IS AI SET TO TRANSFORM TRAVEL PLANNING?

India seems ready to adopt AI but is not yet ready to fully trust it, reveals a recent Booking.​com report. The worldwide survey demonstrates that while AI is permeating daily life, caution, excitement, and curiosity are in conflict.

- SUMAN TARAFDAR

To trust or not to trust-that seems to be the crucial question. In a short span, people worldwide have begun using Artificial Intelligence (AI) more frequently, especially Generative AI, which has given humans unprecedented freedom in integrating it into their daily lives. Still in its nascent stage, AI will improve over time, but concerns around reliability and, more significantly, trustworthiness remain.

To understand how AI is reshaping the way people live, work, and travel, Booking.​com commissioned the Global AI Sentiment Report to explore how consumers use, trust, and respond to AI in everyday life and travel.

Surveying over 37,000 people across 33 markets, including more than 13,000 respondents from the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, the findings reveal how deeply AI is embedded in daily routines.

Asia, an early adopter of technology, unsurprisingly ranks among the highest in AI usage, with 82% reporting regular use. Search engines lead with 98% adoption across APAC, followed by AI-powered chatbots and streaming recommendations (87%). Voice assistants (82%), creative tools (81%), and smart devices (80%) are also widely used.

"It's really the first time that we're thinking about AI more broadly," says Laura Houldsworth, Managing Director of the Asia Pacific region.

"There's not a day that goes by when it isn't mentioned. What is the sentiment around AI? How are people feeling about it? What are they using it for? How much do they trust it? We really wanted to get that conversation started, and this report is just the beginning."

Trust issues

Conversely, trust in AI tools is not as high as their usage. In APAC, search engines are the most trusted (71%), followed by smart devices (65%), streaming services (63%), generative AI (62%), and creative tools (62%), while chatbots (51%) and voice assistants (61%) rank lowest despite heavy use.