Google’s 5 Stages of Travel are being rewritten by AI

Google’s 5 Stages of Travel are being rewritten by AI

Dreaming, Planning, Booking, Experiencing, and Sharing, has underpinned how travel companies think about customer journeys for more than a decade. With AI rapidly reshaping behaviour and expectations, each stage will evolve:

1. Dreaming

AI will make inspiration more personal and interactive. Instead of browsing generic blogs or social channels, travellers will have AI-curated recommendations based on their preferences, past trips, budget, and even real-time signals like weather or events. Think conversational trip ideas generated uniquely for each user.

2. Planning

The traditionally fragmented stage will become more seamless. AI can handle research across hundreds of sites, compare itineraries, factor in constraints (budget, time, interests), and build tailored options in minutes. Planning shifts from manual effort to guided dialogue with an AI assistant that knows the traveller’s context.

3. Booking

AI will reduce friction. Instead of navigating multiple platforms, travellers will increasingly rely on agentic AI to execute bookings across suppliers in real time. Dynamic packaging will become invisible to the user, who simply expresses intent (“I want a family ski holiday in February”) and receives an assembled, bookable trip.

4. Experiencing

AI will act as a live companion. From itinerary adjustments due to delays, to personalised recommendations while on the ground, AI assistants will deliver proactive, contextual support. Expect more predictive servicing: alerts, translations, local transport guidance, and even AR overlays powered by AI.

5. Sharing

AI will reshape storytelling. Automated editing tools will create polished trip videos, journals, or posts with minimal effort from the traveller. Sharing will also loop back into dreaming, as AI-generated content feeds inspiration for others.

The bigger shift:

Instead of five discrete stages, AI will blur the lines. The journey becomes a continuous loop, where inspiration, planning, booking, and experiencing feed into each other through a traveller’s digital assistant. For travel brands, the challenge is staying visible in a world where the AI mediator sits between them and the customer.