AI isn’t the future of travel; it’s already here, but most airlines and hotels still treat it like a test run. Across the industry, executives are pouring millions into AI, proof-of-concepts, and strategy decks promising smarter operations and seamless guest experiences. But when travelers interact with these brands, everything still feels the same. The booking flow hasn’t changed. Loyalty offers miss the mark. The “personalized” email feels generic or ill-timed.
Amperity’s 2025 State of AI in Travel report surveyed 800 leaders from hotels and airlines across the U.S. We found that although adoption is up, enthusiasm is high, and investment is surging, only a few brands (35%) use AI for customer-facing applications. Most are using AI to tweak and optimize internal processes and holding back from putting AI in front of customers, where it can actually move the needle on loyalty, revenue, and growth.
Momentum Without Mastery
There’s no denying AI’s momentum. According to our findings, 40% of travel companies already use AI several times a week, and nearly all (96%) plan to maintain or increase their AI spending in the coming year. For an industry navigating labor shortages, rising costs, and evolving guest expectations, the promise of automation and personalization is hard to resist. Unfortunately, adoption doesn’t translate to readiness.
Only 12% of respondents in our survey feel strongly that they are prepared to deploy AI tools at scale, and while most organizations use AI regularly, more than a third (36%) provide no formal AI training for their employees. The disconnect between travel brands’ AI ambition and their ability to make the most of their investments is defining the current AI landscape.
The tools are powerful, but it’s clear that the underlying systems and skills are still developing. Because of this, travel brands are stuck in the experimentation phase and are slower to achieve meaningful outcomes with their AI investments.
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Keeping AI Behind the Scenes
When it comes to designing meaningful customer experiences, travelers don’t remember how your dashboards looked. They remember how brands made them feel.
For instance, they remember the unexpected room upgrade, the instant rebooking after a flight is cancelled, or the email that anticipates their preferences before they even ask. Those are the moments where AI could turn data into delight. Yet two-thirds of travel companies are keeping their AI capabilities locked in the back office, without fully embracing its ability to shift customer journeys.
Less than half of the travel brands we surveyed use AI for customer-facing applications, which is the exact use case that drives loyalty and lifetime value. Their hesitation is costing them customers and loyalty. Most leaders (54%) believe AI will improve loyalty, but only some (23%) are confident they can act on customer behavior in real time.
Other industries, like retail, are already using AI where customers can see and feel the results. Retailers are ahead on both confidence and execution, with 63% believing AI will improve loyalty compared to just 53% in travel. If the travel industry wants to catch up, it needs to stop treating AI as an internal efficiency tool and start viewing it as a guest experience multiplier.
The Core Problems: Fragmented Data and the Identity Gap
So why are travel brands holding back? Because their data isn’t ready. In our survey, 58% said their customer data is fragmented or incomplete. Only 18% are using AI in production to resolve customer identities, which is a foundational step required to make any personalization effort work.
Without unified, trustworthy data, even the most advanced AI model isn’t going to move the needle. Feeding bad data into your AI solution results in inconsistent experiences, wasted ad spend, and a disconnect between what brands think they know about customers and what their customers actually experience.
Fragmented data directly impacts the bottom line. Travel companies told us it leads to inaccurate reporting, higher IT costs, and increased human error. These inefficiencies eat into margins at a time when every point when every dollar matters.
But too many organizations still don’t trust their own data enough to automate decisions with it. And that’s where the real opportunity lies: unifying customer data. When brands can bring all their information together (such as bookings, loyalty activity, on-site behavior, and support interactions), AI can deliver consistent, personalized experiences that build loyalty and drive growth.
How Data Maturity Drives AI Maturity
We know that brands that invest in unified customer data are already pulling ahead of their competitors. Companies with a Customer Data Platform (CDP) are twice as likely to use AI in guest-facing applications (50% vs. 19%) and more likely to have full adoption across multiple business units. These organizations are proving what we’ve seen firsthand with our travel partners like Alaska Airlines and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, that data maturity and AI maturity rise together.
When brands unify their customer data, they gain the ability to:
- Personalize experiences across every channel in real time
- Predict guest behavior and proactively resolve issues
- Empower marketers to act without waiting for IT intervention
- Measure true ROI across the customer journey
In 2025, data infrastructure is a competitive differentiator. AI only performs as well as the data it’s using, and in an industry built on guest relationships, that data must be connected, contextualized, and continuously improving.
Where AI Is (Finally) Taking Off
Leading travel companies are working toward use cases that improve the guest experience, like predictive analytics, personalization, and chatbots or virtual assistants. These are early steps, but they show where the industry’s heading: AI that doesn’t just automate tasks, but elevates the customer journey.
We’re already seeing forward-looking travel brands using AI to drive loyalty program engagement, increase repeat bookings, and deliver the kind of personalized moments that turn first-time guests into lifelong advocates.
Still, data shows that very few have embraced the full potential. Only a few travel companies prioritize AI for identity resolution, the very capability that enables all other personalization. It’s like trying to upgrade a plane mid-flight without knowing who’s on board. Tomorrow’s brand leaders are those who make AI personal.
The Loyalty Moment AI Was Made For
The travel industry has always been about experience. The feeling of being known, seen, and valued is essential to customer loyalty and growth. That won’t change with AI; it just changes how we deliver it.
When AI systems and tools are powered by unified, high-quality first-party data, it can help travel brands predict needs, personalize at scale, and connect the dots across every touchpoint, from booking to check-in to post-stay engagement. That’s not a replacement for hospitality– it’s the next evolution of it.
The message from our research clearly shows that hotels and airlines that unify their customer data and trust AI to deliver real, human-centric experiences will lead the next era of loyalty. The rest will still be writing strategy decks about potential while their competitors are soaring ahead.
