Why Time and Certainty Are the New Loyalty Currency
The travel industry is entering a post-search era. We’re witnessing the emergence of agentic AI—technology that doesn’t just respond to travelers’ Google queries but proactively plans and executes travel arrangements with minimal human intervention.
Technology leaders at travel brands can guess what this means for online travel agents (OTAs). What might have started as a simple chatbot answering customer service queries has rapidly advanced into sophisticated agents capable of comparing options, making suggestions, and completing bookings independently. The traditional models—choosing from a preset menu offered by an OTA or manually assembling itineraries through separate bookings with various travel providers—are being disrupted. Taking their place are conversational interfaces, where travelers simply express their needs and AI delivers comprehensive, personalized solutions.
For travel technology leaders, the question today isn’t whether to implement AI—it’s when.
The New Customer Journey: From Weeks to Minutes
For travelers, this is a welcome development. The current travel booking process has way too much friction built into it. Research shows that consumers spend approximately two months researching their next trip—browsing options, watching videos, reading reviews, and weighing countless choices before finally booking. This represents an enormous opportunity for AI to compress what takes weeks into a matter of minutes.
Consider the potential of an AI agent that understands a traveler’s calendar, budget constraints, and content consumption habits. Such technology could create experiences so personalized that it functions like a travel assistant who has been observing their preferences for years. This level of sophistication goes far beyond demographic data or purchase history—it requires AI systems that can synthesize digital behaviors across multiple platforms to anticipate needs before they’re consciously recognized.
The implications extend beyond convenience. When travelers can instantly accomplish what previously required weeks of research, the entire foundation of travel commerce shifts. In this environment, collaboration provides a strategic advantage; travel brands need to work with partners who understand the landscape and can help deliver faster, smarter, and more personalized experiences. AI creates new opportunities for technology providers and travel brands to come together and reimagine the traveler journey.
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The Loyalty Revolution: Time Over Points
Travel loyalty programs are on the front lines of this AI-driven shift. While traditional points and status schemes remain important to travelers, travel loyalty programs must adapt to meet travelers’ expectations for intelligent, friction-free travel planning. In other words, rather than simply rewarding customers with points, winning programs will reward them with time, relevance, and certainty.
AI enhances loyalty outcomes by making travelers feel understood, supported, and valued through smart interactions instead of (or in addition to) transactional point accumulation. For example, AI can help programs deliver instant, personalized recommendations that eliminate hours of research and comparison shopping, or anticipate family accommodation needs, or understand preferences for specific luxury brands at any point in the booking or redemption process. The confidence that an AI agent’s suggestions will align perfectly with their needs, budget, and schedule is as rewarding to the member as any points bonus.
Brands that use AI to simplify complex travel decisions, suggest contextually smart redemptions, or surface exclusive perks at the right time will earn both repeat business and customers’ trust.
Traditional Players Under Pressure
The rise of AI agents places traditional booking platforms in a similarly precarious position. The largest online travel agencies recognize this and are significantly increasing their marketing spend—$4.5 billion in Q1 2025, according to Phocuswire—in response to competitive pressure. However, marketing alone cannot address the core challenge: if agents and OTAs compete solely on cost rather than experience or relationship, these platforms lose their differentiation, and AI associated with large tech platforms (like Google) will win.
Instead, marketers and other traditional agents should lean into data quality, exclusive inventory, and integration sophistication. Those that move quickly can maintain relevance by leveraging these advantages to build customer trust. If they then invest in AI capabilities to augment those advantages and continue owning customer relationships, they will avoid becoming commoditized providers or worse, obsolete.
Tech Giants Make Their Move
Meanwhile, major technology platforms are moving aggressively to preserve their position in the customer journey. Google, a key entry point for travel discovery and decision-making, has accelerated AI initiatives to meet changing traveler expectations and protect travel-associated advertising revenue.
At Google I/O 2025, the company introduced “AI Mode” for Search, a functionality that lends itself well to travel planning and booking. Google’s comprehensive mapping data, search behavior patterns, location history, and ecosystem integration provide unprecedented context about user preferences and behavior. This gives the company’s AI capabilities distinct advantages in understanding traveler intent and delivering relevant recommendations.
Similarly, ChatGPT Operator’s partnerships with major travel platforms demonstrate how quickly autonomous booking capabilities are becoming mainstream. These developments present both challenges and opportunities for travel brands, requiring them to either develop internal AI capabilities or partner with technology providers who can deliver intelligent, integrated solutions.
The Personalization Imperative
True personalization requires more than demographic segmentation or purchase history analysis. Modern travelers leave digital breadcrumbs across multiple platforms—social media posts about desired destinations, calendar patterns revealing optimal travel windows, spending behaviors indicating budget constraints, and content consumption signaling interests and preferences.
AI systems that can synthesize this information create personalization so sophisticated that it anticipates needs before they’re consciously recognized. Travel brands that invest in building comprehensive customer profiles, while respecting privacy boundaries, will create competitive advantages that generate valuable market intelligence. AI systems understanding aggregate traveler behavior can anticipate demand patterns, optimize inventory allocation, and identify emerging trends before competitors recognize them.
The Race Is Already Underway
While many travel brands debate whether to invest in AI capabilities, early adopters are already building competitive advantages that will be difficult to overcome. The companies making these investments today aren’t waiting for perfect technology—they’re learning from real customer interactions and refining their approaches through practice.
This creates a compounding effect. Brands that start integrating AI now gain months or years of data on customer preferences, usage patterns, and system performance. They identify what works, fix what doesn’t, and build institutional knowledge that becomes increasingly valuable over time. Meanwhile, companies waiting for AI to become “ready” fall further behind in understanding how these tools actually perform with their customers.
The math is straightforward: every month of delay means competing against rivals with more sophisticated AI experiences and deeper customer insights. In an industry where margins are often thin and customer acquisition costs continue rising, the ability to deliver superior AI-powered experiences becomes a decisive competitive factor.
Travel brands now face a choice between leading this transition or reacting to it. Those choosing to lead are positioning themselves to define customer expectations and capture market share from slower-moving competitors.
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