The next evolution of the experience economy
The travel industry has always been shaped by moments of technological transformation. From the rise of online booking platforms to mobile boarding passes and digital wallets, each innovation has brought the travel experience closer to what consumers increasingly value most: convenience, personalisation and seamlessness.
But a more profound shift is now emerging. One that moves beyond digitising transactions and toward reimagining the entire consumer journey. The rise of agentic commerce, powered by AI agents capable of autonomously planning, purchasing and optimising experiences, represents the next evolution of the experience economy.
The scale of the opportunity is enormous. According to McKinsey research, by 2030 the US B2C retail market alone could see up to $1 trillion in orchestrated revenue generated through agentic commerce, with global projections reaching between $3 trillion and $5 trillion1. While much of the discussion around AI has focused on productivity and automation, the bigger long-term shift may be how agentic commerce fundamentally changes the relationship between consumers, merchants and experiences.
And nowhere is this transformation more visible than in travel.
From flight booking to full-service travel experiences
For decades, airlines have largely operated as point-of-sale businesses. Their relationship with consumers often began and ended with the flight booking itself. Ancillary services expanded that model somewhat, but the broader travel journey – restaurants, entertainment, local transport and experiences – has traditionally remained fragmented across multiple providers and platforms.
Agentic commerce changes that dynamic entirely.
Instead of travel being organised through disconnected bookings and manual searches, AI-driven systems now have the potential to orchestrate highly personalised, end-to-end experiences in real time. In this environment, the flight is no longer the final transaction. It becomes the entry point into a continuously evolving consumer journey.
This is what makes the concept of the “agentic airline” so compelling.
At Paysafe, we recently partnered with Nordic airline to demonstrate end-to-end agentic payments for airfare bookings – exploring how AI-driven booking and payment flows could streamline itinerary management, customer servicing and checkout experiences. While the demonstration focused on airfare payments, it highlighted a much broader opportunity emerging across travel: the potential for airlines to move beyond facilitating transport and instead become orchestrators of the wider travel experience itself.
Why consumers are prioritising experiences
That matters because consumers increasingly value experiences over possessions. Across industries, spending is shifting toward moments, memories and personalised activities rather than traditional physical consumption. Travel sits at the centre of that trend.
Paysafe’s 2026 Experience Economy Report: Summer Travel reinforces this shift. The research found that 50% of travellers plan to spend more on experiences during their trips, compared to just 19% who prioritise shopping for goods. Meanwhile, 42% say experiences and activities are where they are most willing to “splurge” while travelling. These are powerful signals for an industry increasingly competing not only on price, but on the quality and fluidity of the overall experience.
Payments innovation has long enabled the experience economy. Frictionless checkout, digital wallets and alternative payment methods have all helped remove barriers between consumers and the experiences they want to access. But agentic commerce accelerates this further by removing friction not just from payment, but from decision-making itself.
McKinsey recently described agentic commerce as a new era in which AI agents can “browse, compare, select, purchase and manage” products and services on behalf of consumers. In travel, that could fundamentally reshape how journeys are planned and experienced.
What seamless travel could actually look like
Imagine a traveller arriving in Barcelona for a long weekend. Rather than manually coordinating restaurants, transfers, tickets and recommendations across multiple apps, an AI-driven itinerary could dynamically curate experiences based on budget, weather, location, preferences and live availability. If a flight is delayed, transport is automatically rebooked. If rain disrupts outdoor plans, alternative experiences are suggested instantly. Restaurant reservations adapt around changing schedules, while payments happen invisibly in the background.
For consumers, this means less logistical friction and more meaningful time spent enjoying experiences. For businesses, it represents an entirely new competitive landscape.
Airlines, in particular, stand to gain significantly.
Historically, airlines have had visibility into only a narrow portion of the customer journey. But agentic commerce opens the possibility for carriers to participate in – and monetise – far more of the travel ecosystem. Accommodation, entertainment, dining, transport, insurance and local experiences could all become integrated touchpoints within a unified, AI-enabled travel experience.
The strategic opportunity is substantial. Airlines already possess highly valuable consumer data, trusted customer relationships and direct engagement channels. Combined with AI and seamless payment orchestration, they are increasingly positioned to become end-to-end travel experience providers rather than simply transportation operators.
The World Cup and the rise of AI-curated travel
This evolution also arrives at a particularly important moment for global travel.
Over the next several years, major international events will create some of the clearest real-world examples of where agentic commerce can thrive. The FIFA World Cup is one such example.
Large-scale sporting events bring together millions of travellers navigating unfamiliar countries, languages, payment systems and transport networks – often under tight schedules and rapidly changing conditions. The complexity of those journeys creates the ideal environment for AI-enabled travel coordination.
A football fan travelling internationally for the World Cup may not simply want match tickets and flights. They may want restaurant recommendations between games, local experiences, transport planning, nightlife suggestions and schedule optimisation around live tournament developments. The value lies not in one isolated transaction, but in creating a seamless, personalised end-to-end experience.
An AI-driven travel ecosystem could curate itineraries dynamically around a traveller’s interests, budget and real-time tournament activity. It could identify local experiences near stadiums, automatically adjust schedules around fixture changes and coordinate payments across multiple merchants in the background.
Why businesses need to become AI-visible
Importantly, this also changes how businesses need to think about visibility and discoverability.
In a world increasingly influenced by AI-curated recommendations, merchants must ensure they are optimised not only for traditional search engines or travel platforms, but for inclusion within agentic ecosystems themselves. Restaurants, experience providers, hotels and retailers will need to become more AI-fluent to ensure they remain visible within dynamically generated itineraries and automated consumer journeys.
At the same time, seamless payments remain foundational to making these experiences work. AI may orchestrate the journey, but trust still underpins the transaction. Consumers expect payments to be fast, secure and invisible wherever possible.
Paysafe’s research suggests 47% of travellers now consider seamless digital payments “very important” while travelling, while 45% report having abandoned purchases because payment was too inconvenient during a trip. These moments of friction matter because they directly impact both customer satisfaction and merchant revenue.
The challenge for businesses, therefore, is not simply implementing AI. It is ensuring AI, payments and customer experience operate together cohesively.
Beyond the boarding pass
Travel has always been emotional. People do not book holidays because they want transactions; they book them because they want experiences, memories and connection. The businesses that succeed in the next era of travel will be those capable of reducing friction around those experiences as much as possible.
That is why agentic commerce matters.
It represents a future where travel becomes more adaptive, personalised and seamless than ever before – where technology quietly handles complexity in the background so consumers can focus entirely on the experience itself.
The experience economy has always depended on innovation in payments and commerce infrastructure. Agentic AI simply represents the next acceleration point.
And for airlines willing to rethink their role within the travel ecosystem, the opportunity extends far beyond the boarding pass.
