Expedia Group has released The AI Trust Gap, a survey of more than 5,700 adults across the U.S., U.K., and India that puts a number on something the travel industry has been sensing: AI is reshaping how travelers discover and plan trips, but it has not yet earned a seat at the booking table.
The headline finding is blunt. Two-thirds of respondents (66%) say they would not trust an AI assistant to buy or book anything on their behalf. Only 8% feel comfortable booking through an AI platform. By contrast, 68% prefer to complete a booking with a trusted travel brand even when an AI booking option is available.
Discovery Is a Different Story
The trust gap does not extend to planning. Travelers are genuinely open to AI as a research and inspiration tool:
- 53% are comfortable letting AI suggest travel options
- 42% use or would use AI to monitor prices
- 40% use it to help build itineraries
- 48% say AI saves them time and surfaces destinations they would not have found otherwise
That is a meaningful adoption curve for a tool that barely existed in consumer travel two years ago. But adoption for discovery does not translate to adoption for transactions — and that distinction matters enormously for distribution strategy.
Traditional planning channels still dominate even at the research stage. When travelers in the U.S. and U.K. were asked what they actually use to plan a trip, 59% cited search engines and 49% cited online travel agencies. Only 8% named AI chatbots or agents such as ChatGPT or Gemini.
The Specific Fears Blocking AI Booking
When Expedia asked travelers why they hesitate to book through AI, the answers clustered around control and exposure:
- 57% cite loss of control over the transaction
- 57% worry about payment detail and data privacy
- 56% are concerned about misuse of personal data
- 40% are worried about poor customer service if something goes wrong
These are not fears about whether AI can find the right flight. They are fears about accountability — who is responsible when the booking is wrong, the refund does not arrive, or a hotel charges a card incorrectly. Travel is a high-stakes purchase with a long lead time, significant spend, and real consequences when things fail. That context amplifies every trust deficit.
Xavi Amatriain, Expedia Group’s Chief AI & Data Officer, framed it directly: what is holding travelers back is not model quality or feature gaps. It is trust — and trust in travel is built through customer support infrastructure, real-world relationships, and years of demonstrated reliability.
What This Means for Travel Marketers
The Expedia data maps a traveler journey that is increasingly fragmented at the top of the funnel. Travelers are starting their trips in AI assistants, conversational search, and social platforms — places where established travel brands may have limited presence. By the time intent solidifies into a booking, they migrate back to familiar names.
For travel marketers, this fragmentation creates two parallel imperatives. The first is presence in the discovery layer: if AI tools are routing early-stage inspiration and travelers are not yet filtering for brand, marketers need to understand how their inventory and content surface through those channels. The second is conversion defense: travelers who arrive at the booking stage already trust established brands, which is a durable advantage — but one that requires investment in the support and accountability infrastructure that makes that trust rational.
The AI Trust Gap is not a temporary condition. It reflects something structural about how trust is built in a high-stakes category. Brands that treat the gap as an opportunity to deepen service quality — rather than simply a gap to close with more AI features — are better positioned for what comes next.
The full report is available through Expedia Group.