Planning a trip used to mean opening lots of browser tabs and stressing about coordinating flights, hotels, and restaurant reservations. Today, we can just ask our phones to build an itinerary for five days in Rome and get a solid answer in seconds.

That speed has changed what the early stages of a trip actually feel like. Instead of spending hours researching guidebooks and forum threads, the discovery phase has turned into something people genuinely enjoy.

But there’s a catch: we’re happy to take advice from artificial intelligence right up until the moment it asks for our credit card. Travelers are comfortable letting an algorithm recommend a dinner spot, but they freeze at the checkout screen because there’s no one on the other end of the line to help if AI gets something wrong.

So, what are travelers actually asking AI to do?

The early stages of trip planning are where these tools are used the most, with young travelers leading the way in using AI to figure out where to go and what to do on a tight budget.

Recent research shows how fast this adoption has moved: the Holafly Global eSIM & Travel Report 2025-2026 found that 38% of travelers have used AI at least once for travel planning, with another 35% curious to try it. Moreover, a 2026 global study by McKinsey found that 84% of travelers who tried these tools said the experience noticeably improved.

The same research broke down exactly what people ask these tools to do during planning:

• 54% of travelers use them for general background research on destinations
• 43% turn to these tools for creative travel inspiration
• 43% specifically request recommendations for local food and dining
• 41% rely on them to organize transportation and transit details
• 37% ask AI to build complete daily itineraries from scratch

Taken together, these numbers reveal a pattern: travelers are increasingly comfortable letting AI make recommendations, but they’re still reluctant to let it make actual transactions. Research, inspiration and itineraries all involve suggestions, while booking a flight means taking responsibility for the outcome.

Trust in AI breaks down the moment we are asked to pay

Building a dream itinerary is fun, but handing thousands of dollars to a chatbot is a different story. The moment it’s time to actually pay for the flights and hotel, a lot of that enthusiasm disappears.

A 2026 study by Expedia Group looked directly at this and found that 57% of travelers feel anxious about losing control over their booking details and worry about privacy and security risks when sharing financial data with an automated assistant.

The same survey shows just how protective travelers are once it’s time to actually pay:

• 68% prefer booking directly through established brands rather than automated agents
• 66% explicitly state that they would not trust an algorithm to buy or book on their behalf
• 57% worry about losing control over their reservation details
• Only 8% of respondents feel completely comfortable making a purchase directly through an automated platform

The real issue is accountability: if a travel site or airline messes up a booking, there’s a phone number to call, but if an automated assistant makes the same mistake, there’s no clear person to call instead.

This lack of trust extends even beyond the initial payment, with only 28% of travelers saying they would let AI handle travel disruptions or cancellations, according to Holafly’s study. Hesitation then isn’t really about AI’s ability to recommend the right path, but about knowing who is responsible once that recommendation turns into a commitment.

For many, planning and booking will likely keep happening in two very different modes until that gap closes. But if you look at the numbers in more detail, one group in particular stands out, leading the adoption curve with a lot less resistance than the rest.

How Gen Z is closing the trust gap

Younger generations who grew up on touchscreen devices are incorporating this software into almost every step of their trip planning. For these digital natives, asking an algorithm to find hidden gems or compare train schedules feels as natural as sending a text message to a friend.

This generational gap in technology adoption reveals that the group with the least trust in AI today is also the one that grew up without it. Holafly’s research found that half of Gen Z travelers have already experimented with AI planners or ChatGPT-style assistants, while that usage drops below 20% for travelers aged 45 and older.

While most travelers still stop short of letting this software complete a purchase, younger users appear more comfortable relying on it for decisions that directly affect how they spend their money. A 2026 report by EMerchant found that 62% of Gen Z respondents use AI specifically to find discounts, track price changes, and cut travel costs.

As new generations grow up with AI built into everyday life and booking tools mature, the gap between exploratory advice and actual transactions may begin to fade.

Taking your smart itinerary into the real world

Having a perfectly optimized travel plan sounds great when you are still at home, but the reality of arriving in a new country is quite different. Navigation, translation, restaurant recommendations, and AI-generated itineraries all depend on one thing: staying connected.

As trips become more ambitious, securing access to your digital tools matters more than ever. According to Holafly’s 2026 Summer Report, 46.4% of planned summer trips involve crossing international borders, while 51.2% include multiple destinations. At the same time, more than 86% of travelers say losing internet access abroad is a significant source of stress.

For travelers who rely on AI throughout their trip, staying connected becomes part of the experience rather than a convenience. That’s where solutions like a Holafly eSIM fit in: by providing mobile data from the moment you arrive, your travel tools are always available when you need them most.

Methodology

To give you a clear snapshot of how technology is changing travel planning, we gathered data from trusted industry reports published between late 2025 and mid-2026. We looked at large global studies conducted by McKinsey, Expedia Group, YouGov, Phocuswright, ABTA, Statista, and EMerchant. These organizations surveyed thousands of everyday vacationers across North America, Europe, and Asia to see how real people use smart digital tools.

We then combined those insights with Holafly’s 2026 Summer Report and the Holafly Global eSIM & Travel Report 2025-2026, which looked closely at real-world travel habits, multi-country itineraries, and connectivity stress. Combined, these statistics give us a grounded look at where AI leads travel technology and where human reassurance is still missing.