Win the AI Agent, Win the Traveler

AI Agents Could Alter Travel Purchasing Decisions

Travel planning often requires customers to compare airfares, hotel rates, loyalty rewards, payment methods and cancellation policies across several websites or applications. AI agents could reduce that work by evaluating options quickly and applying a traveler’s stated preferences.

This could affect how airlines, hotels, online travel agencies and other travel providers compete for customers. Companies may need to ensure automated systems can identify their offers, understand their terms and recommend them when appropriate.

Travel executives expect AI-native platforms to become an important point of contact between customers and travel brands. As travelers use these platforms to research and book trips, the information available to AI agents could influence which companies are included in comparisons and recommendations.

Travelers Want Assistance but Retain Purchase Control

Accenture’s June 2026 B2C Traveler Survey of 5,003 travelers in 12 markets found that 40% of respondents would fully delegate the comparison of travel options to an AI system.

However, willingness to delegate declines when an AI system would execute a payment. Only 10% of respondents said they would fully delegate payment execution to AI. The survey also found that 84% would choose some form of AI-assisted payment.

AI systems may narrow choices, identify suitable rewards or flag payment options, while travelers retain control to review and approve final transactions.

Fragmented Systems Can Create Barriers

Disconnected technology systems can limit integrated AI-assisted travel experiences. For an agent to help customers throughout a trip, identity information, booking records, loyalty accounts, payment tools and customer preferences may need to work together.

Only 30% of travel executives said their organizations were fully prepared to coordinate end-to-end customer journeys across partners. Customer data, payment, identity and loyalty systems often remain separate.

This fragmentation can lead to problems including unavailable loyalty rewards during booking, payment failures and repeated data entry. Support can also become difficult when an itinerary involves multiple providers.

For an AI agent, incomplete or inconsistent information could make a provider’s offer harder to assess. Repeated booking or payment failures could also affect whether an agent recommends a company in the future.

Different Travel Sectors Face Different Tasks

Airlines are encouraged to focus on unifying traveler identity so customer records, preferences and benefits can be recognized across services.

Hotels may need to make room rates, cancellation rules, loyalty benefits and other policies easier for automated systems to interpret and apply. Online travel agencies may need to strengthen payment functions and broader journey coordination.

Across sectors, priorities include connecting identity, loyalty, payments and customer data; establishing governance, security and customer controls; and modernizing systems in stages, beginning with identity and data integration before expanding payment and loyalty capabilities.

Companies Face Two Possible Roles in AI Travel

Travel companies can become providers that AI agents can easily assess and recommend by making offers, policies and loyalty benefits visible and reliable.

They can also become the interface through which travelers use AI to plan, book and manage trips. Some companies may pursue both approaches.

Travelers are expected to retain control over decisions, particularly payments, even as AI agents take on a larger role in researching and comparing travel options.