Planning a holiday is increasingly becoming a job for artificial intelligence, as AI-powered tools offer personalised itineraries in seconds — challenging the role of traditional travel agents, AFP reported.
Start-up Mindtrip is among the companies leading this shift. Its generative AI can produce a custom travel plan from a simple prompt, recommending hotels, restaurants, attractions, and activities. Users can then confirm bookings either within the app or through partner websites that open directly to the selected options.
“Instead of jumping between Google searches, everything is streamlined,” said Mindtrip CEO Andy Moss.
Other tourism-focused AI platforms like Vacay and Navan are also targeting the leisure and business travel markets. Meanwhile, tech giants such as Google (with Gemini), OpenAI (with Operator), and Anthropic (with Claude) are entering the travel planning space with aggressive marketing.
Legacy players are evolving in response. Expedia launched Romie, an assistant designed for group bookings, while Booking.com introduced Smart Filter, allowing users to ask for specific features like a canal-view hotel room in Amsterdam.
“It’s still early, but we believe agentic AI will let us offer unique value,” said Booking.com’s Chief Technology Officer Rob Francis.
French travel brand Club Med has also joined the trend with a WhatsApp chatbot to answer customer queries. “When it was a human responding, the average wait time was 90 minutes,” said Chairman Henri Giscard d’Estaing.
According to Jukka Laitamaki, a travel sector expert at New York University, AI is doing more than simplifying bookings—it’s enabling instant updates when plans change. “You don’t have to call anyone; just update your itinerary in the system,” he noted.
Still, adoption won’t be rapid. “Most of the industry consists of small operators lacking the infrastructure for AI,” said Eva Stewart of GSIQ consultancy.
While start-ups are driving innovation, larger travel platforms may regain dominance through scale and technical prowess. “They’ve got the customer base,” Laitamaki added.
As for traditional travel agents, their future may lie in luxury. “The ultra-wealthy still want the human touch,” Laitamaki said. “But for everything else, AI is likely to take over.”
