Would AI Be a Gamechanger?
AI and the Future of Travel
With the revolution of ChatGPT, excitement about a new way of travelling has arisen. Skift, one of the most credible travel research centers, projected a $28 billion opportunity. Online travel agencies such as Chinese giant Trip.com and good old Expedia, hustled to launch AI chatbots, promising personalized travel inspirations and AI-generated itineraries. AI was at the center of the spotlight, and it seemed to happen in the near future.
However, this ‘near’ future hasn’t arrived, even after several years. We look for inspiration on Instagram and wait for the perfect time to book tickets, but miss it by waiting too long. AI assistants keep asking for my departing airport, though I already mentioned ‘Seoul’ from the start. Unlike in daily life, where AI is rapidly becoming in use, in this industry, it feels more like science fiction.
That must be one of the reasons why the hype has faded. On the other hand, when we think of travel, we can see that it might not be a great material for AI learning. Data needs to be enormous and consistent for machines to detect patterns, and travel is the exact opposite. It costs us a lot, which makes it far from a weekly treat for most of us (Congrats if it is for you). Airfares rise and fall in real-time, and there are people from Airlines or OTAs monitoring the prices and changing them manually. This makes it harder for AI to find price-change patterns. Likewise, it is not that easy to recommend destinations. Travel is deeply connected to personal taste and relies heavily on subjective aspects, contrary to quantitative, objective assessments, where AI excels.
Therefore, adoption has played it safe within areas such as operational automation and review summarization, which are traditional comparative advantages of AI. However, on August 15th, a major change appeared: Google Flight Deals. It is an AI-powered flight search tool for flexible travelers who are looking for a cheap destination without fixed dates in mind. All we need to do is type a conversational sentence into the search box. It will work like multiple filters to suggest personalized destinations with cheaper prices.
Last month, I tried the Google Flight Deals feature to find destinations within +/- 2 hours of Korea’s time zone for a 2-week digital nomad trip. Apart from the discovery feature, I had to go through the traditional online booking process, of course. People imagine that we can say “Book a cheap vacation this winter” to an AI travel assistant and have everything prepared. In reality, we’ve still got a long way to go. But the search results from Google Flights were great, and now I’m planning my workation to Chiang Mai. So, who knows? Maybe our next trip will be planned by AI.
Reference
1. Live Skift Panel on Generative AI in Travel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvaVQMJwGfc
2. TNMT article released on Oct 2nd, 2025: https://tnmt.com/the-case-for-european-travel-and-mobility-tech/
3. AI in the Travel Industry: Three Airline-Tech Innovations That Stand Out in September 2025: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-travel-industry-three-airline-tech-innovations-stand-out-september-cfdie/
