Why AI agents will bring opportunities for the tourism sector in 2025

In the tourism sector, advances in AI have already enabled significant gains, notably in marketing, customer communications management (such as automated email response) or just through internal efficiency gains.

But AI is reaching a new stage with “AI agents” due to arrive in the early months of 2025. AI agents are systems capable of making autonomous decisions and carrying out complex tasks without direct human intervention. It can be given a role and a task, and the agent will carry out the task.

We can think of them as advanced virtual assistants who can be asked to organize itineraries, manage reservations and even create marketing campaigns for us. To get the job done, the agent might even go so far as to do his or her own web searches, connect to your e-mail system and create a newsletter.

The potential is huge for an industry like ours, and could open up great opportunities both for customer service and internally within our organizations.

For a better understanding of what’s to come, here’s a quick overview.

1. What is an AI Agent?

For a better understanding, let’s first go back to an explanation of what an AI agent is.

“An AI agent, also known as an agentic system, is intelligent software capable of interacting autonomously with its digital environment.” (Thanks ChatGPT!)

So, unlike the traditional chatbots we know (such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.) which are limited to answering questions, AI agents can execute actions. For example, they can take control of your computer, open a browser, do their research, open Excel and copy the information into Excel.

And not only can they take action, they can also analyze information in real time and adjust their behavior according to what they find and analyze.

2. What does this mean for tourism?

In the tourism sector, this means that agents can go much further than providing information and answering questions. They could, for example, answer customer calls and make decisions based on customer requests and the parameters you gave them at the outset.

If a customer calls and asks if there is availability the next day at a specific time, the agent could go to the calendar, confirm that there is availability and make the booking in your system.

AI agents therefore have the potential to transform the tourism sector by automating complex processes and offering more personalized, responsive services.

Here are just some of the ways in which these systems could add value to tourism:

• Automating complex tasks: AI agents could manage end-to-end trip planning (flight bookings, hotels, activities), even proceeding to payment.
• Improving the hotel guest experience: An AI agent could anticipate guests’ needs (for example, offering a quick meal on late arrival) and provide personalized service without waiting.
• Targeted marketing campaigns: The AI agent could analyze traveler data, create tailored campaigns and adjust strategy in real time, which will reduce manual intervention in analysis.
• Event and conference planning: The AI agent could coordinate the request for bids, room reservations, accommodation and transportation.

3. When will the Agents arrive?

You may be wondering when AI agents will become part of our daily lives. The answer is that they’re already on their way! Companies such as Anthropic (Claude) and Google (Gemini) have already developed agents capable of carrying out certain tasks. For example, Claude can take control of your computer and manage web actions autonomously, such as filling in forms or comparing travel options. It’s not the smoothest thing yet, but it’s a first step.

OpenAI (ChatGPT) is also expected to announce similar features in the early months of 2025.

But all the experts agree that 2025 should be the year when we really see a big breakthrough in agentique. And it promises to be interesting!

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