The trend: GenAI is reshaping how consumers plan and book travel.

• The share of consumers using genAI for trip planning and discovery has tripled in three years, reaching 24% this year, up from 8% in 2023, per a recent Deloitte survey.
• There’s still plenty of runway ahead. A separate Bain survey expects roughly 2 in 3 consumers (65%) to use the technology by the end of next year, up from about 2 in 5 (40%) today.

Why it matters: GenAI is already a powerful tool for building itineraries and, increasingly, a means of booking travel via tools like OpenAI’s third-party integrations and Google’s AI Mode.

• That shift could trigger more price competition, creating challenges for those platforms’ current travel-consolidation partners such as Booking.com and Expedia—and even more pressure on companies outside Google’s orbit.
• The stakes are rising as more travelers book directly: 78% of consumers now book flights via an airline’s app or site (up from 75% last year); 75% book hotels directly (up from 72%); and 69% book rentals directly (up from 64%), per Deloitte.

The trend is likely to accelerate as consumers grow more comfortable with genAI and watch their spending: 1 in 3 consumers (31%) say they’re financially worse off than a year ago (up from 26% last year), including 1 in 5 households (19%) earning over $100,000.

Our take: While the share of consumers using genAI for travel is growing quickly, most travelers don’t yet have firm habits around how they use the technology.

That presents an opportunity for travel companies to meet the moment by embracing the technology and finding ways to make their brands stickier. That starts with partnering with the platforms consumers already rely on and ensuring they benefit from the shift. They may also gain an edge by offering an easy-to-use loyalty program that makes it seamless to earn and spend points, whether travelers book directly or through tools like Google’s AI Mode.