Amid disruption, travellers are ready to give AI a chance

The provider of AI solutions for customer service Parloa has published findings from a survey conducted in the third quarter of 2026 among 1,000 US adults on perceived quality of customer experience in travel.

Respondents mostly expect disruption during the holiday period and express limited confidence in airlines, hoteliers and platforms to resolve issues.

According to Parloa, 62% anticipate at least one service incident and, among them, only 27% trust providers to sort these situations out.

More broadly, 56% say their confidence in the reliability of the journey is unchanged or down compared with a few years ago.

When disruption hits, AI is seen first as a monitoring tool. While 53% say they want to use it for end-of-year trips, it is mainly to keep tabs on plans, receive alerts, compare offers or get inspiration for destinations. At this stage, only 7% say they rely on AI to act, that is, to replan and take steps, during a disruption.

Appetite is rising among younger travellers: 44% of Gen Z and 41% of Millennials are interested in personal agents capable of handling disruption, versus 27% of Gen X and 14% of Boomers.

A significant share of young adults would also accept agent-to-agent exchanges between their assistant and a provider’s assistant (up to 77% of Gen Z and 71% of Millennials, versus 60% of Gen X and 35% of Boomers).

In addition, 32% rank handling CX interactions by personal agents among priority use cases and 42% would let their agent talk to a provider’s agent provided they approve major decisions.

When a provider routes them to an automated agent, 60% of users say they are open to it and 15% see it as a potentially faster and simpler way to get help.

However, only complete resolution counts: nearly half (46%) of those surveyed rank this top among trust factors in an AI-powered solution, and say they accept automation if, and only if, the incident is fully resolved, regardless of who they interact with. Customers therefore appear, according to this study, to tolerate automation as long as it removes friction and shortens time to resolution.

For brands, the task is to orchestrate proactive, rapid and results-focused journeys, particularly at points in the calendar when request volumes surge.

Parloa notes, drawing on its Consumer Patience Index 2026, that 83.2% of US consumers link their loyalty to the quality of support. The company promotes agentic AI agents designed to deliver complete and proactive resolutions.

The travel survey was carried out in partnership with Dynata among adults aged 18 and over in the United States, in the third quarter of 2026.