Americans increasingly using AI chatbots to plan vacations, Adobe data shows

Data released by Adobe on August 19, 2026, reveals a massive surge in United States consumers using AI chatbots and browsers to plan vacations. AI-driven traffic to travel sites grew 119% year-over-year in July 2026, with the purchase conversion rate gap between AI and non-AI traffic narrowing to just 1%. Despite this rapid adoption, many travel sites face AI visibility gaps, with airlines averaging a low 42% readability score for Large Language Models.

AI chatbot vacation planning adoption

• ▪A growing number of United States consumers are using artificial intelligence chatbots and browsers to plan vacations and construct nuanced itineraries, according to data released by Adobe on August 19, 2026.
• ▪An Adobe survey of 5,000 United States consumers found that 84 percent of respondents stated that using artificial intelligence for travel planning improved their experience.

AI traffic growth to travel sites

• ▪Consumers arriving at a travel website from an artificial intelligence source show 21 percent higher engagement, spend 67 percent more time on the site, and have a 42 percent lower bounce rate.
• ▪Artificial intelligence travel traffic has grown by 1,822 percent since Adobe began tracking the metric in October 2024.
• ▪Artificial intelligence traffic to travel websites increased by 119 percent year-over-year in July 2026, according to data released by Adobe.

AI conversion rates rising

• ▪The conversion rate gap between artificial intelligence and non-artificial intelligence traffic on travel websites narrowed to 1 percent in July 2026, compared to July 2025 when non-artificial intelligence conversion was 47 percent higher.
• ▪In July 2026, traffic from artificial intelligence sources to overall retail sites had a 60 percent higher conversion rate than non-artificial intelligence traffic, marking the 11th consecutive month of higher AI-driven conversion.
• ▪For overall retail, artificial intelligence-driven traffic to United States retail sites was up 62 percent year-over-year in July 2026, and up 1,219 percent compared to October 2024.

Consumer trust in AI recommendations

• ▪Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, stated that the rapid pace at which consumers have transitioned from using artificial intelligence as a research tool to making purchasing decisions is astounding.
• ▪Consumers are increasingly making purchases after artificial intelligence steers them to travel options, driven by growing trust in the accuracy of information provided by artificial intelligence.

Travel site AI visibility gaps

• ▪The average artificial intelligence homepage visibility score for overall retail sites was 61 percent, meaning nearly 40 percent of homepage content is not fully readable by Large Language Models.
• ▪Many travel and retail websites suffer from artificial intelligence visibility gaps where homepages contain content that cannot be read by Large Language Models, according to Adobe.
• ▪According to Adobe's diagnostic tool, the average artificial intelligence visibility score was 71 percent for hotel homepages, 70 percent for cruise lines, 64 percent for car rentals, and 42 percent for airlines.