In film and other media, AI has been something of an obsession for decades. Will he condemn humans to oblivion? Will this remind us what it really means to be human? Will it integrate to create a utopia?
The travel industry is now grappling with these same questions, as hoteliers wonder what the future holds now that AI has firmly entrenched itself in the lives of travelers and the operations of hotel companies.
In parts A And two from this serieswe’ve discussed what’s happening now, but how far can this go and what are the implications?
A future that once seemed like science fiction is already here, a future in which humans barely need to interact. Instead of going online to research and book a trip (maybe even make a call), a traveler can simply ask their AI agent to do everything for them – and it will do so by communicating not with the hotelier or airline, but with their own respective AI agents.
In just a few minutes, multiple AI agents organized a complete trip, including hotel reservation, flights, airport transfers or car rental, packages, activity programs and personalized preferences like room temperature and drinks in the minibar.
This is no longer a thought experiment. The infrastructure is being built by some of the most powerful companies in the world and hoteliers are wondering what the outcome of the game will be. Is there a stable future or will our industry be constantly evolving?
Welcome to the third and final part of our series, in which we examine what the future might look like as AI’s capabilities continue to develop and its adoption continues to grow across the world.
AI is already moving from a research assistant to an autonomous booker
Earlier in our series we talked about how travelers are using AI to “discover” hotels, but a shift has already happened and AI is now able to “act” on behalf of users. This is called agentic AI.
At the beginning of 2026, Saber, PaypalAnd Mental journey announced a partnership to build what they describe as the travel industry’s first end-to-end agentic AI booking system. A traveler describes his journey in natural language. The AI queries the real-time inventory of more than 420 airlines and two million hotel properties. PayPal’s commerce infrastructure handles the payment without the traveler leaving the conversation. This potentially creates the smoothest search, booking and payment process travelers have ever experienced.
In the meantime, Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano revealed in February that the hotel giant is building an integration to process reservations directly through Google’s AI mode.
There are other such stories as well, like SiteMinder’s AI distribution offering that connects hoteliers to the AI booking platforms that travelers already use to plan their stays.
“As AI-powered hotel discovery accelerates, we’re expanding Demand Plus and Channels Plus to give properties on our platform new ways to find and convert demand on these emerging pathways. For hoteliers, that means being present and bookable at every new discovery point, and that advantage will only grow,” says Shankar Narayan, CEO and Managing Director on SiteMinder.
These signals all confirm that the booking funnel is about to become much more compressed compared to what hoteliers have been accustomed to in the past.
The floodgates are about to open, but more confidence is needed
Even though agentic AI and all its capabilities are seeing strong momentum, for now most travelers want to maintain control over their trip planning.
According to McKinsey and Skift researchonly 2% of travelers are currently willing to give an AI tool full autonomy to make and change reservations without human oversight. With so many investments betting on the opposite, it’s a statistic that may ring alarm bells for some.
Gareth Williams, co-founder of Skyscanner, made a similar point in a interview with Skiftmentioning that the general public has a much more negative view of AI than the sector.
This is also a trend we’ve seen throughout our series. In the first part, Mike Godfreya highly experienced revenue manager in hotels and car rentals, admitted that he initially did not trust the speed and results of AI tools. In the second part, Benjamin Taxes, Founder and Managing Director of HotelMinder and Lobby, said he wouldn’t recommend actions to hoteliers unless they could promise a good return on investment — and that return isn’t there yet for AI-driven customer acquisition.
This tells us that technology is currently outstripping consumers’ comfort level, although this situation is not unique. History is full of similar examples, including the elevator, alternating current, automobiles, microwaves, and even credit cards.
Nevertheless, AI still has a clear trajectory and travelers will eventually get there. The sooner hoteliers turn to new technologies that open up opportunities for them, the better. Jordan Hollanderco-founder of HotelTechReport, says it best:
“Hotels that buy software based on data will outperform those that buy on instinct. The gap is already widening.”
For hoteliers, now is the time to prepare and act. It’s not a question of whether agent booking will eventually become commonplace, but whether accommodation providers will be ready by then.
Predictive analysis is a real opportunity for hoteliers
As we mentioned in part one, the greatest potential for AI in hospitality lies not in chatbots or content generators, but in the ability to process and learn from huge volumes of data such as booking patterns, guest demographics, market conditions, competitor prices, weather, local events, flight schedules, etc., to produce insights that would otherwise take humans weeks or months to compile and analyze.
Mike Rogers, Chief Data Officer has SiteMinderspoke about this distinction.
“Most people think of AI as LLMs and GenAI – that’s where a lot of exciting, fun and interesting ideas emerge. But in terms of impact on productivity, efficiency and innovation, predictive modeling and machine learning can be much more powerful. These are considered unsexy, but that’s where the real value happens.”
Using predictive AI, a hotelier will be able to identify when a guest is likely to cancel a reservation and then determine the best intervention to prevent that cancellation. Or compare a property’s rates, bookings and demographics with competing hotels to reveal opportunities to book more bookings.
These use cases are actively being developed by platforms like SiteMinder, powered by its AI engine. SiteMinder iQand backed by data from more than 53,000 hotel guests and more than 130 million reservations annually across the world.
THE Hospitality sector outlook for 2026 by Mews, compiled from the perspectives of eighteen industry experts, makes it clear: by 2035, the majority of routine back-office tasks in hotels are expected to be automated. Human staff will need to create emotional, high-impact moments with guests, presenting a future where people have the freedom to be more present.
Transformation is coming to the hospitality industry but the human touch will remain
Today, for most hotels, the customer journey begins with a reservation on a website and ends with a farewell at the front desk. Maybe there’s a follow-up email or a voucher for a local restaurant left at the front desk.
True transformation means recognizing that the customer is still a customer when they scroll through social media, search for their next flight, read reviews, or message a restaurant near their hotel. AI has the ability to connect these dots.
So if AI can write emails, manage prices, predict demand, handle complaints and even finalize bookings, what are people left with? Reassuringly, the answer is “all the good things.”
Leon Rose, General manager has VOMO Island Fijimade this clear in the first part of this series.
“We still want to maintain that personalized, heartfelt luxury – the human touch and connection with our guests. Fiji is everything the world isn’t anymore. Everyone is trying to escape from the world to have beautiful experiences here that feel real and meaningful.”
Tom Varsavski, Director of Technology has SiteMinderalso expresses the beauty of this balance from the perspective of a technology leader.
“There is a magic that comes from high-performing, collaborative teams. The skills they have acquired over the years, as well as their historical knowledge of the business and customers, are invaluable. AI cannot replace this magic, although it can accelerate the results, innovation and capabilities of a high-performing team.”
Moving from a crossroads to a central path
We created this series to do exactly what the title says; explore. We wanted to know exactly how hoteliers perceived the emergence of AI capabilities and how it was changing traveler behaviors.
We discovered that the sector was at a crossroads, where curiosity and suspicion combined to define both risks and opportunities.
Even in recent months the situation has changed. There is more certainty that AI will change the hospitality industry – and how.
The challenge for hoteliers will be to understand the best practices that will put them on the quickest path to success. Managing revenue, allocating resources, analyzing information, and creating experiences might be a little different in the future.
But the elements that make a hotel great and a stay truly memorable will be the same. The feeling of being known, cared for and cared for will always resonate with guests, no matter what. AI simply has the potential to make all of this easier, for those who adopt it strategically.
Thank you for joining us on this journey. If you missed parts one and two, be sure to check them out via the links in this article.
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