AI agents poised to take over travel industry

Dreaming of going on vacation but not sure where to go? Increasingly the answer — and how to get there, what to eat and where to stay—will come from advanced AI, rather than your old-school travel agent.

- (By: Thomas Urbain/AFP)

Startup Mindtrip's generative AI can craft a tailor-made itinerary in seconds from a simple text prompt, with suggestions for hotels, restaurants, sightseeing and activities.

After picking out their favorite options, travelers can have every step of the trip reserved in the app — or on partner websites that open directly to the relevant page.

"Instead of going to Google and you do one search, and then you do another... you can actually just get into everything," Mindtrip chief executive Andy Moss said.

Similar tourism-focused startups include Vacay, while others like Navan are taking on the business travel market.

Generative Al heavyweights like Google with its Gemini chatbot, OpenAI with Operator or Anthropic with Claude are also heavily marketing holiday planning.

Existing mainstays of the online travel market are adapting.