineraries within 5 minutes, rather than spending 2 hours on it
Draft booking confirmations, email follow-ups, and upsell scripts
Summarize information from resort reviews and webinars and prepare briefs for the client
Create social media posts, e-newsletters, and destination guides
Manage CRMs, generate leads, conduct email marketing campaigns and automate them
What they don't allow AI to do:
Decide on destinations/properties based on client preferences
Deal with complex rebooking issues during disruptions
Conduct relationship-building conversations which could make the client loyal to you
Check if the generated information by AI is accurate
The last point is especially crucial. Every seasoned advisor agrees that AI can be inaccurate and especially when it comes to destination-specific data. Therefore, it's essential to fact-check all the information provided by AI before providing it to the client.
AI-powered travel agents (a whole platform combining CRM, booking tools, email marketing and social media management functions) are gaining popularity since 2026. This changes the business model and makes it less expensive to run a solo or boutique agency.
The Data Privacy Elephant in the Room
When you let an AI agent independently browse, compare, and arrange travel for you, you give it tremendous amounts of personal data: your travel habits, preferences, budget, family information, passport, and payment details.
In February 2026, the Spanish Data Protection Authority issued a special guide on the topic precisely because agentic AI opens up new risks:
An AI agent will have access to "unstructured data," including emails, documents, and preferences, going way beyond the actual task.
The persistent memory of an AI agent allows your personal data to persist and be used in entirely unrelated areas.
The autonomous nature of the AI agent will enable it to transfer data to third-party sites using APIs without even informing you of such actions.
MasterCard and Visa are launching payment technologies specifically targeting agentic AI transactions
According to Reuters' legal analysts, it requires "a corresponding evolution of the legal framework," which, unfortunately, has not happened yet.
It's a dialogue that should take place within the industry, as more people entrust their booking process to agentic AI.
The Workforce Reality
Despite forecasts predicting AI would result in travel job losses, the World Travel & Tourism Council's groundbreaking 2025 study found the industry is set to create 91 million jobs around the world between now and 2035, making up one in three of all net jobs created!
However, the caveat is that there will be a deficit of 43 million people due to a decline in available labor of 16%. Most in demand will be those "which rely heavily on human interaction, and services that cannot be easily automated."
Advisors using the power of AI instead of fearing the unknown have unprecedented opportunities. While the World Economic Forum's 2025 Future of Jobs report warned that 50% job loss was predicted for travel and sales jobs by 2030, industry insiders strongly refute this forecast, claiming it demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what advisors do compared to the current capabilities of AI.
Employment opportunities for travel agents in the U.S. are predicted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to rise only 2% until 2034, but this is only an estimate and conservative one at that. Travel agents specializing in challenging trips (luxury, groups, theme parks, cruises, adventures) are developing expertise that cannot be automated.
The "Superagent" Era
A new term is emerging in travel industry circles, the Superagent, a tech-empowered, empathy-driven human advisor who uses AI to do more, faster, while doubling down on what makes them irreplaceable!
Here's what the Superagent model looks like:
They use AI to handle the 80% — research, drafts, admin, marketing.
They invest deeply in specialization — Disney, luxury cruises, adventure travel, honeymoons — niches where personal experience and relationships matter enormously.
They're advocates, not just bookers — they know who to call, what to say, and how to fight for their clients when things go sideways.
They maintain ongoing client relationships rather than transactional bookings.
They're informed about AI limitations and serve as a quality-control layer between AI-generated suggestions and real traveler outcomes.
What This Means If You're a Traveler
So where does this leave you, the person who just wants to plan a great trip?
Use AI for:
Brainstorming destinations and getting inspired
Quick overviews of what a destination offers
Generating a rough skeleton itinerary to discuss with an advisor
Finding deals and price-checking options
Understanding visa requirements (then verify these independently!)
Use a human travel advisor for:
Any complex trip with multiple moving parts
Disney vacations — seriously, don't wing this
Luxury travel where every dollar needs to count
Cruises (agents control two-thirds of all cruise bookings for a reason)
Honeymoons, milestone trips, once-in-a-lifetime travel
Anything international where disruptions could strand you
Trips that involve kids, accessibility needs, or special celebrations
And here's the thing people forget, using a travel agent typically costs you nothing extra! Agents are paid by travel suppliers, so you get expert planning and support for the same price you'd pay booking alone!
Frequently Asked Questions
Does AI Replace Travel Agents?
It might do the basics, but definitely not the hard stuff! AI shines in processing large amounts of data in repetitive tasks. Meanwhile, travel advisors have an unshakable advantage in strategic planning, dealing with emergencies, personalized service, and emotional intelligence. According to industry experts, there will always be an alliance between AI efficiency and human expertise.
Is It Safe to Trust AI Travel Planning?
While it might seem convenient, there are legitimate risks. AI hallucinations are dangerous in that they present false information with conviction. People have been directed to imaginary locations, left stranded in the wilderness, or missed flights because of such information from AI tools. You should always double-check your information before taking action.
Is There a Comeback for Travel Agents?
Absolutely, and there is evidence to support it. In 2023 alone, U.S. travel agencies had bookings amounting to $109.7 billion, representing a YoY growth of 28%. By 2027, they are predicted to account for 25% of total U.S. travel sales. Interestingly enough, one of the reasons behind this comeback is information overload generated by AI.
What Should Travel Agents Learn to Survive AI?
They must master three things: specialization, emotional intelligence, and AI itself. Those that know all about specific niches, establish strong relations with clients, and embrace AI planning tools will succeed. Trying to compete with AI's efficiency and quickness in data lookup is not the right approach.
Is My Personal Information Safe When AI Plans Travel for Me?
Privacy issues are inevitable, as agentic AI planning solutions require personal data to operate properly. These tools retain that information and even exchange it with other services without full disclosure, as the regulations for agentic AI are not fully developed yet. You should read terms and conditions very carefully.
Do Younger Generations Use AI and Travel Agents?
They use both, but not equally. While Gen-Z tourists are wary of AI – only 7% of them entrust their travels to it, and 77% have never tried AI for travel planning – they are also returning to traditional agencies. Their common trait is a desire for human interaction and accountability.
How Much Does a Travel Agent Cost?
In most cases, you will not have to pay your travel advisor a dime, as they receive commissions from suppliers. Only complex travel planning might require additional fees for your convenience and peace of mind, but you would understand that completely.
The Big Picture
Here is my takeaways from all of the reading, analysis, research, etc., done while researching everything.
The travel industry is currently undergoing one of the unique processes where there is a boom of technologies, as well as a boom of skilled employees.
The progress in artificial intelligence has made AI capable of doing everything related to research and preparation. As a result, today's travel advisors become even more important since once the computer does the job in five minutes, the professional gets an opportunity to do the most important part, be the person travelers really trust and support their needs during the trip!
The ones who are guaranteed to have the best travel experiences will be those travelers who learn to combine the two tools in order to enjoy the benefits of each.
Finally, successful travel advisors will be those who stopped being afraid of being replaced by robots and started to think about ways to use AI to create the experience travelers would never forget.
It seems to me that this is the future of travel business: artificial intelligence + human advisors!
