This sponsored content is created in partnership with Skift partners.
More than half of travelers distrust AI-generated travel recommendations, creating a significant credibility gap as travel brands increase investment in AI-driven personalization. While half of travelers are willing to use AI to compare hotels, flights and travel packages, many remain unconvinced that AI can provide recommendations that reflect their individual needs.
For CRM and loyalty leaders like hotel brands and airlines who are already investing in AI-driven personalization, this gap means broader conversion and retention issues. The question is no longer whether to add artificial intelligence to the customer journey, but whether the customer intelligence behind these experiences is strong enough to earn confidence in the moments that matter.
According to Wunderkind’s Future of Travel report, only 24% of travelers say they trust AI-generated travel recommendations. Meanwhile, 43% said they feel overwhelmed by the continued presence of artificial intelligence in digital experiences.
“Travelers are not rejecting AI,” said Allen Choate, senior director of business development at Wunderkind. “They reject experiences that feel generic or disconnected from their intent. The opportunity for brands is not just to introduce more AI into the customer journey, but to ensure that every recommendation is based on a true understanding of the traveler. Trust is earned when AI consistently helps people make better decisions, not just faster ones.”
The findings indicate that AI adoption and trust in AI are evolving at different rates. Brands that race to deploy visible AI capabilities without improving relevance, accuracy, and channel orchestration may widen this gap rather than close it. The report explores how identity recognition, behavioral intelligence and adaptive decision-making can help travel brands treat AI less as a novelty and more as an intelligence layer that makes customer experiences simpler, more timely and more human.
It also examines how travelers discover, plan, book and manage travel in an increasingly AI-driven world. Drawing on consumer survey data, it explores AI adoption, trust, personalization, booking behavior, channel preferences and the continued importance of human support throughout the travel journey.
“The next phase of AI in travel won’t be defined by who has the flashiest chatbot. It will be defined by who can combine identity, behavioral signals and human context to deliver truly useful experiences,” Choate said. “Successful travel brands will be those that use AI to remove friction, respect customer preferences and strengthen long-term relationships, rather than simply automating interactions.”
In this guide you'll find:
- Which travel planning tasks consumers are most willing to delegate to AI, and where their boundaries are
- Why email still dominates travelers’ attention, with 39% saying it’s the channel most likely to reach them, more than three times more than any other channel
- Travelers reject automation altogether, including billing issues, cancellations, interruptions and complex bookings, while human support remains critical
- Why 40% of travelers are reluctant to share personal data, and why Millennials, despite being heavy digital users, are the most resistant
- How travel discovery is segmented across search, social, creators, brand sites and AI assistants
- Why Gen Z offers the clearest preview of the future of AI in travel, with higher levels of trust, greater comfort sharing data and higher expectations for accurate, real-time information
- Why owned channels remain resilient even as research and planning processes become longer and more dispersed
- Why booking direct remains important in a multi-platform world, 43% of travelers book directly through a travel brand’s website or app
This sponsored content was created in collaboration with child prodigy and skift studio.
