The hype cycle on AI agents keeps going. The Financial Times tells us that the “rise of AI shopping agents” is set to transform e-commerce. OpenAI even renamed its Operator system simply “Agent,” making the pitch clear: AI will browse and buy on our behalf. Sounds great, but not totally sure it will pan out (most of Amazon’s profit comes from ads not from product sales).
And sites with original data, really dislike getting scraped. Just ask Ryanair, who has spent years battling OTAs, meta-search, and scrapers. So I don’t see why OTAs would happily let AI bots strip-mine their content and commoditize them into pure plumbing? It’s not in their business model. For an OTA, allowing AI agents to sit on top of their inventory would mean giving up brand, customer relationship, and most importantly—ad revenue. Glenn Fogel is OK with them becoming a paid channel and they believe their own AI agents will be much better. Possibly, but I’m not totally convinced. No OTA has shown a particular skill in tech innovation. They are incredible at distribution and buying way to the top – not technology.
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So, are AI agents doomed in travel? No. But I think the breakthrough won’t come from booking sites giving up their inventory or creating their own agents. I think AI will enable a new generation of human travel agents (probably better to call them travel assistants). Independent gig workers will be able to assist in booking our itineraries as a service and be there to help fix problems. With AI doing the grunt work, suggesting itineraries, checking availability, rebooking flights. The travel assistants can focus on the reassurance travelers crave. Travel is often the biggest line item in a family’s annual budget, and a once-a-year purchase carries high risk. If something goes wrong and the family is stuck somewhere in Turkey, nobody wants to get some sycophantic GPT message back about how it will try to do better next time.
This is where AI + humans could really shine. Think of an ecosystem of travel assistants, part concierge, part fixer. Charging a competitive fee to assist in the travel booking journey without needing the same licensing, insurances or overhead as traditional agencies. Always available, reasonably priced, and backed by AI agent sophisticated enough to handle cancellations, disruptions, and the inevitable curveballs. That feels like a new market, not a threat to OTAs.
The danger of full “agent mode” is that it strips away accountability. Who do you call when your customs took longer than anticipated and you’re stuck in some airport? could they deal with the lost luggage? Travel is not like buying sneakers that can be returned, it’s logistics, money, and emotions.
So, while AI shopping agents may somewhat work in retail (but we can count on Amazon to make it extremely difficult), in travel they’ll likely remain the assistants’ assistants. Less of a full scale AI-revolution, more of a quiet shift enabling humans to be better, faster, and more affordable at doing what humans do best: making sure there is emotional support on that holiday expense.
