Agentic AI Takes the Wheel in Travel Planning and Booking

This transition is underpinned by a critical pivot in consumer trust. PYMNTS Intelligence data shows that nearly 25% of consumers say they would be comfortable letting an AI agent plan their travel. That matters because travel is a high-stakes, multi-transaction category involving flights, hotels, ground transport and activities, often with limited flexibility and high costs.

As that comfort level rises, travel platforms are responding by deploying agents that plan itineraries, execute bookings and manage trips across suppliers in real time. As a result, travel commerce is shifting away from search-led workflows toward agent-led execution.

From Assistance to End-to-End Execution

The first phase of AI adoption in travel was focused on customer service and discovery. Chatbots answered questions, surfaced recommendations and handled basic support. The current phase transfers responsibility to autonomous systems designed to act.

CNBC reported that AI travel agents are moving far beyond assistant status, increasingly handling planning, booking and disruption management autonomously. Agents can monitor prices, rebook flights and adjust itineraries without direct user involvement, signaling a shift from reactive tools to continuous decision systems.

Expedia has rolled out an AI-powered service agent designed to handle booking changes, cancellations and customer support issues within a single interaction. According to the company, the agent can resolve problems that previously required multiple handoffs across search, service and checkout. The result is a more continuous, agent-driven experience that reduces friction at moments when travelers are most likely to abandon or escalate.

Trip.com’s TripGenie extends this model into planning and booking. The agent generates comprehensive itineraries across flights, hotels and activities, dynamically adapts recommendations and completes bookings directly within the same flow. Rather than returning search results, TripGenie assembles and executes trips based on traveler intent, budget and timing constraints, shifting the cognitive load from the user to the system.

Delegation is also expanding through devices. Amazon’s Alexa Plus now supports voice-based travel booking integrations, allowing users to initiate and complete reservations through spoken commands. Alexa carries context across planning, booking and modification, reducing repeated inputs and reinforcing the agent as the system of record rather than a one-off interface.

This pattern is also emerging in managed and corporate travel. Amadeus, Microsoft and Accenture have collaborated on a trip-planning agent available to users of Amadeus’ Cytric Easy business travel platform. Employees can chat with a natural-language agent inside Microsoft Teams to plan and book trips, replacing traditional sequential search with a conversational, agent-driven workflow. The agent coordinates policy compliance, availability and booking in one interaction.

As agents increasingly become the front door to travel planning and booking, control over where and how consumers begin that journey is becoming a strategic priority for the largest online travel platforms. According to The Wall Street Journal, Booking Holdings is positioning AI as a discovery channel rather than a threat to its business, even as chatbots reshape how travelers begin planning trips.

CEO Glenn Fogel told the Journal that travelers are “beginning to change how they are going to start their travel inspiration, planning, discovery .. But we want to be there when they start.” Fogel said Booking views AI as another gateway into its platform, similar to how Google has historically driven demand, and expects scale and global reach to remain advantages as AI providers decide which travel platforms their chatbots surface on.

Beyond Platforms

As agentic systems take control of execution, the economics of travel platforms are changing.

Historically, online travel agencies optimized for clicks, conversions and upsells. Agentic AI reframes the product around outcomes: whether a trip is successfully planned, booked and managed with minimal friction. The interface matters less than the agent’s ability to complete the journey end-to-end.

This transition is visible beyond consumer platforms. GDS Genie is an AI-powered orchestration layer that coordinates inventory across global distribution systems. Rather than ranking results for users to compare, the system synchronizes availability, rules and pricing across suppliers, enabling agents to make executable decisions rather than presenting fragmented options.

That same orchestration logic is now extending into hospitality operations. Google Cloud’s partnership with Radisson demonstrates how AI connects personalization, booking and operations. In Radisson’s case, AI models help tailor offers, streamline guest interactions and connect front-end booking decisions directly to downstream service delivery, reducing operational friction and improving consistency across the guest experience.