How Agentic AI will Impact the Travel Industry?

By Norm Rose

Introduction

It was 1987, and my wife and I attended the Macworld trade show. John Scully, Apple’s then CEO, presented a video called the Knowledge Navigator. The presentation was mind-blowing! It showed a tablet-based avatar, operated on voice and touch commands, working with a college professor to retrieve and combine both personal and public information and act as a digital assistant and collaborator.

Though this vision didn’t directly materialize for Apple with the failure of the Newton handheld device (introduced in 1992), the concept stuck with me. It inspired me to write a blog entry about Intelligent Agents in 2006 and then a Phocuswright Article in 2014 entitled Intelligent Travel Assistants, When Will True Intelligence Arrive?, not to mention a number of articles since.

Now in 2026, as I enter retirement, with the dawn of generative AI (genAI) and the growth of Agentic AI, the concept of a digital intelligent assistant that can book travel on your behalf is finally becoming reality.

What Exactly Is the Agentic AI Future?

Traditional AI systems often require human guidance, with pre-programmed rules limiting their scope of operation. In contrast, autonomous AI (increasingly referred to synonymously as Agentic AI) possesses the ability to analyze and interpret data, learn from experiences, and execute actions without constant human supervision.

Whether it is OpenAI’s Operator using travel as a prominent example or Google’s variety of AI integrations being highlighted for trip planning and booking, Agent AI is becoming a reality.  As agentic AI emerges, will the vision of a truly automated booking assistant be fully realized? And how will that impact travel distribution?

I have been an advocate for what is now called Agentic AI for nearly 30 years. I am not an AI scientist, but over the years, I have had the pleasure of working with many leading AI scientists through consulting engagements, from Broadvision in 1999 to Fetch Technologies in 2000 (no longer in business), and most recently working with another AI company called Fetch, this time Fetch.ai, in 2023. My work with these leading AI scientists has helped shape my vision of the future of AI.

By 2027, we will begin to see true Agentic AI Travel take hold and gradually grow, provided the underlying distribution content and infrastructure is ready.

The debate regarding the impact of Agentic commerce and third-party distribution, such as the GDS, OTAs, and TMCs, is mainly focused on their role as an aggregator and providing support services.  It is conceivable that third-party intermediaries will struggle with relevance as Agentic AI takes hold, but it will take some time. Airlines are already better positioned to receive direct bookings, so they may benefit from Agentic AI, provided they can distinguish between bots representing customers versus nefarious bots imitating customers. The role of the GDS as an aggregator will be challenged but they may be able to adapt by embracing this new technology and continue to act as aggregators for hotel content.  The TMCs also play a role as hotel aggregators, so friction between these two entities may emerge. The underlying financial structure where GDS pay TMCs derived from supplier fees must change over the next few years altering their traditional relationship. In the long term, the role of the TMC as a support the corporate traveler will be challenged by Agentic AI though it will take 5-10 years to see the full impact of this prediction.

Summary and Predictions

True travel automation is coming. Web 2.0 online travel simply transferred many of the activities performed by offline travel agents to the consumer and corporate traveler or travel arranger.  Agentic AI, combined with digital ID, holds the promise to truly automate the travel booking process while making it

far more personalized.  OBTs will become immaterial as Agentic AI agents act on behalf of the corporate traveler, adhering to policy and personal preferences.

The industry will go through a number of growing pains, but in the end, Agentic AI will create new opportunities for supplier-direct while reinforcing the value of inventory aggregation through TMCs and perhaps the GDS if they can maintain relevancy. The day will arrive in the not-too-distant future where a simple voice command or calendar entry will initiate travel policy-compliant travel search and deliver a booking process that results in better content and simplifies the process of travel planning and booking for the masses. But first, data governance must be addressed, and silos must be broken down.

Throughout my 30 years as a consultant, I have witnessed firsthand how the travel industry often over hypes and then undervalues emerging technologies.  From the initial launch of the Internet, where traditional players such as American Express and AAA Travel missed the opportunity and allowed the growth of the three mega-OTAs, to today, where innovative startups such as BlockSkye successfully bypass credit card fees to offer direct settlement with suppliers. Often, the industry invests more into PR and lobbying to prevent change rather than embracing change.  The coming Agentic era will be as significant as the change triggered by the Internet itself.  There will be winners and losers, all dictated by how serious existing players take these trends and how much investment they make to operate in the genAI/Agentic future.  Those who ignore this trend do so at their own peril.