AI agents are not just another channel in travel – they are rapidly becoming the default interface between supply and demand. As these systems take on a growing role in discovery, comparison, and booking, John Franklin and Phil Hunt of OC&C Strategy Consultants, argue they are reshaping how customers engage with the market and who controls the moment of decision.
Travel is entering a world where the most important customer may not be a person, but an algorithm acting on their behalf. For an industry long built on search visibility and aggregation, this shift is profound. For some players – particularly those reliant on SEO and arbitrage-driven traffic – it is existential. For others, it represents a clear opportunity: to strengthen their position by doubling down on what makes them unique and by building deeper, more direct relationships with customers.
A New Battleground: The AI Disintermediation Matrix
Not all travel businesses are equally exposed. In an AI-mediated world, defensibility comes down to 2 factors:
- How unique your supply is
- How strong your direct customer relationships are
Together, these define a company’s position in an AI Disintermediation Matrix – and determine whether it is reinforced or eroded by AI.
Most exposed are commoditised intermediaries – mass OTAs, metasearch platforms, and tour operators reliant on price comparison and SEO. Their value can be replicated by AI agents optimising instantly across price, availability, and convenience.
Most defensible are inventory owners – airlines, hotels, cruise lines, and iconic destinations – with control over scarce supply and strong brand recognition.
In between sit:
- Specialist operators, protected by niche or exclusive experiences
- Scaled intermediaries, protected by brand trust, loyalty, and customer data
The implication is simple but far-reaching – In an AI-driven market, advantage comes from owning what is unique. Everything else risks being optimised away.
Competing for Position: Building Defensibility and Advantage
Winning in this market means moving “up and right” on the matrix—strengthening both supply differentiation and customer relationships. But every move comes with trade-offs.
1) Winning in AI-Mediated Discovery (Moving Right)
As AI agents replace traditional search, visibility will depend less on SEO and more on how effectively products are surfaced within generative systems.
This requires structured data, rich content, and distribution models that AI can easily ingest and prioritise.
The tension is clear: greater visibility within AI ecosystems drives reach, but at the cost of handing over the customer interface.
The strategic question is unavoidable: Do you maximise presence within AI ecosystems, or protect direct discovery at the cost of scale?
2) Becoming “Agent-Ready” for Transactions (At Risk of Moving Down)
AI agents will increasingly compare and book travel on behalf of users. To participate, operators must expose real-time pricing and availability through APIs and machine-readable systems. This is not just a technical upgrade – it is a strategic decision to be transactable by machines.
But for undifferentiated products, this creates a paradox: making it easier to buy often makes it easier to replace. Opening access unlocks demand – but also accelerates commoditisation if there is nothing distinctive to protect.
3) Designing for Non-Optimisable Value (Moving Up)
AI agents excel at solving structured complexity – comparing options, optimising itineraries, and assembling multi-stage journeys with speed and precision. Complexity alone is not a defence; in many cases, it makes products easier to optimise.
The real opportunity lies in creating value that cannot be easily reduced to structured variables:
Experiences where quality is subjective, contextual, or emotionally driven
Inventory that is not fully standardised or widely accessible
Offerings that rely on curation, judgement, or human expertise
These are harder for AI to compare, and therefore harder to commoditise. The trade-off is real: differentiation comes at the expense of scalability and ease of distribution.
AI doesn’t commoditise complexity, it commoditises anything it can compare.
The most defensible products are not the most complex, but the least comparable.
4) Owning the Customer Relationship Layer (Moving Right)
As AI intermediaries grow, direct customer relationships become more valuable, not less.
First-party data, loyalty programmes, and direct channels underpin:
Personalisation
Retention
Reduced reliance on external platforms
But this is a long-term investment and one that can conflict with participation in AI-led distribution. The goal is not to eliminate intermediaries, but to avoid dependence on them.
The strongest brands will not control every interaction, but they will remain the ones customers return to intentionally.
5) Automating the End-to-End Experience (Supporting Right, Rarely Up)
Embedding AI across the full travel lifecycle – from inspiration to in-trip support and post-travel engagement can deepen customer relationships and improve experience.
But automation is not, in itself, a source of defensibility. It is rapidly replicable and increasingly expected. Automation improves how you deliver value; it rarely changes what makes you valuable. Its role is to reinforce relationships and enhance differentiated offerings, not to substitute for them.
What This Means for the Travel Industry
The travel industry has adapted to multiple waves of disruption – from OTAs to mobile to metasearch, each shifting power toward those who controlled discovery and demand. AI is different in one critical respect: it does not just reshape channels; it reshapes the interface itself. Over time, AI agents may not just be the primary interface, they may become the only interface that matters for a large share of decisions.
For businesses built on aggregation and search arbitrage, that shift is deeply disruptive. For others, it is an opportunity to consolidate advantage by strengthening what AI cannot easily replicate.
Charting a Defensible Future
The strategic imperative is clear: move up and right. Strengthen supply through exclusivity, differentiation, and non-comparability, deepen relationships through data, loyalty, and direct engagement.
The winners will integrate with AI ecosystems where necessary, but remain anchored in assets that cannot be intermediated away. The rest risk becoming invisible, present in the market, but absent from the decision.
If an algorithm can compare it, it can commoditise it. In an AI-mediated market, being the best option is no longer enough, only the least replaceable will win.
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