AI plans the trip. Who does the client trust to book it?
2026 surveys show travellers use AI for ideas but verify elsewhere and prefer trusted brands to book. What that means for travel agents, with sources.
This year's surveys agree on one thing: travellers use AI to get ideas, then go somewhere else to check and book. That gap is where a good agent earns their fee.
By Traviology · Published 2026-11-10
Every few months someone announces that AI is about to replace travel agents. So we read the 2026 research instead of guessing. The picture is more interesting than "AI wins" or "AI is a fad".
Yes, travellers are using it
The adoption numbers are real and rising:
Deloitte's 2026 summer travel survey of 4,003 Americans put use of generative AI for travel planning at 25%, up from 15% in 2025.
Allianz Partners' Global Travel Confidence Index, run by Ipsos with 2,001 US adults, found 37% of Americans planning summer travel were using or planning to use AI to help plan.
An Expedia Group survey by YouGov of more than 5,700 adults in the US, UK and India found 53% are comfortable letting AI suggest travel options and 40% use AI to help build itineraries.
The surveys ask different questions of different people, so the percentages don't line up neatly. The direction does.
But not for the part that costs money
Here the same research turns. In Expedia Group's study:
Only 8% of US and UK travellers rely on AI chatbots such as ChatGPT or Gemini when planning, compared with 59% who use search engines and 49% who use online travel agencies.
68% prefer to book with a trusted travel brand over an AI chatbot or agent, even when AI booking is available.
66% say they would not trust an AI assistant to buy or book anything for them.
40% worry about poor customer service if something goes wrong after an AI has made a purchase.
The US firm Mower surveyed 1,000 US leisure travellers aged 18 to 64 who use AI at least occasionally. Even in that AI-friendly group:
28% said they would most likely start planning their next trip with an AI tool, just behind Google search at 30%.
After getting an AI recommendation, 59% search Google, 49% visit the official website and 40% compare prices.
Only 5% book exactly what the AI suggested.
Only 28% mostly or completely trust AI to book a flight for them, and 29% a hotel.
Comfort with relying heavily on AI drops to 14% for a luxury trip of $5,000 or more.
The largest single group, 34%, described their attitude as "I trust AI, but only after I verify its recommendations."
A fair caveat: Expedia sells travel, Allianz sells insurance and Mower advises travel marketers. Each has a point of view. But they reach the same conclusion from different directions, and that is worth taking seriously.
What that means for agents
We see three openings.
1. Be the verification step. Clients already check AI answers: they search, open official sites and compare prices. An agent who says "here's what's real, here's what's bookable, here's the actual price" is doing the step clients want done, faster and with someone accountable. Mower's respondents said the thing that would most damage their trust in AI travel advice was it being wrong. Being right is the product.
2. Own the high-stakes trips. Trust in AI falls as the stakes rise. Multi-city itineraries, honeymoons, family trips with tight connections, anything above a few thousand dollars: these are exactly where clients want a person who will pick up the phone when a flight is cancelled.
3. Use AI yourself, openly. Clients don't object to AI. They object to being left alone with it. An agent who drafts ideas quickly with AI, then checks every price and connection, gets the speed and keeps the trust. We think that's a better business than competing with chatbots on inspiration, or pretending they don't exist.
What doesn't work
Selling against AI ("those tools make things up") gets you nowhere with a client who used one this morning and found it useful. Neither does matching it on volume. Ten AI-generated itinerary options are not a service. One itinerary that is priced, checked and bookable is.
Our bias, stated plainly
We make tools for agencies, so of course we think agents have a future. The research gives us something more specific than that. The future sits in the gap between "that sounds nice" and "it's booked": live prices, real availability, someone accountable. It's also the part travellers say they trust AI with least.
If you want to see how we approach planning from the agent's side, the live Trip Planner demo is open to try. More on how we work with agencies is on our for agencies page.
Sources
Expedia Group reveals "The AI Trust Gap" (Expedia Group, 14 April 2026)
AI starts the trip. Trust closes it. (Mower, travel and tourism AI trust study, 2026, PDF)
Survey figures checked October 2026.
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