The session was a lightning debate moderated by Timothy O’Neil-Dunne, principal of travel and aviation consultancy T2Impact, with three people arguing for and against. AI is still clearly what people want to hear about at industry events; the session was one of the best attended at WTM 2025, with standing room only.
Lori Timony, SVP of global trade sales and business development at Go City, was one of the speakers on the debate, arguing for AI.
“AI is travel’s great democratizer. It levels the playing field. It gives small businesses super-powers,” she said.
Timony cited the example of a small tour operator.
“Most opened shop because they loved to guide, to be with people,” she said. “What are they doing now? They are stuck behind laptops, answering emails that came in at 2 a.m., rebooking, cancellations, issuing and reissuing vouchers, analyzing pricing and reviews. AI gets them out from behind their laptops doing what they love to do, in front of those travelers, sharing their stories.”
She also argued that AI can move more people more effectively.
“Think Google Maps for cities that will read the crowds, suggest the next street over with the same story or a second-tier gem that might be one stop away,” she said.
“Perhaps it signals you when crowds have thinned at an iconic attraction you’ve been avoiding but really want to visit.”
Speaking with PhocusWire after the event, Timony said, “As AI relates to trip planning, it takes the fear away. There's a lot of opportunity for people that don’t really get out and explore themselves.”
She added, “As a person that loves to travel and has been a tour director, I love building a trip. I don't want to take that part away from it completely. There's also that experience of getting into a city and just being like, wow, let's go down that street.”
But will AI lead to the end of the human travel agent? Not necessarily, according to Timony.
“I honestly think AI is pushing everybody to do better, whether you're a supplier and you need to clean your data, improve your content or make yourself more findable, or whether you’re a travel agent who now needs to step up their game a little bit and utilize AI as a tool,” she said.
Weighing the cons
Stephen Joyce, global strategy lead for travel at Protect Group, argued against AI.
“Travel is an innately human experience. It's something that as humans we have been doing for thousands of years. We are migratory animals. We are constantly on the move, and so for me, travel is about that connecting of people in the real world,” he said.
In conversation with PhocusWire, Joyce said he doesn’t believe AI will ever be able to replace the human experience in travel. However, it can simplify otherwise “mundane tasks” like discovery and booking.
“Although, I do have issues with the discovery phase being too easy because part of the excitement and the challenge of travel is discovering someplace new … if we all just go to the same places, then what stories do we tell at the end of the day?”
He also expressed fear surrounding the main drivers of AI.
“I worry about the fact that AI is being driven so heavily by profit-driven corporations because how they monetize AI will ultimately be what AI is good for, right?” Joyce said.
“It was the same thing with the internet. In the early days, it was about free-flowing information, learning about new things. It's basically turned into a giant ad platform. The tech companies have now spent billions on developing AI; they need to make their money back.”
Joyce shared further concerns that AI will make people lose trust.
“I think AI will result in the vast majority of humans not trusting content in general, because we won't be able to know if it's AI generated or if it was generated by a human. Large tech companies have also convinced regular people that they cannot trust their fellow human beings and that you should trust the algorithm because it knows best. It's really scary.”
A happy medium?
Following the debate, Alex Chen, chief technology officer of Alibaba’s travel arm Fliggy, which has embraced AI, also shared his views on whether AI is the enemy.
“Our attitude towards AI is one of scientifically grounded cautious optimism. We believe that AI is a close friend and a genuine transformer for future consumers. However, we need to start investing and preparing now, while maintaining patience and humility. It's crucial to pay attention to the actual needs of both the industry and technology development—just as we nurture friendship.”
Chen also compared the AI age to the rise of the internet, “which became a multiplier for almost every industry by connecting user demand and supply online—encompassing information, transactions, content and social interactions.”
AI, however, is operating on an even larger scale.
“AI can not only connect but also think and act. We believe that these needs are deeply personalized, unpredictable and highly dynamic. An AI agent, as it evolves rapidly, with long-term memory and up-to-date world knowledge, can listen, learn, act and adapt to your needs in an ultra-personalized, real-time and empathetic manner.”
Chen also countered Joyce’s stance on the romance of travel planning, arguing that AI will actually “increase the serendipity and joyfulness” of research and planning.
“We believe the romance of uncertainty and the joy of exploration comes from discovering uncharted areas of information and knowledge, rather than from tedious and repetitive labor. With modern AI’s powerful reasoning, vast world knowledge and rapidly evolving agents, the uncharted areas that consumers can explore become exponentially greater, if not infinite. As a result, the potential for joyful discoveries also grows.”
Chen may be right. When it came to the end of the WTM debate, O’Neil-Dunne asked for a show of hands from the hundreds present of those who believe AI is the enemy.
The number who did would barely have made up a football team.
Tags: Artificial intelligence WTM debate, Alex Chen,Fliggy, WTM 2025 Lori Timony, Go City
