AI agents becoming major force in travel, hospitality

Artificial-intelligence agents are rapidly moving beyond travel discovery and could soon become the primary gatekeepers of bookings, payments and itinerary management, a panel at JAPEX 2026 heard.

The issue was explored during the second panel on the opening day of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association’s premier trade show, held at Moon Palace Jamaica from September 14-17. Titled ‘Agentic Commerce and the AI Booking Journey’, the session examined how Jamaica’s travel and hospitality sector can navigate the rise of agentic commerce. The discussion was moderated by Dr Carey Wallace, executive director of the Tourism Enhancement Fund.

Panellists included Kristopher DaCosta, marketing manager at the Jamaica Tourist Board; Andre Campbell, senior manager for learning programmes and innovation at Sandals Corporate University; Paul Simon, chairman and CEO of Rockhouse; and AI strategist Dean Challis, managing director and head of media and innovation for EMEA.

Before the panel discussion, Challis delivered a presentation titled ‘Agentic Commerce: The Next Travel Shift’, in which he outlined how AI-powered agents are transforming traveller discovery, bookings and the broader tourism landscape.

EVOLUTION

His presentation covered the evolution from generative AI to agentic travel, the outlook for travel-assistant adoption, the emergence of agentic-commerce gatekeepers and a case study involving Radisson Hotels.

But, what exactly is agentic AI?

According to Challis, unlike traditional AI systems that simply answer questions, agentic AI uses virtual agents capable of planning ahead, using tools, taking actions, correcting mistakes and learning user preferences over time.

“Regular AI just answers questions, but agentic AI is like a smart helper that figures out all the steps needed to finish a big goal from start to finish. Just like a person uses apps, agentic AI can open calendars, check maps, look up prices, and use calculators to get real work done. Instead of just telling you what to do, it can actually click the buttons, buy the tickets, or send the emails, once you give it permission,” he said.

“If something goes wrong, like a road being closed or a flight being sold out, it doesn’t give up; it finds a new way to solve the problem automatically. Over time, it learns your favourite things, routine, and habits so it can make decisions that fit you best without needing to be told every time.”

Challis argued that agentic commerce is likely to become the travel industry’s next major disruption, noting that generative AI has already become commonplace in travel discovery.

“Agentic commerce is approaching as the next big disruptor in the category,” he said, adding that “in a relatively short time since their introduction, LLMs (large language models) such as ChatGPT, Anthropic and Gemini have disrupted the discovery phase of the consumer journey”.

The shift appears to be gaining momentum. Citing Booking.com’s 2025 Global Sentiment Report, Challis noted that 60 per cent of consumers have used AI to plan and travel, 91 per cent are excited about the technology and 89 per cent want to use AI in future travel planning. AI assistants, he said, are now viewed as a more trusted source of travel information than bloggers or social-media influencers.

For travel brands and advertisers, the implications are significant. As consumers increasingly rely on large language models, companies must pay closer attention to how their brands appear within AI environments, including rankings, visibility, advertising placements and the overall customer experience delivered through those platforms.

The impact extends far beyond travel discovery. Challis said agentic commerce is beginning to assume a greater role throughout the customer journey, including autonomous itinerary planning, proactive disruption management, direct transactional execution, conversational discovery and continuous personalisation.

In practical terms, these systems can assemble flights, hotels and activities from a single natural-language request; monitor weather and flight disruptions and automatically rebook reservations; complete transactions without redirecting users to third-party websites; and adapt recommendations based on loyalty status, budgets and travel habits.

To illustrate the potential, Challis pointed to a case study involving Radisson Hotels Group, which operates more than 1,000 hotels worldwide.

The company partnered with Accenture, the Dublin-headquartered technology consultancy, to develop a ChatGPT-enabled travel-discovery application that combines conversational AI, live pricing, personalised recommendations and direct booking functionality.

Travellers can search for hotels, access real-time rates and receive recommendations tailored to their preferences and travel intentions within a single conversational interface.

The results, Challis said, suggest a fundamental shift in how hospitality businesses engage customers.

“Generative AI reframes hospitality commerce as a unified, personalised customer journey architecture,” he said.

He noted that 70 per cent of travellers now prefer making bookings through an online virtual assistant. Radisson’s platform brings together conversational discovery, live rates and direct booking in one seamless experience, while using generative AI to deliver more personalised recommendations and strengthen customer engagement.

The development points to the emergence of a new class of travel gatekeepers.

According to Challis, AI assistant agents are increasingly becoming the intermediaries that influence purchasing decisions, meaning hotels, airlines and destinations will need machine-readable inventory, transparent policies and strong digital credibility to remain visible within AI-driven ecosystems.

editorial@gleanerjm.com