Travel companies are racing to make AI part of the customer journey. AI in travel customer experience is evolving rapidly, impacting not just the easy parts either.
Booking a hotel. Ordering a pre-flight coffee. Rescheduling a flight. Finding lost luggage. Fixing a cancelled connection at midnight when the traveller is already tired, annoyed, and one bad answer away from switching brands.
That is where AI in travel customer experience is heading. The ambition is clear: move AI tools beyond simple search and chat into checkout, payment, service recovery, and real-time decision-making.
The problem? Travellers may not be as forgiving as companies hope.
Research published last week found that 60% of consumers would abandon AI shopping agents after a single mistake. One wrong recommendation. One failed booking. One confused response when the customer needs help quickly.
For airlines and hotels, that number should feel uncomfortable.
One Bad AI Experience Can Break the Trip
Travel is not like buying a pair of socks online.
A delayed flight can ruin a wedding trip. A hotel booking error can leave a family stranded in a city they do not know. A lost bag is not just an inconvenience when it contains medication, work clothes, or a child’s essentials.
This is why AI mistakes in travel carry more weight.
A customer may tolerate a chatbot getting a product question wrong in retail. In travel, the same kind of failure can feel personal. It can feel expensive. Sometimes it can feel unsafe.
That is the real issue behind the 60% abandonment figure. It is not only about whether consumers like AI. It is about whether they trust it when the stakes are high.
Speed Matters, But Trust Matters More
Travel brands often focus on speed when they talk about AI. Faster bookings. Faster answers. Faster support.
Fine. Speed helps.
But speed without accuracy is just a faster way to lose a customer.
Latency also matters. If an AI agent takes too long to respond, travellers get nervous. If the answer feels uncertain, they start looking for another option. If the system loops, stalls, or asks the same question twice, the customer does not think, “This is an emerging technology.”
They think, “I need a human.”
That reaction happens quickly. Sometimes in seconds.
The three seconds after a traveller asks for help may decide whether they keep trusting the AI agent or abandon it completely.
The Human Handoff Is Still the Weak Point
One of the biggest problems with AI travel agents is not the AI answer itself. It is what happens when the answer is not enough.
A cancelled flight is a good test.
Can the AI agent understand the booking? Can it find alternatives? Can it explain refund rules clearly? Can it handle a passenger travelling with children, baggage, loyalty status, or a tight connection? Can it pass the case to a human without making the customer repeat everything?
That last part matters more than companies admit.
Every AI travel agent needs an escape hatch. A clean handoff to a real person. No dead ends. No “I’m sorry, I can’t help with that” after five minutes of typing. No reset when the traveller is already stressed.
AI should reduce friction. It should not trap people inside an automated maze.
Why Travellers Still Hesitate
Many travellers are open to AI when the task is simple. Inspiration, price comparison, itinerary ideas, basic questions. That is where AI feels useful.
But handing over the actual holiday? That is different.
People still worry about whether an AI agent will book the wrong date, miss a hidden fee, misunderstand a cancellation policy, or fail when plans change. These are not small fears. They are exactly the moments where customer loyalty is either strengthened or destroyed.
For hotels and airlines, this means AI cannot be treated as a shiny front-end feature. It has to be operationally ready.
It must connect properly with booking systems, payment systems, loyalty platforms, customer service teams, baggage systems, and disruption management tools. Otherwise, the experience looks modern on the surface but breaks when it matters.
The One-Strike Rule Is Already Here
The harsh truth is that travellers may give AI only one chance.
One mistake can be enough.
That does not mean airlines and hotels should avoid AI. It means they should stop treating deployment as the finish line. Launching an AI agent is not the achievement. Getting it to work reliably under real travel pressure is the achievement.
About Martijn Gribnau
This article is based on insights from Martijn Gribnau, Chief Customer Success Officer at pioneering U.S. AI firm Quant. Gribnau is a global authority on using technology and change management to drive business transformation. He previously served as CEO of Volksbank in the Netherlands and as COO and CTO of the U.S. Long Term Care & Life Division at Genworth Financial.
