AI for travel is here; it just isn’t evenly distributed yet. Our survey shows that AI usage is widespread, with 62% of global travelers saying they are familiar with AI travel planning tools. But this headline figure hides “lumpy” adoption trends: some customers love these tools, while others treat them with disdain. It’s critical to know who falls into which bucket. As it turns out, some of your most valuable traveler segments are leading the AI charge. Who exactly? Well, that answer is coming up shortly…

But first!

I’m excited to share that we have launched another new research report format: the Skift Research Trend Lifecycle.

Last month, we introduced the Decision Brief, a focused report that synthesizes a key decision faced by travel leaders and provides data to help guide the path forward. The Trend Lifecycle takes the same concise and data-driven approach, but applies it to the macro forces shaping the world of travel. It uses the same structured and easy-to-follow format behind all of Skift’s long-standing research on travel trends.

At the heart of all these reports is our lifecycle framework. Each trend is assigned a specific lifecycle phase to help travel leaders determine how much time, focus, and resources to commit to it. We will continually monitor and update the lifecycle as trends grow, mature, and decline.

Our inaugural trend lifecycle report focuses on the insatiable demand for premium airline seats. The timing couldn’t be better! Delta Air Lines just reported that Q2 2026 was the first quarter where it earned more revenue from premium seats than from main cabin seats. Delta was feeling so confident that it reaffirmed its profit outlook for the full year, despite a $2 billion surge in jet fuel costs since the start of the U.S. war with Iran. Talk about the power of premium!

We have more Trend Lifecycle reports in the works. Future installments will track live tourism, experiential travel, wellness travel, and more. Watch this space. But in the meantime, let’s return to the topic of AI adoption. 

As mentioned above, AI usage is widespread but concentrated in some very specific buckets. It just so happens that these are some of the most important customers in the entire travel ecosystem.

One of our most interesting findings is that the more travelers earn, the more likely they are to use AI to plan their travel. Personally, I found this quite surprising. I imagined that the rich traveler might be a bit older and more accustomed to quality service, and therefore slower to adopt an automation tool like AI.

As we dug a bit deeper into the data, we found another interesting disparity: business travelers regularly use AI to plan trips, at twice the rate of leisure travelers.

I suspect that the push for AI adoption and the threat of AI replacement in high-paying, white-collar jobs has led to widespread experimentation with AI tools. Bankers, consultants, lawyers, doctors, engineers, and salespeople: these are some of the high-paying jobs that have been encouraged (and, in some cases, bulldozed) into using AI. Well, guess what — they’ve complied and, after a round of layoffs, they have gotten the message. Shape up on AI or ship out. 

These same folks also happen to be some of the highest earners and therefore also the biggest spenders on travel. The AI habits they are picking up in their work life seem to be transferring over to their off-duty travel habits as well. 

Luxury and business travel are often thought of as having a slower pace of innovation. The old assumptions (corporate travel tools still live in the ‘90s, business travel policies are slow to change, high-end customers value the human touch) may not hold true any more. 

There is a stark irony here. Corporate travel management and high-end luxury travel agents or tour operators were among the pockets of travel that were most protected from the original digital revolution, but now look to be most in the line of fire for AI disruption. 

The age of AI in travel is arriving quickly, and in this new era, your most valuable customers might just be the earliest adopters as well. 

Best,

Seth Borko
Head of Skift Research

There’s a term that has really been ruffling my feathers: AI-Native. I’ve seen lots of claims online, but no, as much as you might protest, you’re not an AI-native. There is a big difference between a traveler born into AI usage and one who adopts it later in life. We saw the same gap with internet users – even the most advanced Baby Boomer doesn’t “get” the internet as well as a Millennial who grew up online. And much as it pains my Millennial self to admit, I will never be quite as mobile-native as my Gen Z counterparts. The true AI-natives are still in their cribs today. But they’ll be traveling before you know it!