For years, the digitalization of travel seemed to be heading in a clear direction: less intermediation, more self-service, and travelers increasingly accustomed to searching, comparing, and booking on their own. Travel agencies adapted, but questions about their future never went away.
Now the landscape is changing again. And, paradoxically, one of the technologies transforming travel planning the most may actually be strengthening the value of the travel advisor. Artificial intelligence can find information, compare options, and build proposals in seconds, but the easier it becomes to access thousands of alternatives, the more important it may be to know which ones are actually worth considering.
Phocuswright’s data points in this direction. Its research on the U.S. market projected that travel agencies’ share would rise from 21% in 2022 to 26% in 2026, while the channel continues to show resilience after decades of digital transformation. This does not mean the traditional channel is reclaiming the ground it lost to the Internet. Rather, the market is finding a new balance in which specialized knowledge and personalized service once again carry significant weight.
The AI Paradox
Artificial intelligence is speeding up the travel search process. In 2026, Phocuswright notes that AI has moved beyond the experimental stage to become a regular part of traveler behavior. In the United States, 56% of travelers used AI to plan, book, or receive assistance during at least one trip in the 12 months preceding the study.
The shift goes beyond asking for recommendations. New AI agents can compare products, interpret preferences, perform tasks, and increasingly take part in booking processes. More than 60% of the travel companies surveyed by Phocuswright were already experimenting with or scaling agentic AI in 2026.
But automating the search does not mean automating judgment. In fact, the opposite may happen. When a traveler receives ten seemingly suitable itineraries within seconds, the challenge is no longer finding options. It is deciding which one is right.
That is where an opportunity emerges for travel agencies. Advisors do not necessarily have to compete with AI on speed. Instead, they can provide what technology cannot guarantee on its own: destination knowledge, experience, context, the ability to interpret ambiguous preferences, and accountability for the recommendation.
From Search Tool to Augmented Advisor
The most interesting evolution, then, is not AI versus humans, but AI plus human expertise.
An advisor can use an AI agent to speed up tasks that traditionally took a great deal of time: researching alternatives, summarizing information, comparing itineraries, preparing initial
proposals, or handling certain communications. Technology can become a productivity layer that frees advisors to spend more time on customer relationships and higher-value decisions.
This combination is especially valuable when travel planning is not straightforward. A getaway with flexible dates and few preferences can easily be handled with digital tools. But a family trip with specific needs, a honeymoon, a multi-destination itinerary, a luxury vacation, or a trip combining different modes of transportation involves many more variables.
In these cases, human expertise acts as a filter. Advisors know the differences that do not always appear in a product description, can anticipate problems, spot incompatibilities, and recommend an alternative based on previous experience. They can also do something fundamental: ask questions.
AI can respond very well to what a traveler says. A good advisor can uncover what the traveler does not yet know how to articulate.
This distinction becomes even more important as confidence in AI tools grows. Travelers are adopting them rapidly as part of the planning process, but a trust gap remains. In Europe, for example, human assistance still outpaces AI assistance in many of the markets analyzed, even as willingness to book with AI support continues to grow.
A New Value Proposition for Agencies
For travel agencies, the opportunity lies in redefining what it means to be an advisor in an environment where information is virtually unlimited.
The competitive advantage can shift from “I know where to book” to “I know what is worth booking for you.” That is an important distinction. The travel product may be identical for two customers, but the recommendation, trip design, and level of support can be completely different.
This also opens an important conversation for OTAs and other providers. The rise of AI agents may change how products are discovered and distributed, but it could also make reliable, structured, up-to-date information even more important. Travel companies need to prepare their systems and data for an environment in which agents can interact with their content and services.
For an agency, this means technology can work behind the advisor and make them more efficient. For a provider, it means the quality of its information can determine whether its product is correctly understood and presented through these new interfaces.
The result could be a travel ecosystem less focused on the divide between online and offline and more focused on combining automation, personalization, and trust.
The Returning Advisor Is Not the Same
The return of the travel advisor does not mean going back to the pre-Internet model. The professional emerging today is different: they use technology, understand new digital
channels, and can rely on an AI agent to work faster, while retaining the human ability to interpret, recommend, and take responsibility for a decision.
As artificial intelligence reduces the cost and time required to access information, the professional’s value can shift toward knowledge, trust, and the ability to turn an overwhelming number of options into a simple decision.
For the travel industry, this may be one of the most interesting paradoxes of the AI revolution: the easier it becomes for travelers to find answers, the more valuable someone may become who can distinguish a good answer from the right one.
The future of the travel advisor will probably not be human or artificial. It will be human and artificial. AI will do what it does best: process information, automate tasks, and identify possibilities. The professional will contribute what remains difficult to automate: understanding a person, interpreting their priorities, and using their experience to recommend the trip that truly fits them.
In that scenario, technology does not eliminate expertise. It amplifies it.
