Will AI Replace Travel Agents? What the Data Says
By
Kirill L.
BLS expects steady demand for travel agents. Here's what AI is taking off agency desks, what stays human, and how to start without losing the personal touch.
Will AI replace travel agents? No. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects little or no change in travel agent employment over 2025-2035. What AI is replacing is the administrative throughput around the job: rebuilding itineraries, re-keying bookings, chasing changes and reconciling commissions.
The travel agent keeps the judgment, the supplier relationships and the accountability when a trip goes sideways. So the better question for an agency owner is which parts of the week AI will take, and what's left once it does.
At a Glance
Employment is flat, not falling: BLS counts 61,500 US travel agent jobs (2025), projects 0% change through 2035 and expects about 5,900 openings a year.
Adoption is climbing: 59% of travel agents surveyed by Travel Weekly and Phocuswright in 2025 had used AI tools, up from 41% the year before.
AI takes the admin first: itinerary rebuilds, re-keying, chasing changes and commission reconciliation.
Travelers still want a person in charge: only 2% of travelers in Skift's 2025 research (cited by McKinsey) would let AI make and modify bookings without human oversight.
The pressure is on simple, price-shopped bookings. Rule of thumb: AI drafts, the travel agent commits.
Will AI replace travel agents? The short answer
No. AI is taking over travel agent tasks, not travel agent jobs. The bookings most exposed to AI are simple and price-shopped, not the complex, high-touch trips that depend on a travel agent's judgment.
The travel agent job outlook, according to BLS
There are about 61,500 travel agent jobs in the US, according to 2025 figures in the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. BLS projects "little or no change" through 2035, a net change of about 100 jobs.
It still expects about 5,900 openings a year, most of them replacing people who retire or move into other work. The median annual wage was $50,160 in May 2025.
BLS sees AI cutting both ways. It says travelers using online resources, including AI tools, to research and book their own trips "may limit demand for travel agents."
It adds that AI "may also allow travel agents to perform administrative and marketing tasks more efficiently," and that people will keep relying on travel agents for destination advice and for handling travel issues.
What the data says about travel agents and AI
The data points one way: travel agents are adopting AI fast, clients still choose them for service rather than price, and few travelers would let AI book without a person overseeing it.
Source | What it found | What it means for an agency |
|---|---|---|
61,500 jobs (2025); 0% projected change through 2035; about 5,900 openings a year | Steady demand; most hiring is replacement | |
59% of respondents have used AI tools, up from 41% the year before | AI is becoming routine | |
Agency gross bookings up 28% to $109.7 billion in 2023; agencies projected at one quarter of all US travel sales by 2027 | A large, resilient channel | |
Phocuswright research on why clients book with agents (January 2026) | Only 2% of agents' clients book with them because of the best price, as reported by travel agents | Clients pay for relationships, service and knowledge |
More than 90% of travelers in the McKinsey/Skift survey had some confidence in AI travel information; only 2% of travelers in Skift's State of Travel 2025 would let AI make and modify bookings without human oversight | Travelers research with AI but want a person in charge | |
Gen AI platforms at 33% usage for trip research; 40% of travelers would let an AI assistant handle flight and hotel bookings | Simple bookings are the most exposed |
Table: Figures as published by each source and checked in November 2026. Survey figures describe respondents, not every travel agent or traveler.
How travel agents use AI today
Marketing comes first. In the Travel Weekly and Phocuswright survey, 42% of agency owners and managers use AI for marketing material and website content.
Adoption isn't only a younger-agent story: among respondents 65 and older, 39% use AI platforms, up from about a quarter the year before. The survey sample (1,562 US respondents, fielded in August and September 2025) isn't statistically weighted.
Do people still use travel agents?
Yes. US travel agency gross bookings rose 28% to $109.7 billion in 2023, and Phocuswright projects agencies will account for one quarter of all US travel sales by 2027. In 2023, travel agencies also handled about two-thirds of US cruise bookings.
Phocuswright's January 2026 agency research adds that travel agency sales are outpacing the overall travel market.
What AI is actually replacing: the administrative throughput
AI is replacing the administrative throughput, not the travel agent: the repeatable, rules-based work that moves a trip from a client's request to a confirmed booking. The travel agent still designs the trip and stands behind it.
A woman writes notes beside her open laptop. Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
Rebuilding itineraries
Every client change means a rebuild. Swap one hotel and the transfers and experience times shift. AI can produce a first draft from a brief and regenerate it after each change.
Travel agents want this help. In the Travel Weekly survey, just under half of the travel agents hoping to use AI in their business were very or extremely interested in AI-created custom itineraries.
Re-keying bookings
The same traveler names, birth dates and loyalty numbers get typed into one supplier site after another. Every retype risks a name-mismatch headache at check-in. It's a clear case for automation, with the travel agent checking details before booking.
Chasing changes
Schedule changes, missing confirmations and supplier follow-ups don't arrive on a timetable. Software can flag changes quickly, so the travel agent spends time on the fix, not on finding the problem.
Reconciling commissions
Matching what was booked against what was paid is a natural fit for automation. Our guide to travel agent commissions covers how payouts work, with a worked example on a $10,000 trip.
Drafting quotes and client emails
Quotes, confirmations, reminders and follow-ups follow patterns. AI drafts them in seconds; the travel agent checks the numbers and the tone before anything goes out under the agency's name.
What AI cannot replace: judgment, relationships and accountability
AI can't replace the parts of the job clients pay for: judgment on complex trips, relationships with clients and suppliers, and being the person accountable when something goes wrong.
Travelers cross a busy terminal under rows of departure boards. Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash
Price isn't why clients come. In Phocuswright research on why clients book with agents, travel agents reported that only 2% of their clients book with them because they offer the best price. Personal relationships, service, and product and destination knowledge mattered most.
Travel agents see the limits, too: in the Travel Weekly survey, 63% of surveyed travel agents have reservations about the accuracy and lack of personal touch in AI-produced content. Software can't match a travel agent on five things clients notice:
Designing a multi-city trip where city order, connections and pacing all matter
Knowing which hotel looks great online and disappoints in person
A supplier contact who'll find an upgrade or a late checkout
Fixing a canceled connection while the client is still in the terminal
One person who answers for the whole trip
Pro tip: Put these strengths in your client pitch, not just your inventory. Any traveler can find a hotel rate online; few can find someone who knows which property to skip and picks up when a flight is canceled.
The future of travel agents: where the real pressure is
The pressure on travel agents is real but narrow. Simple, price-shopped, point-to-point bookings are moving to AI tools and to suppliers' own websites, while clients who want judgment and service keep booking with travel agents.
On the traveler side, Phocuswright's July 2026 research on AI in travel found gen AI platforms reached 33% usage for trip research, a fivefold jump since 2024. Forty percent of travelers said they'd let an AI assistant handle flight and hotel bookings.
Full autonomy is a different question. Skift's 2025 research, cited by McKinsey, found only 2% of travelers willing to let AI make and modify bookings without human oversight. The two surveys aren't directly comparable, but the space between "help me book" and "act for me unsupervised" is where travel agents work.
On the agency side, the 2025 Travel Weekly survey shows the squeeze: competing with suppliers' direct bookings came close behind inflation and trip costs among the top challenges. Fifty-one percent reported increased bookings (65% the year before), and 10% made a hire in the past 12 months (19% the year before). Still, 69% have a positive outlook (72% the year before).
So, are travel agents becoming obsolete? Not on this evidence. The realistic contest isn't people against software; it's agencies that use AI for throughput against agencies that don't yet.
An agency selling mostly search and standard bookings competes with tools travelers use themselves. One selling judgment and service gains room as the admin shrinks.
AI for travel agents: which tasks to hand off, and which to keep
Hand AI the work that's repetitive and easy to check. Let it draft anything client-facing for your review. Keep the final say on anything that carries a price, a policy or a promise.
Task | Who does it | Why |
|---|---|---|
Searching and comparing hotel, flight and experience options | Hand to AI | High volume and easy to check |
Re-keying traveler details across bookings | Hand to AI | Repetitive, and typos cause real problems |
Commission tracking | Hand to AI | Rules-based matching |
Tracking schedule changes during a trip | Hand to AI | Speed matters; you still decide the fix |
First-draft itinerary from a client brief | AI drafts, you review | Your edits add taste and local knowledge |
Quotes and confirmations under your brand | AI drafts, you review | A person checks the numbers first |
Marketing copy and social captions | AI drafts, you review | Keep it in your voice |
Final prices, fare rules and terms | Keep human | Mistakes here cost money and trust |
Complaints and disruptions in progress | Keep human | This is the service clients pay for |
VIP relationships and supplier exceptions | Keep human | Built on relationships software lacks |
Table: A starting framework for splitting agency work between AI and travel agents. Adjust it by trip complexity and by client.
Pro tip: General chat tools are fine for marketing drafts. For live prices or availability, use a tool connected to the inventory and rates you actually book, so the draft is bookable.
How to start using AI in your agency without losing the personal touch
Start small. Pick one workflow, keep a person on every client-facing output, and measure whether it saves time.
Audit one week of admin. List every task that isn't selling, designing a trip or talking to a client, with a rough time for each.
Pick the workflow that eats the most time. It might be itinerary rebuilds, quote formatting or commission reconciliation. Fix that one first.
Keep a human check on prices, policies and promises. A person reviews fare rules, cancellation terms and anything you'd stand behind.
Keep your brand on every client message. Clients hired your agency, so quotes and confirmations should carry your name, not a tool's.
Measure time saved per booking. If a tool isn't saving time after a few weeks, drop it and move on.
Two colleagues review a laptop screen together at a standing desk. Photo by TheStandingDesk on Unsplash
Navi, the AI workspace for travel agents behind this blog, was built for the admin above. You plan and book hotels, flights and experiences in one place, with 3M+ properties, 500+ airlines and 400K+ experiences. You send white-label quotes and confirmations under your agency's brand, get proactive trip support while clients travel, and track commissions. There are no subscription fees, and you earn higher commissions on every booking. Our breakdown of travel agent software pricing shows what subscription tools typically cost agencies.
The bottom line for agency owners
AI won't replace travel agents, but it will change what a travel agent's week looks like: less admin, more judgment. Agencies that hand the throughput to software and keep the promises human are best placed for what comes next.
To see that split on your own client work, book a Navi demo. Self-serve sign-up is open too, but a demo shows the full workflow fastest.