AI Travel Agent

My Dad has run a small travel company specializing in travel to Indonesia for the last 35 years. It’s a dying business with the age of the internet, but it was fun growing up and always was the spark for my interest in travel.

I’ve been frustrated the last couple days as I’ve been trying to book my flight to Uzbekistan for my trip in August. The Uzbekistan Airlines website feels like it was made in the 1990s, and whenever I try to book my flight and pay, the payment portal errors out. I’ve tried to contact and email them to book to no avail. It seems like a common problem.

In 2026, there’s really no excuses for this. A customer is trying to book directly with you to avoid paying agent fees and nothing seems to work. I had to settle and ultimately book with Expedia which went through seamlessly.

I know there are many startups looking to become an AI travel agent for you. I wonder when the product gets good enough that I can type in what I want, when I want it, and have it give me all the options with pros/cons. Maybe that exists and it’s time to start looking at these services.