Expedia's AI Trust Gap Report: 53 Percent of Travelers Accept AI Recommendations — But Only 8 Percent Trust AI to Book

Expedia Group released "The AI Trust Gap" on April 14 — the largest study to date on how travelers feel about AI across their entire journey, from inspiration to booking to in-trip support. The survey, conducted by YouGov between March 10 and March 25, covered 5,700 adults across the US, UK, and India. The headline number: 53 percent of travelers are comfortable letting AI suggest where to go. Only 8 percent trust AI to actually book the trip. Xavi Amatriain, Expedia's Chief AI and Data Officer, put it bluntly: "Travelers don't have a technology problem with AI. They have a trust problem."

The numbers that define the gap

The distance between inspiration and transaction is 45 percentage points. More than half of respondents are willing to let AI recommend destinations, hotels, and itineraries. Fewer than one in twelve will let AI handle the booking.

The middle of the journey tells its own story. Thirty-nine percent of travelers use AI to research and plan trips — browsing options, comparing prices, building rough itineraries. But 59 percent still rely on traditional search engines for the same tasks. AI has entered the planning process without dominating it.

The transaction layer is where resistance hardens. Sixty-eight percent of respondents prefer booking with a trusted travel brand over an AI chatbot, even when AI booking is available. Forty percent specifically worry about poor customer service if something goes wrong after AI makes a purchase. The concern is not that AI will book the wrong hotel. The concern is that no one will answer the phone when it does.

The pattern is unambiguous: AI is winning discovery. Trust is winning the transaction.

How Expedia's data fits the past two weeks of research

Expedia's report does not exist in isolation. It is the latest — and most authoritative — entry in a series of studies released over a two-week window, all pointing in the same direction.

On April 8, a Dune7 and Flesh & Bone study of 1,000 U.S. travelers found 71 percent interested in an AI booking assistant — but only with approval rights, transparency, and a human fallback. On April 3, Skift reported that only 2 percent of U.S. consumers want fully autonomous AI booking with no oversight at all. In January, an IBM-NRF retail study found 45 percent of consumers use AI for shopping research, but only 12 percent trust AI to make the purchase. On April 12, Travel & Tour World reported that one-third of travelers start with AI for discovery, while only 13 percent trust it for the transaction. And on April 13, the Stanford AI Index showed global AI adoption outpacing the PC and the internet — while AI transparency scores dropped from 58 to 40 on the Foundation Model Transparency Index.

Expedia's 8 percent is now the most robust number in this series: 5,700 respondents, three countries, conducted by YouGov with fieldwork across two weeks. The trust gap is not a hypothesis. It is measured fact across multiple independent studies.

What this means for the travel industry

Hospitality.today's analysis framed the report's implications precisely: "discovery moving into AI-driven environments while transactions remain anchored in established channels." That sentence describes what is actually happening, not what the industry hoped would happen.

Google's AI Mode is expanding agentic booking to nine countries. But Expedia's data suggests consumers will use AI to find restaurants and compare hotels — then book through Expedia, Booking.com, or directly with the property. The OTAs retain a structural advantage: they have brand trust and transaction infrastructure. AI chatbots have neither.

For hotels and airlines, being discoverable by AI is now table stakes. Inventory that is not machine-readable will be invisible. But the booking still flows through channels consumers already trust. For AI companies building travel agents, the technology to book a hotel in seconds exists. The consumer permission to use it does not. Expedia's report puts a number on how far that permission still needs to travel: 45 percentage points.

Mubboo's Take

Expedia just gave the trust gap a definitive number: 8 percent. Out of 5,700 travelers across three countries, only 8 percent trust AI enough to let it handle a booking. Meanwhile, 53 percent are happy to let AI inspire and suggest. This is the exact territory Mubboo occupies — the space between "AI suggested it" and "I'm ready to commit my money." Our Travel channel provides the editorial judgment, scenario-specific advice, and honest anti-recommendations that help consumers evaluate what AI has found. When 68 percent of travelers say they prefer booking with a trusted brand over an AI chatbot, the platform that earns trust through editorial independence — not through owning the transaction — becomes the bridge between AI discovery and confident booking. Expedia calls it the AI Trust Gap. We call it our reason for existing.