AI in tourism: humans remain irreplaceable | Converteo
Travel & hospitality expert at Converteo, Charlotte Poulin brings her deep knowledge of the specific challenges and expectations of this market.
Key takeaways
- AI is establishing itself as an essential solution to effectively automate high-volume, low-relational-value transactional tasks (FAQs, booking changes, check-ins), generating measurable productivity gains.
- Empathy, creativity, and relational intelligence when dealing with the unforeseen remain the exclusive preserve of humans; excessive automation risks commoditizing the customer experience in a fundamentally emotional sector.
- The traveler journey must be segmented: AI must optimize logistic phases while humans must remain central during emotional phases (inspiration, the stay experience, loyalty).
- The success of an AI strategy relies on three pillars: anchoring it in business needs, designing it as an amplifier (and not a replacement) for the advisor, and heavily supporting the transformation of professions through training.
The traveler of 2026 is a paradox. Between online booking platforms, comparison sites, social networks, conversational assistants… never have they had access to so much information to prepare for their trip. And yet, two-thirds of them declare themselves dissatisfied with the planning options available to them. Faced with this observation, artificial intelligence has emerged as the unavoidable answer.
But as deployments multiply, a strategic question arises: how far can we, and should we, automate the traveler experience? Because travel remains one of the most emotional purchases there is. And emotion cannot be delegated to an algorithm.
AI can do what humans cannot do at scale…
There is a multitude of high-volume, low-relational-value tasks in the traveler journey for which AI is structurally superior: managing FAQs, booking modifications, automated check-ins, real-time offer personalization.
The results are already there. Expedia has virtually supported more than 30 million travelers thanks to its assistant Romie, saving its teams 8 million hours of work. 59% of travel companies are already seeing a measurable increase in productivity thanks to AI. The question is therefore no longer whether to adopt these technologies. Players who hesitate will be left behind.
…but AI cannot do what humans do naturally
It would be dangerous, however, to conclude that automation is a universal answer. There are moments of a completely different nature in the traveler journey: a couple whose flight is canceled the night before their honeymoon, a family stuck in a foreign airport, a senior disoriented by a complex procedure…
These situations call for empathy and creativity. In short, they require the ability to go off-script. No conversational agent today can replicate this relational intelligence. This relational intelligence of a conversational agent is the holy grail that major big tech companies are currently trying to reproduce, but they are only at the very beginning of this “machinized” human support.
The risk of excessive automation is very real: transforming a differentiating experience into a commoditized one. A customer will not remember the chatbot that handled their request. However, they will remember the advisor who helped them at a critical moment.
The cursor shifts according to the stages of the journey
The key to getting out of this false debate is to stop thinking of the traveler journey as a homogeneous whole. Transactional phases such as comparing offers, booking, or logistical preparation are naturally the most suitable for automation. But emotional phases such as initial inspiration, the experience of the stay, and post-trip loyalty obey a radically different logic. This is where memories and recommendations are made. This is where humans must remain central, assisted but not replaced by technology. Automate the tasks, not the relationship.
The right question is therefore not “where can I deploy AI?” but “at which stages does AI create value without degrading the experience, and at what level does the human remain irreplaceable?”.
Three principles before implementing AI
First, it is essential to anchor the reflection in the business and not in the technology. Successful projects start from an identified customer frustration and then look for the appropriate solution. A successful AI roadmap is above all a business roadmap.
Second, AI must be designed as an amplifier for the advisor, not as a replacement. When Marriott reduces check-in time from 3 minutes to less than a minute using facial recognition, it is not to eliminate reception staff: it is to allow them to dedicate themselves to welcoming guests rather than administrative data entry.
Third, it is important never to underestimate the human and organizational aspect. Today, only 36% of employees in the sector are actually trained in AI. Deploying tools without supporting the transformation of professions will limit their impact to short-lived experiments.
Restoring the place of relationships and customer experience
Artificial intelligence is not the enemy of the human experience in tourism. Well-orchestrated, it is its catalyst: it frees advisors from repetition, simplifies what frustrates, and personalizes at scale. But this promise requires a clear strategic vision and constant attention to what makes travel unique: human emotion at the heart of every interaction.
In this sector more than anywhere else, the true luxury of tomorrow will not be having the most advanced technology. It will be knowing, precisely, when to turn it off so that humans can take their rightful place to make the experience unforgettable.
