In Brief: A recent study of 1,000 U.S. air travelers found that while 71% are interested in using AI assistants to book travel, most want clear safeguards, control, and human support to address concerns about errors, responsibility, and privacy.
A new study from travel marketing agency Dune7 and market research firm Flesh & Bone surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults aged 18 and older who traveled by plane in the past 12 months to assess interest in agentic artificial intelligence (AI) travel assistants capable of searching, comparing, selecting, and booking travel based on user preferences.
Seventy-one percent of respondents said they are interested in using an AI travel assistant that can handle the entire booking process. Interest was highest for booking hotels (66%), flights (65%), and personalized travel packages (61%). The main perceived benefits were finding deals, saving time, and managing disruptions in real time.
Trust-related concerns were the primary barriers to adoption. Top concerns included difficulty reversing AI errors, uncertainty about responsibility if something goes wrong, lack of human support, and personal data privacy.
Interest in agentic AI was especially high among Millennials, business travelers, international travelers, and current AI users, indicating that those with more complex travel needs may be early adopters.
Respondents favored AI solutions that operate within user-defined rules, provide approval rights, maintain transparency, and offer a human fallback when needed. The study found that the most powerful drivers of adoption were all forms of control and recourse.
The study was conducted online from March 6 to March 9, 2026, among 1,000 U.S. adults who had traveled by air, domestically or internationally, in the previous 12 months.
