This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.
Travel companies face a new distribution question: Will AI simply refer travelers to brand websites, or will discovery and booking move into AI conversations?
At a Skift Global Forum executive roundtable presented by Merkle, Jonah Brown, vice president of industry strategy at Merkle, and Julie Hoffmann, global director of industry strategy for travel and loyalty at Adobe, dug into that tension with executives from some of today’s most powerful travel brands.
AI Traffic Is Closing the Conversion Gap
No one at the table could say for sure where discovery and booking will happen as travelers increasingly turn to generative AI and the large language models (LLMs) behind it. “Where is the transaction really going to take place? Is it going to happen in the agent? Is it going to happen in the LLM overall?” asked one participant.
Adobe data shared at the table showed AI referral traffic rising a reported 119% in July 2026 and 3,500% between May 2025 and May 2026. Early AI-referred visitors engaged deeply but converted less often. That gap has narrowed. AI-referred traffic now converts at a rate only about 1% behind non-AI traffic.
That means brands need content that serves two audiences. Travelers respond to emotion and connection. Meanwhile, AI agents want structured, trustworthy, and accurate information.
Travel Service Stays Hybrid
Participants compared AI agents to the (human) travel advisors who once curated destinations, hotels, and experiences into deeply meaningful itineraries. AI can take the drudgery out of routine and repeatable trips — especially in corporate travel, where policies, preferred suppliers, and familiar routes set clear guardrails. But eagerly anticipated, often complex leisure trips may still require human judgment, particularly when a booking fails or a disruption occurs. Travel companies must decide which tasks an AI agent can own and when a traveler needs a person.
Personal Discovery Must Remain Individual
The group questioned whether AI recommendations will funnel everyone toward the same hotels, restaurants, and attractions. Recommendation systems tend to favor whatever is mentioned, reviewed, and chosen most often, so discovery risks drifting toward the “sea of sameness” average. A useful personal agent should reflect who the traveler is and what they want rather than recycle the most popular itinerary.
Brands can help by publishing richer, more contextual content and keeping the preferences that show what rejuvenation, convenience, or exploration means to each person. The goal is guided choice that leaves room for the joy many travelers find in the “work” of planning.
Relationship Memory Is the Strategic Advantage
Generative AI engines may shape discovery, but brands own a relationship layer built on potentially years of real interactions. That advantage counts only if the data are usable. Hotels and travel platforms operated by financial services firms have a “whole-person” context: Companies still prize direct bookings because direct relationships deliver identity, purchase history, creditworthiness, loyalty status, and cross-supplier travel preference context.
“Whether it comes from Booking.com, from an OTA, or direct, it’s still a booking,” said one hotel group participant. “Obviously, we love direct bookings, as we get more information about the guest.” That participant’s priority for now, however, is to ensure that the hotel remains discoverable, regardless of the booking channel.
Participants want connected journeys that anticipate the next move, such as pairing a confirmed hotel with ground transportation or recognizing a repeat corporate itinerary. Loyalty can also protect differentiated rates, benefits, and service that public AI platforms can’t yet match.
For another participant, the question is, “How do you make sure that you are still part of the conversation, even if discovery is happening in an area that you can’t control?” Scaling this takes clear ownership, coordinated budgets, redesigned workflows, and a data model that lets AI spot patterns and act in real time, without handing teams yet another disconnected tool.
This content was created collaboratively by Merkle, Adobe, and Skift Studio.