# Travel CEOs want AI agents, but few know how they'll work

Canonical-URL: https://hoteltech.news/digest/travel-agentic-future-skift-build
Text-Version: https://hoteltech.news/digest/travel-agentic-future-skift-build.txt
Markdown-Version: https://hoteltech.news/digest/travel-agentic-future-skift-build.md
Language: en
Published: 2026-09-25T15:32:06.538Z
Modified: 2026-09-25T15:32:06.538Z
Author: Joan Sanz
Topics: Artificial Intelligence
Summary: At Skift Global Forum, almost every travel CEO talked about what they want AI agents to do. Very few explained how those agents will actually plug into their systems.

## Article

At Skift Global Forum, almost every travel brand CEO mentioned what they want AI agents to do: book, rebook, upsell, handle disruption. According to [Skift's coverage](https://skift.com/2026/09/25/how-to-build-for-travels-agentic-future/), far fewer explained how they expect any of it to work under the hood.

That gap is the story. An agent is only as useful as the APIs, inventory and payment rails it can reach. If a hotel PMS or a channel manager exposes nothing but a clunky extranet, the cleverest model on earth will hallucinate its way through a reservation. Builders who want to sell into travel should start there, not with another chatbot demo.

My read: the winners will be the companies that treat agents as a distribution channel with real plumbing behind it, pricing rules, cancellation logic, loyalty recognition. The CEOs who only talked about ambition left the hard part to their product teams. Not a bad thing, just a reminder that the agentic future gets built in the back end first.

## Sources

- Skift: https://skift.com/2026/09/25/how-to-build-for-travels-agentic-future/

## Citation

Travel CEOs want AI agents, but few know how they'll work. Hotel Tech News. 2026-09-25. https://hoteltech.news/digest/travel-agentic-future-skift-build