April 29, 2026
Half of US Travellers Say They No Longer Care Whether AI or a Human Solves Their Problem
Half of US travellers have reached the same conclusion about airline customer service: they do not care whether AI or a human agent resolves their issue, as long as it actually gets resolved.
A new survey by Ada suggests that the travel industry’s long-running debate over automation versus human support is becoming irrelevant to the people it is supposed to serve.
The survey, conducted ahead of the summer travel season, found that 47% of respondents consider travel more stressful and unpredictable than it used to be, and 32% said they have less confidence in airlines to manage disruptions effectively. The erosion of trust feeds directly into service demand. More than a quarter of travellers (27%) now expect to spend more time waiting for help when something goes wrong, a pressure that adds to already stretched airline support operations with additional volume at precisely the moments when capacity is thinnest.
Long Wait Times Remain the Dominant Frustration
When asked to identify their biggest customer service frustrations, travellers were consistent. Long wait times topped the list at 46%, followed by interactions that fail to resolve the issue (34%), incorrect or incomplete information (28%), and a lack of timely communication from airlines (28%). The pattern reinforces what recent industry research has found about AI acceptance across consumer sectors: most people will welcome automation, provided they retain access to a human when the situation demands it.
When disruptions occur, 43% of travellers said they prefer a mix of AI for efficiency and the option to escalate to a human if needed. More than half (53%) still expect human support to be available at all times, even when AI handles the initial interaction.
One Bad AI Interaction Can Cost an Airline a Customer
Among the 69% of respondents who had travelled in the past six months, roughly 40% used AI for at least one travel-related task, including booking (15%) and managing disruptions (13%). When travellers did encounter friction with AI, the most common complaint was that menu options were too limited (14%), not that the technology failed to understand them (10%) or that they distrusted it entirely. That distinction is significant because it suggests the resistance airlines might expect to face is less about consumer scepticism and more about the quality of the AI experience itself.
The survey also found that AI carries disproportionate weight in loyalty decisions. Nearly 40% said AI interactions influence their perception of an airline more than human ones do, in both directions. Specifically, 24% said a positive AI experience would improve their loyalty more than a positive human interaction, while 15% said a negative AI experience would damage it more severely. Those numbers make AI a loyalty amplifier rather than a neutral service channel, and they raise the cost of getting it wrong.
Gartner research published earlier this year found that 91% of customer service leaders face executive pressure to implement AI in 2026, with improving customer satisfaction and self-service success among their top priorities. Ada’s findings suggest that the same urgency applies in travel, where passengers increasingly judge the entire brand by the quality of its automated interactions.
Where Travellers Want AI to Deliver
The survey identified specific use cases where travellers favour AI over human support. Checking real-time flight status led the list at 41%, followed by answering pre-flight questions about documents or baggage allowances (30%) and handling in-flight adjustments like seat selection or upgrades (28%). When asked how AI should address their frustrations more effectively, the top responses were delivering real-time updates during disruptions (38%) and providing proactive guidance about potential delays or cancellations (32%).
Travellers want AI to handle informational and transactional tasks at speed, while preserving human intervention for complex or emotionally charged situations.
Mike Murchison, CEO and Co-Founder of Ada, said: “Travellers have stopped asking ‘is this AI or a human?’ and started asking ‘can you actually fix my problem?’ That’s a fundamental shift, and it’s one the travel industry can’t afford to ignore. Some of the biggest customer headaches – long wait times, lack of timely information, proactive alerts when disruptions happen – are things that AI is directly positioned to fix. Consumers are giving AI the green light. The question now is whether airlines are ready to execute.”
