Artificial intelligence has quietly become travel’s most powerful catalyst, influencing everything from search behaviour to booking decisions. It is already reshaping how travellers plan holidays, compare value and validate trust in the brands they choose. And for travel businesses, the shift is not theoretical. It is commercial. It is fast. And it demands action.
Few figures have tracked this shift as closely as Matthew Forzan, founder and Managing Director of Yoghurt Digital. For almost two decades he has built digital growth strategies for some of Australia’s best known brands, including P&O Cruises and Oaks Hotels. His experience inside the category has given him a direct view of an industry that adapts at speed. And now, as AI moves from helpful add on to structural technology in travel decision making, he believes operators that act early will take the lead in an AI driven market.
The travel industry has always been shaped by change. Having partnered with companies in various sectors building digital marketing solutions, the travel industry has always stood out to me in its ability to adapt through a constantly changing environment. With the rise of AI as a tool implemented in business strategies, the travel industry has much to benefit from the tool if it is used to its full potential.
The adoption of AI has been rapidly accelerating in the travel industry. In 2022, only 4% of companies in the Skift Travel 200, which tracks industry performance with the largest publicly traded travel companies from across the globe, mentioned the use of some form of AI in their annual reports. By 2024, that number had risen to 35%. In just two years, AI has moved from a fringe consideration to a core operational focus. This acceleration signals a clear message: the way travellers discover, compare and book experiences is undergoing a transformation never seen before.
AI will redefine the customer journey
Over the next few years, AI will not simply be an optional enhancement to the customer journey. It will become the backbone of how travellers research, compare, book and experience travel. GenAI powered itineraries, predictive pricing models, personalised recommendations, automated service agents and frictionless digital experiences are already reshaping traveller expectations at every stage of the travel booking funnel.
After two decades in digital marketing, I have never seen consumer behaviour evolve quite like it has now. AI is collapsing the traditional customer journey from hours of browsing across dozens of sites to a few conversational prompts and instant recommendations. The “messy middle” is getting a whole lot cleaner, and that means every travel brand needs to rethink how they show up online.
At Yoghurt Digital, we are seeing this shift first hand across multiple sectors, and travel sits at the centre of it. The brands thriving today are those embracing AI as a strategic enabler. They are using it to capture richer data insights, refine their SEO and content strategies, optimise their paid media spend in real time and deliver hyper personalised experiences that meet travellers where they are.
The recent WiT Singapore conference, Asia’s largest travel technology gathering, revealed that about 60% of Asia Pacific travellers are using AI tools to research and book their travel destinations. Travellers are turning to AI for their travel plans to reduce the time spent on booking, secure the best deals, access reliable information and overcome language barriers. Soon, these tools will integrate directly into booking flows, loyalty programs and real time travel planning.
AI will demand stronger content, strategy and personalisation
AI also gives travel businesses the ability to understand intention, emotion and behaviour at a scale humans simply cannot. At a time when travellers crave authenticity, value and reassurance, that level of insight is gold. It allows brands to make smarter decisions, craft more meaningful content and guide customers through complex choices with confidence.
This shift also demands adaptability. Traditional booking paths will continue to fragment. Search behaviour will evolve as AI generated results become more conversational, and we are already seeing this with Google’s new AI mode. Brand loyalty will be harder to maintain without consistent, personalised engagement. Content strategies will need to pivot from mass produced assets to high quality, authoritative material that AI systems trust and surface. If AI cannot understand or trust your content, it will not surface it, no matter how strong your brand is.
Three major areas where AI will define travel operations
The opportunities to employ AI in travel can be broadly categorised in these three areas, with research backed by Ernst and Young:
- Personalisation: reservation and customer history can be utilised to enhance personalised recommendations, resulting in greater satisfaction for travellers.
- Automation: greater automation is streamlining tourism operations, lifting efficiency and freeing staff from repetitive tasks. From smarter inventory management to seamless reservations, AI is helping operators better match services and products to traveller expectations.
- Communication: AI powered communication tools are reshaping the traveller experience, with chatbots delivering faster, more intuitive interactions such as real time translation. Emerging technologies like digital avatars and extended reality (XR) are also creating more dynamic, immersive ways for travellers to engage with brands.
Travel search is already shifting through AI led interfaces
A strong example of this shift can be seen in the travel search space, where platforms like Kayak have taken a different approach. Rather than relying solely on external AI layers, Kayak has built its own AI interface, Kayak.ai, directly on top of its systems. This gives users a more intuitive, conversational way to search for flights, but more importantly, it allows the company to analyse real prompt behaviour at scale. Every query then becomes a signal that helps refine content, understand traveller intent and improve visibility within other AI led search environments.
At Yoghurt Digital, we are already helping travel brands navigate this shift, and the message is consistent: AI is not something to fear. It is something to integrate, test, learn from and leverage. In a world where travellers can plan and book a holiday in seconds, the most adaptable businesses will become the most successful ones.
This piece reflects the personal opinion of a Karryon reader.
KARRYON UNPACKS: Matthew Forzan says AI is redefining how travellers search, compare and book, and argues the strongest operators will be those embedding it now into strategy, content and customer experience.
