New Consumer Report Says AI Has Surpassed Social Media, OTAs For Travel Discovery

Generative AI is rapidly permeating nearly every element of life and that includes travel.

In fact, the use of generative AI now officially surpasses social media and OTAs as the leading source of travel discovery, according to a new Consumer Pulse survey from Accenture. It has become the number one go-to-channel for active Gen AI users, who are defined as people using gen AI tools at least weekly for personal or professional reasons. 

The global survey, which involved 18,000 consumers across 14 countries, also reveals that:

• Over half of travelers are ready for AI agents that plan and book entire trips.
• 93 percent of users would trust gen AI to support purchasing decisions.
• Eight in 10 (80 percent) of travelers in the sample across airlines, hotel stays, and travel platforms are now using gen AI tools.
  
  

All of this information is particularly notable when considered within the context of last year’s Accenture’s Consumer Pulse Survey, which found that travelers felt the mere act of booking a hotel was harder than buying a car and that choosing a flight was almost as hard as choosing a mortgage. 

Moreover, almost three-quarters (73 percent) of consumers who participated in last year’s survey said they faced “information overload,” as a result of the sheer number of choices, messages, ads and claims consumers face when trying to make a booking on their own.

That overload caused some 73 percent to walk away from a hotel or flight booking entirely. 

Enter AI and its ability to solve some of that overload...

Artificial intelligence (AI) and the newer generative AI (gen AI) and agentic AI is enabling travel companies to solve these issues by empowering travelers to discover and purchase the right experiences with confidence tailored to their individual needs, says the report.

“In the space of a year, we are already seeing AI start to solve for the problem of choice and decision overload, with a real opportunity to bring enjoyment back to the arduous process of discovering and purchasing memorable travel experiences,” said Emily Weiss, Accenture’s global travel lead.

Gen AI helps travelers have experiences tailored to their unique needs and preferences in a more human and natural way, added Weiss.

“Consider that instead of being overwhelmed by countless options and conflicting reviews, gen AI can act as a personal travel concierge, providing bespoke recommendations based on preferences, budget and location. It can consider factors such as a person’s previous travel history, loyalty program status and even real-time data on local events and attractions,” Weiss said.

Travel advisor is the fifth fastest growing profession in the U.S. (Photo Credit: Courtesy AdobeStock)

So, where does the continued proliferation and adoption of AI leave travel advisors and how might they be impacted by its increasing popularity?

Tara Minson, president of InteleTravel, a company with a network of 97,000 of travel advisors in the U.S. and 35,000 in the UK, offers insight on such questions.

Most importantly, Minson stresses that that AI will never replace travel agents, though there has indeed been some chatter about that. 

“When AI first started emerging, again it came back to 'Will AI replace travel agents?' Because now, you can go into AI and say ‘I want to go to Rome for 10 days, what cities should I hit? I want to spend two nights in each city and I’m a foodie, so I’d love to be by big culinary cities,’” Minson explains. “You can plug in a whole list of the things you want and it will spit back an itinerary.”

But, without missing a beat, Minson quickly points out what AI is not capable of doing in such scenarios. For starters, AI cannot book your journey for you. (At least not yet.) More importantly, however, AI will never really know and understand the customer.

“It will never know, when you ask for a luxury destination for a girls trip, for four days in the Caribbean, for instance, what you mean by luxury. AI will never know that you don’t just want a clean resort with a nice beach. You want butler service. You want a pillow top menu, where you can pick the pillow you sleep on every night. And you want reservations made for you in advance, along with multiple dining options, modern amenities and an ocean view,” says Minson.

“AI will never be able to do that. Yes, you can go back and refine with AI. But it’s still going to involve you researching,” Minson adds.

Bottom line? 

Minson suggests the future will be one in which travel advisors might use AI to better serve their clients. She doesn’t foresee a future however, where AI ever replaces advisors entirely.

“But a travel agent will be replaced by another travel agent who is not using AI,” Minson adds.

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